Map of Springfield Schools in 1900
This is a Google Map with links to the location of each of Springfield's Schools in 1900. They are color-coded to show buildings that are still standing (green), buildings that have been demolished (red), and buildings that might have been significantly reconstructed into still-standing structures (purple).
Markers with dots on them show you a photo when you click on them, and if you click on the photo you will go to a page devoted to the school - but there's currently a bug with Google, so you'll need to right-click and "open link in new window" to view the individual school articles, otherwise the article page opens in the frame.
This is a great map, I'm
This is a great map, I'm having fun looking at all the information. You missed Glenwood School, which is on Morrison Terr. near Van Horn Park. Also, I think the dry bridge school is still standing as a house on St. James Circle.
I suspected Dry Bridge...
Thanks for the information the Dry Bridge School -- I suspected it could still be standing, although the city reports the building's age as being built in 1901. However, the 1910 City Map shows it still as a school. It's hard to tell because the streets were all reconfigured. Here's a link to the 1910 map:
http://www.wardmaps.com/viewmap.php?map_id=1536
I was going to try and drive by to take a picture of the building to know for sure.
As for Glenwood, it was built in 1930, so it missed the cutoff of the timeframe of this map. I plan on doing a map from 1950, and another from maybe 2000, to pick up schools constructed since 1900.
School Street School
Did School Street school show up on your radar? I believe that the building still stands at the corner of School and Union Sts. It housed K-4 and my understanding was that it was the smallest city school at the time. I attended there in the early fifties. Nice job.
Whoops - you're right
Thanks for the pointer. I forgot that school because I had it confused with the old original Springfield High School, which also stood on the corner of School & High, but was across the street from the School Street School, where the apartment block now stands. The School Street School is still there, it is occupied by an organization called the Institution for Community Economics. I haven't been by there in a while, I hope they're taking good care of it, it was built in 1892.
See
I told you that you would get good stuff if you let anonymous people on. Everyone has too many passwords and such to remember, so you lose a lot of input by making people sign in. They just don't bother. If you see a comment you don't like, just remove it.
school pictures
Thanks for an informative post and especially for the great pictures. You have a gift for finding the forgotten in Springfield, Ralph!
Brimfield
Brimfield flea market will be held next week. I hope to get there, and now that I've done this feature on the schools, I'll be looking for postcards of each one.
My next project is going to be churches. That one is a lot harder, because congregations had the tendency to move around a lot, so one congregation might have occupied 3 or more buildings in the span of 50 years, and then might have renamed itself a number of times. I even found mention that an entire church building was moved from the corner of Maple and Mulberry Streets in 1846 to become the home of another parish.
Sacred Heart School?
Very nice map! However, I didn't see any mention of Sacred Heart School. It was a K-8 school but was a high school in the late 1800s, early 1900s. I do believe it used to stand on 370 Stafford Street. It closed down in 2001 and was then demolished and converted into a parking lot for the church.
Churches and schools
I have a big collection of PC pictures of both schools and churches you can use when you are ready. Great job jim
Common vs. Rare postcards
Hi Jim --
I went to Brimfield in September, and found that there are a number of schools and churches that are very popular, but others are very rare.
I saw about 2 dozen variations of Chestnut St. Grammar School and Central/Classical. A few of Tech, a few of Commerce, just 2 different cards of Putnam. Forest Park Grammar had a number of different cards published. There were a few of Buckingham. One or two of the old Hooker. One of Tapley. One of Jefferson.
I picked up a few color grammar school postcards: Kensington, Lincoln.
There was a series of cards done in the 50's and 60's of Springfield schools, so there are cards of JFK, DeBerry, Liberty, etc., but they are black & white and not very good photography.
I thought it was weird that I couldn't find any postcards of schools that were operating in 1910 (when postcards were popular): Brightwood, Charles St., Carew St., Indian Orchard Primary, Homer Street, White Street, Sumner Ave (I know one exists), South Main St., William St., etc.
Ralph
Kensington Avenue School
This year is the 100th anniversary of Kensington Ave School - Do you have any materials that we could, perhaps, borrow for our celebration?
Donna McCarthy
Kensington Ave School
(413)787-7522
Schools
I have some of the 50's cards as well as some rp cards of some old schools. Will get them out and let you know what I have. Jim
schools and churches
I don't have the post cards of the 50's but I do have some rarer views of schools and churches. I, too, will get them out and let you know what I have. The stereo views I have don't seem to show schools or many churches, but I will take a look.
Eastern Avenue School
The Eastern Avenue School is still being used as a school. It is currently the home of Springfield Academy for Excellence, which is a special education program within the Springfield Public Schools.
We are so fortunate to reap the information from your efforts to research and present information about Springfield treasures, thank you.
Classical High School
Would anyone know if it's true that Classical, at one time, was considered one of the top 10 (or was it 100) high schools in the U.S.? And what year(s) was that. Thanks.
Classical High School
There was a plaque placed in the lobby by I believe Harvard University. Classical was highly rated back in the 1950's. A look in the 1986 yearbook may have more info
Also A web site that I have been working on:
classical.nibbleandbit.com
schools
My Grandfather talks about how he attended a school known as the "Open Air" school on the corner of Colombus and Union possibly in the 1930's. Have you heard of this one?
The First High School
The first high school built in 1828 was standing until 1930, across School Street School - more info
http://nibbleandbit.com/Classical/build1.html
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