Seventy Five years ago this fall, the CCS Class of 1952 entered the “New School” for their senior year at 1pm on Tuesday 4-Sep-1951. The first senior class in the New School.
The Old School burned in 1947 so students had to attend classes in buildings and churches throughout the village for 4 years while the community addressed erecting the New School.
The Old School, 1891-1947
Cambridge High School (CHS) opened at 23 West Main Street (by the Library) 135 years ago in Sep-1891. CCS was formed in 1944 when school district #10 became centralized as one-room schoolhouses began to merge. The school was no longer large enough for our community.
On 27-Feb-1946, a special meeting was held to decide the location of the New School. 183 voted for the Hitchcock Farm on South Park, 73 voted in favor of expanding on the existing site. A third site at the corner of South Union and West Main was no longer considered viable.
On 18-Aug-1947 the Old School caught fire.
For the next 4 years, the students of CCS attended classes in the Grange Hall, area churches and businesses as the community planned the New School on the Hitchcock Farm at 24 South Park Street.
On 12-Sep-1947 the community voted 597-406 to approve a $1.2M bond issue to build the New School. This was less than the required two-thirds.
On 30-Mar-1948 a second special meeting was held. The Board had chopped $100K from the cost, but inflation pushed the bond to $1.3M. The community voted 599-314 to approve the bond issue, but this was ten votes shy of the required two-thirds.
In Feb-1949 a new architecture firm, Ryder and Link, was hired to replace Hamson & Fisher who had been hired on 19-Feb-1945.
On 10-Jun-1949 voters approved a reduced bond issue of $935K by a vote of 818-69 (92%). There was much concern about what had been removed from the New School project to reduce the bond by $400K.
The Old School, 1946-1951
The gymnasium in the Hubbard Additon of the Old School was not severely damaged by the 1947 fire. In July-1951 the annual meeting of the CCS District was held in the old gym. The New School was being prepared for a September opening.
The assemblage voted 146-1 to approve the school budget $284.259.54. Of this amount, $57,211.54 was to be raised by property tax at a rate of $14.50 per $1000 of assessment.
Tom Dunn was elected to the Board of Education joining President Clarence Coulter, Dr. Vickers, Theodore Buckey and William Perry. The purchase of a new school bus for $8,600 was approved 34-0.
The Village, 1951
As the CCS Class of 1952 prepared to enter the New School, scenes around the village were evolving. The West End firehouse had burned in Mar-1950 and the new Municipal Building hadn’t yet opened on the corner of West Main and Pearl. So, while the community was designing and building the New School, they also had to design and build a new firehouse.
Bob McWhorter, whose grocery store in the West End block had been damaged in the 1950 firehouse fire, had not yet opened his new grocery store on the corner of South Union. On the East End, Ken Randles’ was recovering from the fire that destroyed his garage on South Park, but his new garage and Pontiac dealership had not yet opened. But you could still buy new cars at Bell & Costello’s and Dave Moore’s on West Main.
Leading up to the first day in the New School, the Village was very active. In July, Washington County held its first annual Fireman’s Convention in Cambridge. Following the parade, the Award Ceremony was held at the baseball diamond behind the Old School. The day concluded with a banquet at Hotel Cambridge and a street dance on Broad Street.
The Lions Club sponsored the Old Home Days on Saturday 1-Sep-1951. Exhibits in the Grange Hall included Reis Mill, Cambridge Hinge Tube and Chaplet, Assoc Growers Inc (later called Asgrow), Cambridge Bakery (the Kyers on the West End, the Kings on the East End came later in 1957), Paul Dennis’ Candy Shoppe, Cambridge Fish & Game Club, and many more.
Shortly after noon Old Home Days activities shifted to the John Henry track behind the Grange Hall [today site of the CVAA ball fields]. The young kids’ bicycle parade had awards for prettiest to Barbara Strout, funniest to Doug Wilikie, and most original to Art Center.
Building the New School 1950-1951
The cornerstone ceremony was 28-Sep-1950. Gardner Cullinan, mayor, was master of ceremonies. Speakers included Clarence Coulter, BOE president; Ernest W. Bodenstab, principal; Mrs. Seth Craig, PTA president; Ken Wilbur, faculty president; Mrs. Caroline P. Perry, long-time district superintendent; and Elmer Dering, Student Council president.
Clarence Coulter laid a copper box inside the cornerstone this is the 1950 marker to the right of the original Main Entrance]. This time capsule contains election ballots, budgets, advertising material on bids for the school, a program, and various news stories of the new building.
When the new school was originally proposed in 1946, it was designed to house 720 students, but it was scaled back in size through repeated cost-cutting measures. There were 29 classrooms, a library, cafeteria, agriculture room, board room, and a gymnasium-auditorium. In another cost-cutting measure, the Bus Garage was located on the first floor of the Hubbard Addition of the Old School
The New School, 4-Sep-1951
At 1pm on Tuesday 4-Sep-1951 the New School opened. Even though the interior was not entirely completed, enough progress had been made that all classes, Kindergarten through high school, could be carried out in the new quarters.
Kindergarten through sixth grade entered through the south entrance in front of the building. They proceeded to classrooms 100 through 113 (two for each grade).
Seventh through twelfth grade entered through the north entrance in front of the building. Junior High used classrooms 121-124, grades 9-11 were on the second floor in rooms 201-204. The senior class was downstairs in room 120.
The cafeteria was not quite ready, so students were asked to bring their lunch. Milk and ice cream were available for purchase.
Kindergarten in the New School was all-day, a change from the Old School. Parents were advised about the necessities for seeing the small children through the long day.
The Board of Education adopted a new bus policy to accommodate the move to the New School. Buses carried students living 1 mile or more from the New School, and not less than one-half mile from an established bus route. Pupils in the village could be picked up at (1) Spring and Maple Ave; (2) Academy and Union; (3) Union and West Main; or (4) West Main and Academy
The school day ended at 3pm for all grades. Activity buses were provided for students who stayed late. This policy was reviewed in 1952 considering letting grades K-6 out at 2:45pm and keeping higher grades until 4pm.
The New School was designed to hold 700 students but by 1955 was already bursting at the seams as Baby Boomers reached school age and more one-room schoolhouses merged into CCS. Six years after the New School opened, the first addition was added.
The first teachers in the New School
- K – Eva Carpenter & Marilyn Wager
- 1 – Helen Buckley & Theresa Warner
- 2 – Mary Parrish & Elizabeth Waite
- 3 – Kathryn Scully & Eva Oberriter
- 4 – Rebecca Bell & Edna Welling
- 5 – Rosalie Purdy & Maude Snell
- 6 – Alice Murdoch & Helen Wallace
- Instrumental music – Edward Barrow
- Vocal music – Jennie Dempsey
- Art – Bernice Flint
- Vocational Ag – Frederick Salzer
- Commercial – Edwin Green
- Librarian – Iona Skinner
- Nurse – Evalena Marsh
- Boys Phys Ed – Carson Fuller
- Girls Phys Ed – Eva Nadeau
- Homemaking – Leta Tully
- English – Olive Noteman
- French – Olive Theissen
- Latin – Celia Kent
- Mathematics – Herbert Ginsburg
- Mathematics – Ruth Weir
- Scient – Ken Wilbur
- Social Studies – Andrew Rossetti
- Social Studies – Ethel Sherin
Eva Carpenter retired at the end of the 1951-1952 school year after 48 years of service. She started in 1904 as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Jackson. When asked about the changes over her 48 years, Eva replied “youngsters haven’t changed much. Children will always be children. And, I just love them.”
Eva served under six different principals: John Kingsley, Ross Tiffany, Roland Ross, Byron Herrington, Arthur Gallup, and Ernest Bodenstab.
Open House, Dec-1951
The weekend of Nov 30 through Dec 2, 1951 the Board of Education conducted an Open House to let the community see the New School. Each day over 1000 people from Cambridge and surrounding communities attended, some from as far away as Pittsfield, MA.
Gardner Cullinan, editor of the Washington County Post, interviewed attendees who were amazed at the size and the beauty and functionality of the interior. Some comments were:
“I never dreamed a school could be so nice”
“I can’t believe we have this beauty in Cambridge”
“Our money was well spent”
“I wish I could start in school all over again”
“Isn’t the gym floor beautiful”
“Those stage curtains and lights are nicer than the finest theaters in the Capital District”
“I don’t care for the outside appearance, but that is forgotten when I see the beauty inside”
Medical needs of the CCS students
The School Nurse continued to work with others throughout the area to address the health needs of our CCS students.
The number of polio cases in Upstate New York dropped from 138 in 1950 to 71 in 1951. None were reported in Cambridge.
However, of the 563 CCS students, 63 needed dental work, 46 needed glasses, 2 had ear defects, 30 were bothered by tonsils and adenoids, 2 had heart defects, and 49 others had various afflictions.
In spite of all our attention to these illnesses, in Mar-1952 (six month after the New School) opened, District Health Officer Dr Oestreicher ordered the New School closed for one week. This was following 208 absentees on 4-Mar-1952, one out of every three students. Greenwich, Salem, Hoosick Falls, and other schools had similar shutdowns to control the spread of illnesses.
The “local Library”
The Old School opened in Sep-1891. The first floor had five rooms and a library. The library, which held over 3000 volumes, was situated near a side door making it possible for villagers to use it without disturbing classes.
During the construction of the New School the issue became what was to be done with Old Library (21 West Main).
In 1904 the library building was erected thanks to donation through the village, but none more so than that of Sally Law Willaims. Sally is also known for bringing Tiffany windows to the St Lukes church.
The library was affiliated with the Cambridge High School until centralization occurred in 1944 when a different arrangement was required by law. This remained until 9-Jan-1962 when CCS sold the library to the Village for $1, thus creating the Cambridge Public Library.
The first students to graduate from the New School
On Monday 23-Jun-1952 the first class graduated from the New School, the sixty-first since the Old School opened in 1891. The commencement ceremony was held in the auditorium of the New School. The 1950 Commencement ceremony had been held in the United Presbyterian Church. Earlier commencements had been held in Hubbard Hall.
The CCS Class of 1952 had 21 boys and 14 girls.
- Howard Jay Andrew
- Evelyn Verna Beals
- Robert Nelson Bell
- Thomas Graham Bell
- Catherine Elizabeth Bounds
- Rena Mae Burrall
- Robert Richard Dering
- Mary Kathryn Dunigan
- Leonard Lloyd Germain
- Thomas Gerry Gorman
- Donald Everette LeGrys
- Betty Barbara Lincoln
- Albertine Gundrun Lunos
- Helen Jean Marsh
- Barbara Elizabeth McAllister
- Harry Edwin McNitt
- Fremont Harold Meerwarth, Jr
- Evelyn Jane Merriman
- Jeffery Charles Moffitt
- Richard William Noxon
- James Richard Peabody
- Frank James Pemrick Jr.
- Lawrence Wilton Presler
- Dorothy Ann Purdy
- Virginia Grace Robinson
- John Peter Rogers
- Maurice Leo Santerre
- Gerhard Schoen
- John Edward Shirwell
- Linwood Franklin Strout
- Gladys Belle Van Guilder
- Marian Jean Wallace
- Theodore LeRoy “Bud” Williams
- Robert Edward Wocell
- Vera Adelia Wulff