High School

High School

High School The original high school seen here at the corner of Church Street and Spring Street (foreground) was built in 1824, originally as a courthouse. It was dimly lit without ventilation and incredibly overcrowded. A hundred students were registered for the high school in 1900, but only 90 seats could fit into the rooms. The Belfast school committee, since its founding in 1895, had expressed, each year, more forcefully, the need for a new high school. Yet, sadly, nothing was done. At this time a profound change was taking place across the nation. In 1890 less than seven percent of the nation's population aged 14 - 17 were in school and secondary schools were generally viewed as college preparatory schools for society's ablest few, those with the brains or wealth to go on to college. In 1899 philosopher and educational theorist, John Dewey began asking what education should be like in a democracy. He outlined how the transformation of society required the transformation of the schools. Dewey and like-minded reformers wanted to make secondary schools relevant to everyday life and available for all. By 1920, the high school, a particularly American institution, had been invented, and the numbers of students in secondary schools, had mushroomed to 33 percent. As early as 1902, Belfast School Superintendent John Dunton expressed the change when he said: "The High School is not simply a fitting school for the benefit of those who are able to go to college, but its courses of study are designed to give first and chiefest consideration to the needs of those whose school life ends here." By 1904 the number of students had risen to 116 at the high school, including 21 seniors. Each year the school committee begged for money from the city council to build a new school. The pleas were rejected for financial reasons as the city had essentially reached its debt ceiling due in great part to money spent on the railroad. In March 1907 the Building Inspector recommended the building be condemned as it was askew and structurally unsound. In addition, there was great danger to children on the second and third floors in the event of fire. The report sparked panic. In August the Secretary of the State Board of Health declared the building and its polluted atmosphere was deleterious to the health of the children attending classes. Upon the death of her father, trader and shipbuilder, David Peirce, Emma Lena Peirce inherited the valuable Hayford Block. She married Charles Frederick in 1889 but died in 1890, at the age of 27, of kidney failure. In her will, she directed that the Hayford Block be sold on her husband's 55th birthday and the proceeds put toward a new school. This would not happen until 1913, so the city had no choice but to wait. Financial planning for a new high school collapsed due to a higher than expected price to build the new high school, a lower than expected return was realized on the Hayford Block and Charles Frederick put the money toward a new elementary school (the Peirce School 1915) to replace the badly deteriorated South Primary School. The move toward a more practical curriculum in the high school resulted in the addition of typewriting, household chemistry and garment drafting in 1914. Some of the classes met in the Hayford Block because of both crowding and the noise of the new typing machines. A parent-teacher the Home and School Association was established in 1913; the school had 135 pupils in a space that was crowded with 100. By 1917, there were 160. There was little hope for a new high school; it seemed, without outside intervention. In 1919, the outside intervention arrived. Anne Crosby, the wealthy granddaughter of judge and former governor William G. Crosby, announced that year that she would contribute $40, 000.00 to build a new high school named for her grandfather if the city would raise a like amount. The timing was excellent as the state was about to build a new bridge across the harbor as a vital link in the Atlantic Highway that would soon become Route 1. The bridge, completed in 1921 recognized Belfast's status as an important transportation hub and promised a growing economy. Anne Crosby's generosity meant the city could build a new school without taxing its citizens into penury. In 1921 the existing school had grown to 180 students. The high school had grown to 266 students in 1923, requiring the use of the council chambers and the municipal courtroom in the city building as classrooms. In 1922 the trustees went out for bid for a new high school with a fund containing $130,000.00. Former Belfast resident and successful Boston contractor, Claude Roberts agreed to build the school on a cost-plus basis, waiving his normal profit. He estimated the final price tag at $175,000.00 At the time the mayor, Clement Wescott was in favor of delaying construction of the new high school to benefit from dropping construction costs. Orlando Frost was inclined to pare down the costs and go ahead with construction immediately which was the course chosen when he handily defeated Wescott to become the new Mayor. The new school was accepted by Mayor Frost the following year, 1923 at a final cost of just over $185,000.00. with land donated by the community.