USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 11
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Plans were also approved for the eight-room Mattatuck School at the corner of Seymour and Russell streets and for the long-contemplated nine-room Lincoln School, to replace the old Lincoln School on Sperry Street.
The returns of the school enumeration for 1916 showed 24,001 children of school age, a gain of 1,611 as compared with 1915. The total number at school was 21,063, a gain of 1,000; total number in private schools, 4,996, a gain of 521; a total number employed between fourteen and sixteen years of age was 548, a gain of 98. The attendance at evening schools for 1916 was 2,177, a gain of practically 500.
The Begnal School, corner Seymour and Russell streets, containing eight class rooms and a kindergarten, was opened in 1917.
THE NEW VOCATIONAL AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL
The new vocational and grammar school building which is now being con- structed on the lot adjoining the Crosby High School will have a frontage of 133 feet on East Main Street, 153 feet on North Elm Street, and 133 feet on Water Street.
The exterior will be built of buff pressed brick trimmed with granite and limestone to match up the present building and it will conform to the present building in design.
The pitched slate-covered roof of the present building will be entirely removed and the new roof of the present building and the roof of the new building will have a practically flat surface finished in vitrified tile for play- ground use.
There will be one entrance to the new building from East Main and two
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY .
from North Elm streets. The entrance from Water Street to the basement of the present building may be also used for exit and entrance to the new.
The floors and roofs are to be of reinforced concrete construction; the staircases, of which there will be two, will extend from the sub-basement to the roof. These are to be of structural iron construction with selected blue stone treads and platforms, and they will be enclosed within brick walls. The stair- case halls will be closed off from the corridors at each floor with metal fireproof doors, transoms and partitions glazed with wired glass.
A direct-connected electric combination passenger and freight elevator will be installed to travel from the boiler room floor to the third floor.
The boiler room and the heating apparatus room will be below the Water Street level. The boiler room will contain the filter and pump rooms, coal bunker and ash bin. There will be five floors above the boiler room, the sub- basement, basement and first, second and third floors. The sub-basement will contain a gymnasium 42 feet 8 inches by 63 feet, with two galleries above on the basement floor level, the boys' and girls' locker and shower rooms, drying rooms, lounging spaces, director's room, a swimming pool 25 feet wide by 60 feet long with a spectators' gallery 12 feet by 70 feet at one side of the pool. The sub- basement will also furnish room for the foundry and plumbing shop, a stock and saw room and four store rooms.
The gymnasium and locker rooms will be lined full height with glazed brick ; the shower and drying rooms and all walls enclosing the pool will be faced with white enameled brick. The pool, all floor spaces around the pool and the floors of the shower rooms will be laid with tile.
The basement will contain three machine shops and a forge shop. The first, second and third floors will contain twenty-nine class rooms and on each floor there will be toilet rooms.
All class rooms will have glazed brick wainscot, maple floors, ash trim and blackboards. The corridors will have composition floors on concrete and glazed brick wainscot.
Ail class rooms on the inside of the building open to a light court 55 feet by 69 feet.
Fire standpipes will be carried up through the building to the roof at several places and these will be equipped with hose and hose racks. Suitable pipes and fixtures will be carried to the outside walls of the building, which will permit the fire department to connect their apparatus and increase the water pressure on the interior of the building. Sprinklers will be installed in the sub-basement, basement and elsewhere in the building where combustibles may be stored.
The new building will be connected with the Crosby High School at the basement, first, second and third floors by means of ample corridors. To obtain the room for these corridors several changes are to be made on the several floors of the Crosby School. Among these will be the shortening of the boys' lunch room in the basement, the closing up of the west entrance to the basement, the closing up of the side entrance to offices on the first floor, adding a new vault for the use of the school clerk, a new waiting room, new offices for the girl clerks, the secretary and the superintendent, and using part of the women teachers' room on the first floor. On the second floor part of the recitation rooms and the spaces used for physical and chemical stores are to be used for cor- ridors and the necessary additions and alterations are made to provide for store rooms. On the third floor minor alterations only will be necessary to accommo- date the connecting corridors.
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
In the near future it is the intention to use both the present and new build- ings for a vocational school and the new building has been planned so that it may be adapted to that use at a minimum cost. When used for a vocational school the following rooms will be contained in the first, second and third floors : cabinet work, pattern shop, wood turning, electric wiring and testing, printing and bookbinding, painting and decorating, mechanical drawing, design and draw- ing, elementary mechanical drawing, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, nursing, elementary cooking, advanced cooking, laundry, sheet metal, general science, women teachers, principal's office, waiting room, department office and a small apartment containing a dining room, a living room, bath and bed room.
VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY 1916
This is the record from the annual report for 1916. The additional value in schools opened and under construction in 1917 will bring the total valuation to nearly four million dollars. This allows approximately a million for the new Wilby High School on Pine Street which is to be opened in 1917 and the voca- tional school adjoining the Crosby which when completed will have cost approxi- mately eight hundred thousand dollars.
Important changes in the schools in 1917 were the appointment of M. C. Donovan as principal of the Crosby High School, succeeding Stephen W. Wilby, who died March 30, 1917. Joseph P. Kennedy was made principal of the Wilby High School, which opened its doors September 1, 1917.
For 1917 the board is expending $60,000 for gymnasium and pool in Brook- lyn. This is to be ready in 1918. The new thirteen-room school in the Hopeville District, which is to contain a pool and gymnasium, will also be ready for occupancy in 1918. The total cost of this is now placed at $100,000.
The expenditures for new buildings and additions, including furnishings, in Waterbury schools since 1895 have been as follows :
1895
$ 32,963.68
1906
49,000.00
1896
76,441.32
1907
52,100.00
1897
27,793.26
1908
2,900.00
38,768.03 1898
32,445.79
1909
1899
108,390.04
1910 44,000.00
1900
20.444.29
IOII
1 38,845.00
I9OI
40,998.75
1912
23,647.67
1902
49,884.00
1913
64,362.00
1903
36,500.00
1914
129,133.00
1904
34.523.51
1915
126,214,93
1905
39,806.70
1916
104,051.52
Total including lots, building, books, furniture, etc.
School
No. of rooms
$266,240
Barnard
I2
43,610
Bishop
12
43,068
Clark
14
101,787
Croft
12-20
120,526
Driggs
2.1
114,342
Duggan
20
96,356
Crosby High
35
ST. MARGARET'S SCHOOL, WATERBURY
F
CONVENT OF NOTRE DAME, WATERBURY
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
Total including lots, building, books, furniture, etc.
School
No. of rooms
Hamilton
4
$12,695
Hendricken
IO
65,348
Lincoln
8
28,822
Maloney
16
91,78I
Mary Abbott
4
28,822
Merriman
16
88,694
Mill Plain
4
24.983
Mulcahy
12
50,184
Porter
8
31,666
Russell
I2
78,730
Slocum
12
83,737
Sprague
16
69,422
Town Plot
8
33,822
Walsh
25
165.794
Washington
18
59,660
Webster
20
88,336
Welton
6
21,868
Stock Room
2,882
Mattatuck Site
10,000
Pine Street Site
108,000
Begnal Site
17,000
Columbia Site
.
20,000
Totals
348
$1,968,196
Bucks Hill
2
$ 7.400
Bunker Hill
8
44,858
Chapel
6
20,500
East Farms
I
3.075
East Mountain
2
6,300
Hopeville
4
13,504
Newton Heights
I
4,575
Oronoke
I
3,515
Park Road
4
11,175
Reidville
4
7,560
Totals
33
$122,462
PRESENT SCIIOOL ACTIVITIES
To give a clear idea of the extension of educational work in Waterbury, the following extracts from the 1916 report are given :
"In addition to the regular school work the teachers and pupils have engaged in a large number of special activities much wider in scope than the exhibits of regular school work. Nearly every building had, this year, a special exhibition of gymnastic work of unusual merit. Two schools presented entertainments of an unusual nature, both of which had large educational values. The Duggan School gave an exhibition of living pictures which was greatly enjoyed and favorably commented on by more than a thousand parents and friends, and the
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
Walsh School presented a pageant illustrating the history of Waterbury, many scenes of which were acted out in a truly marvelous manner.
OVER-AGE CLASSES
"A new over-age class has been opened in the Duggan building for the accommodation of such pupils in the Porter, Duggan, Barnard and Town Plot schools. Reports from all three special classes continue to show the great use- fulness of this work, and it is planned to open other similar classes in another year.
DOMESTIC SCIENCE
"During the last year the Hendricken and Russell schools have been equipped with kitchens, making a total of ten, which necessitated the appointment of a new teacher. Classes from St. Thomas' Parochial School are being accommodated at Webster School, and special classes of backward children have been arranged for in nearly every school. Laundry equipment is being installed in most of the kitchens and lessons in this work have already been given to some extent. New meat charts have been procured for four kitchens. We are revising the course of study, giving special attention to practical and economical methods on account of the present unnatural increase in the cost of food supplies."
WOODWORKING CLASSES
In the woodworking departments the report shows 15 classes in the Margaret Croft School, averaging 17 each; in the Driggs School there are 12 classes; in the Lincoln School, 3; in the Duggan, 2; in the Walsh, 2; in the Sprague, 5; Webster, 7; Mary Abbott and St. Thomas Parochial, 6; Washington and Mul- cahy, 5 ; Russell, 4; Merriman, 4 ; Hendricken, Mill Plain and Hamilton Avenue, 7.
THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL
One of the most important advances made in Waterbury was unquestionably the establishment in November, 1912, of the Continuation School.
There were seven manufacturing concerns who desired to send a total of 210 apprentices. As the capacity of the school had been set at 180 students and more factories made application to enter apprentices, the school board was com- pelled to increase the accommodations. The school opened for its second year September, 1913, with 20 manufacturers sending a total of 250 apprentices. In 1917 the classes number 200.
The following is the curriculum :
First Year
Shop Arithmetic .- The four fundamental operations. Fractions, decimals, percentage, ratio and proportion. English and metric units of length, area, volume and weight. Square root. Mensuration. Practical examples.
Reports and discussions, from articles in trade papers. Oral reports and discussions to encourage public speaking and debating. Written reports to give training in spelling, writing and composition.
Shop Talks .- The opportunities in the machine industry. The requirements of a first-class machinist. A brief description of machines used by the machinist.
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
Chisels and chiseling operations; files and filing; hand tools; small tools. A study of the materials of construction.
History and Civics .- Study of the history, growth and government of Water- bury. The development of the various industries of Waterbury.
Personal Hygiene .- Good habits for the worker, hygiene of the workroom; fatigue; occupational dangers ; first aid to the injured ; tuberculosis, etc.
Drawing .- Free-hand sketching. Free-hand drawing on cross-section paper of tools and machine parts. Simple projection.
Second Year
Shop Mathematics .- Solution of an equation. Formulas in power, speeds, and feeds of simple machines. Theory of exponents. Logarithms, powers and roots. The slide rule. Solution of the right angle triangle.
Reports and discussions on topics assigned from the geographical relation of iron and brass; their founding and manufacture. Written and oral descriptions of tools, parts of machines and machine operations.
Shop Talks .- A study of the following: Drilling machines, lathe planer, shaper, milling machine, boring mills and grinding machines. Selection of grind- ing wheels. Gears and methods of cutting. The art of cutting metals.
Civics .- Government of Connecticut. Connecticut's position in the manufac- turing world.
Character Study .- A study of the lives and contributions of the nation's noted inventors and the influence of their inventions upon the progress of manufactures of the country.
Mechanical Drawing .- Simple and oblique projections. Free-hand isometric drawing.
Third and Fourth Years
Practical Mathematics .- Solution of diagrams. Practical problems.
Reports and discussions, from trade journals.
Shop Talks .- Layout and assembly operations. Care of belting. Lubricating oils and cutting solutions. Manufacturing talks. Heat treatment of steel. Tool making. Cam cutting.
Civics .- The national government. Duties of citizenship.
Mechanical Drawing .- Sketches of machine parts and drawing from same. Isometric drawing.
Applied Mathematics .- Applied problems and review.
Reports and discussions, from trade journals.
Shop Talks .- A study of turret lathes, automatic machines and their tools. Forge, foundry and pattern work. Power transmission. A brief talk on the pur- pose and development of scientific methods as applied to shop work.
Mechanics .- Laws of gases, liquids and solids. A study of heat and its prac- tical application. Elementary electricity and the principles of electric machines, etc.
Strength of Materials .- Strength of machine parts, tools, etc.
Drawing, link motions, cam layouts. Solution of problems by graphics.
The fifth year of Continuation School work started September, 1916, with 215 apprentices enrolled, twenty-three factories sending apprentices.
The first graduating class of seven apprentices received diplomas in June, 1916, and at the same time certificates were awarded to ninety-six apprentices for satis-
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
factorily completing their studies while attending the Continuation School. Dur- ing this year a course for automatic screw machine operators was introduced.
The work of the Continuation School has attracted attention throughout the country.
THE SALESMANSHIP SCHOOL
The Salesmanship School, which was conducted in 1915 and 1916, has been temporarily suspended for 1917. Conditions in the city this year and last year are and have been very unfavorable to the work in that a shortage of help in the stores makes it difficult to spare any to attend the school. In spite of this, the merchants have shown a much greater interest and desire to avail themselves of the oppor- tunity of increasing the efficiency of their store forces, as is shown by the fact that the enrollment in 1916 was more than fifty. Because of this need for more help in the stores, an entirely new plan had been worked out with much success. Classes were held in two of the stores, instead of at the school, taking the time of the teacher rather than that of the saleswomen in going back and forth. Thus in the Grant and Hutchinson 25-Cent Stores all the saleswomen attended the classes, half coming at one time, half at another. There was less individual work, but much greater enthusiasm and more ground covered. A class from the Reid & Hughes Dry Goods Co., and from Grieve, Bisset and Holland, attended the school. The work will be resumed as economic conditions permit.
THE OPEN AIR SCHOOL
During the spring of 1912 several prominent ladies of Waterbury established an Open Air School for Tuberculous Children which was at first conducted at no expense whatever to the Department of Education. It was first located in a re- constructed building in the rear of the Industrial School, on Central Avenue. The method of operation was unique. The children were given three meals a day, which at the outset were served in a dining room in the basement of the Industrial School Building. They were served with good nourishing food, plenty of milk, bread and butter, vegetables, good soups, cooked fruits and such. The meals cost from 17 to 18 cents a day per child.
After dinner the children lie down for an hour before the afternoon session, on cots which are in the school room. They are weighed once a week. "Sitting out" bags are provided for the use of the children in the cold weather, also warm caps and gloves.
In October of 1915 the Open Air School was transferred to the Clark School and placed under the entire control of the Board of Education. In this building two large rooms are used for class room and rest purposes, both equipped with the very latest devices. In the basement a large room has been fitted up as a kitchen and dining room with neat, serviceable and modern equipment. The pupils in this school also have the opportunity of using the roof playground and, taken altogether, the arrangements for the Open Air School are as complete as will be found in any similar school in this country.
The Board of Health, through the school physicians and nurses, is actively co-operating in its management, and the Waterbury Dental Association is taking care of the children's teeth. As soon as funds are available and there is need, it is planned to open a similar school or schools in other sections of the city.
WESTOVER SCHOOL, MIDDLEBURY
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN
In 1914 an important investigation was begun on employment of children. In his report for that year, the superintendent has this to say by way of comparing Waterbury with other Connecticut cities :
"Some interesting figures have just been published by the State Board of Edu- cation relative to the employment of children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years that I think will prove to be of interest to you. The charge is some- times brought against the schools that we are unable to hold any appreciable per cent of children between fourteen and sixteen; that large numbers of them go to work. Now this may be and may not be true. Whatever the facts of the case may be, the figures from the State Department show that, as compared with New Haven and Bridgeport, the per cent of fourteen and sixteen-year-olds that we hold in the schools is twice as great as theirs, and, as compared with all the cities of the state, we are head and shoulders above any. For example, in New Haven there is one certificated child to every twenty-two between fourteen and sixteen years of age; in Bridgeport twenty-four and Hartford thirty-one, and in New Britain, our nearest competitor, thirty-seven, while Waterbury has only one certificated child of school age out of every fifty pupils between fourteen and sixteen years of age."
FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
"In the entire city, nearly one-half, or 50 per cent, of the pupils in school, have parents who were born in non-English speaking countries. In Bishop Street, Clay Street. Croft, Duggan and Barnard schools about three-fourths of the children have parents who were born in non-English speaking countries. The per cents vary all the way from 77 per cent at Bishop to 6 per cent at Washington. It goes without saying that those schools which have the higher per cents of pupils whose parents were born in non-English speaking countries have peculiar problems to solve that the other schools do not have."
The average enrollment of children born in foreign countries is about 12 per cent.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Among the private schools running in 1893, the most important was "St. Mar- garet's School for Girls," which was long conducted under the auspices of the Waterbury School Association, a private organization of citizens, and in 1875 was presented to the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut for a Diocesan School. In 1895, Miss Mary R. Hillard was placed in charge and remained until 1908. The school is still running successfully, with a vastly extended curriculum. It is now in charge of Rev. John N. Lewis, Jr., rector ; Emily Gardner Munro, principal.
In 1908, Miss Hillard decided to establish a school for girls at Middlebury, Conn., and interested many of the leading men and women in Waterbury in this enterprise. A company was formed with John H. Whittemore at its head and a magnificent school building was erected in Middlebury. Of this the architect was Miss Theodate Pope, now Mrs. John Riddle, and it is one of the model school buildings of the state, its cost running up to $100,000. The name of the school is "The Westover."
The school was opened in the spring of 1909, with 125 in attendance, some- thing over actual capacity. It has been run successfully ever since. Dr. Mary R.
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WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
Hillard is still in charge. Its attendance this year, with its increased capacity, is 150. The new studio, constructed recently, is also in use. Harris Whittemore succeeded his father as president of the Westover School Corporation.
The Academy of the Convent of Notre Dame celebrated its quarter centennial in 1894. At that time it was under the direction of Madam St. Stanislaus. Today it is in charge of Sister Superior St. Faustina. It has 14 teachers and 220 pupils.
St. Mary's Parochial School was established August 29, 1886, by Father Mul- cahy, and was in its own building at the beginning of this quarter century, i893. This had been solemnly blessed on September 3, 1888. It is interesting to note that during his entire Waterbury pastorate, Father Mulcahy was a member of the Board of Education of the Center district, and was for some years chairman of the board.
Father Mulcahy also built the convent, in 1889. In its first year the school had 700 children, in charge of 12 Sisters. Sister Superior Rosita was then superin- tendent of the school. Monsignor Slocum, in 1902, built the Mulcahy Memorial, which is now used as a club house for the school alumni and alumnae. In 1905 the eight-room grammar school was built. This gives the school at present twenty rooms. The attendance in 1917 is 950. In 1916 it was 1,050. There are now twenty Sisters teaching, in charge of Sister Superior Claudine.
Sister Superior Claudine came to Waterbury from Convent Station, N. J., in 1897, and has been in continuous charge since then.
The record of parochial schools for 1917 is as follows :
St. Mary's Parochial School for the Parish of the Immaculate Conception- Sisters in charge, 20; pupils, 1,100.
School of the Sacred Heart Convent-Sisters in charge, 9 ; pupils 414.
Parochial School of St. Ann's Church-Sisters in charge, 17; pupils, 600.
Parochial School of St. Joseph's Church (Lithuanian)-Sisters in charge, 12; pupils, 578.
Parochial School of St. Thomas Church-Sisters in charge, II ; pupils, 490.
Academy of the Convent of Notre Dame-Sisters in charge, 14; pupils, 220.
Parochial School of St. Margaret's Parish-Sisters in charge, 9; pupils, 350. This school was opened in 1914.
BERLIN WRIGHT TINKER
Berlin Wright Tinker, superintendent of schools since 1897, succeeded to the position on the death of Superintendent Crosby. Thus during the past quarter century there have been but two men in active charge of the educational work of Waterbury.
Mr. Tinker was born in Jerusalem, N. Y., February 7, 1867, and was educated in the public schools of Norwich, where his father was the minister of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. He graduated from Bates College, then took a year's special course at Boston University. His educational work began as principal of the High School at Chelmsford, Mass. He was later in charge of the high schools at Southborough, Marblehead and Marlboro, coming to Waterbury in 1897. He is a member of the First Church. On August 25, 1889, he was married to Eliza- beth French Wyer.
The long record of progress, of wise adjustment to conditions, is the best tribute that can be paid him. He has not alone kept the schools of Waterbury in the forefront of America's city educational institutions, but he has, by original work, contributed materially to the advance of educational methods everywhere.
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