USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume II > Part 52
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On June 28, 1860, it was voted to build a school-house on Burnt hill, on land purchased from Edward Scovill; also to sell the house and lot on North Main street. The North Main street school had been discontinued the year before, the average attendance of scholars being only twelve. These votes were never literally carried out. The school-house on North Main street was removed to Burnt hill and used for school purposes until the Bishop street building was finished.
At the same meeting it was voted to build a school-house on Westside hill, at the intersection of the Town Plot and Middlebury roads, to cost with the lot $800, provided that all in excess of $500 should be paid by private subscription, and that the yearly expenses of the school in excess of $200 should be paid in the same way until the average attendance should be forty scholars. The second of these conditions was annulled five years later.
It was also voted in 1860 to build a school-house on Dublin street.
At a meeting of the joint board (see page 503), held September 4, 1860, it was voted to establish a primary school in the basement of the old Episcopal church on East Main street-a building belonging to the Roman Catholic parish of the Immac-
499
THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
ulate Conception, and after a number of years superseded by St. Patrick's hall. On September 4, 1861, the joint board voted to establish a school of intermediate grade on the upper floor, and in 1862 the district committee hired the building from the representatives of the parish at a rental of $500 a year.
At a meeting of the joint board, September 4, 1863, it was voted that a school should be opened during the coming term in Gothic hall, and continued so long as it might be necessary. In December this school was changed from the lower floor, which was the Town hall, to an upper room in the building.
On October II, 1864, it was voted to enlarge the Dublin street building; also to fit up a room in the West Gaylord Plain school-house-either the basement or the room over the present school-room, as might be deemed best.
At an adjourned annual meeting in 1866 it was voted to purchase a lot in the Brooklyn sub-district, at a cost not exceeding $1200. A school-house that would seat 175 pupils was erected on it in 1867.
The erection of the Elm street building, referred to on page 496, took place during the winter of 1871 and 1872. The report of the board of education for 1873 speaks of it as " well arranged, convenient and comfortable," and as accommoda- ting nearly 600 children. "The erection of the Elm street school-house," says the report, "was the beginning of a new era in the history of the schools of the Centre district."
At the annual meeting of 1874, it was voted to build a new school-house on the Abrigador, and to sell the old one-the whole expense not to exceed $12,000.
It was voted at the same meeting to build another school-house on the lot in Brooklyn, for the use of that part of the Town Plot district lying at the base of the hill, but this vote was not carried out. A part of the Town Plot district, however, was soon after annexed to the Centre district.
At the annual meeting held September 22, 1875, it was voted to sell the school- house and lot on the Wolcott road, known as the West Gaylord Plain school-house.
At a special meeting, October 25, 1877, the subject of new school-houses in the Dublin street and East Gaylord Plain sub-districts was considered. Plans of pro- posed buildings were exhibited and described, one to accommodate 240 scholars and the other 200. It was voted to erect a brick building on the site of the Dublin street school-house, at a cost not exceeding $6000, and another on or near the site of the East Gaylord school-house, to cost not more than $5000. These large accommodations seemed the more necessary in view of the crowded condition of the Abrigador school.
At the annual meeting, August 19, 1878, it was voted to erect a building of brick on Bishop street, midway between the school-houses of the Adams street and Burnt hill sub-districts, at a cost not exceeding $7000; it was also voted to sell the property belonging to the district on Burnt hill and Adams street.
At the annual meeting, September 29, 1879, the building committee was instructed " to purchase, on such terms as in their judgment should appear reason- able, the land in the rear and west of the Abrigador school premises, extending from said premises to Baldwin street, the same being necessary for increased land accommodations for said school." In 1882 the land known as the Conner property was bought, and the district committee was authorized to erect a new school build- ing thereon.
In 1881 a new school-house was erected on Sperry street, also one on Westside hill.
In 1882, the Kingsbury lot on Locust street was purchased, and a school build- ing of two rooms erected thereon. A lot was also purchased on Welton street, and a school-house for the Washington school on Baldwin street was commenced.
500
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
On March 27, 1883, the building committee was authorized to erect a school- house on the Welton lot, to be so constructed as to admit of an addition of two or four rooms; and another on the lot owned by the district in Brooklyn, on the corner of Porter and Leonard streets, suitable for the wants of the locality.
A fire occurred in the Elm street building in October, 1883. The damage was not great, but a panic prevailed and several children were slightly injured.
In 1884 additions were built to the Ridge street and Abrigador buildings.
The report of the board of education for 1885-86 revealed the following con- dition of things: " A very crowded attendance at the Bishop street, Porter street,
THE BANK STREET SCHOOL-HOUSE.
and Elm street schools, and also in many rooms of the high school building. In some schools the children were obliged to sit upon benches placed in the aisles, and on chairs brought from home, and even upon the edge of the teacher's plat- form. In the Elm street building it was necessary to continue the use of basement rooms, which had been condemned in previous reports. In the high school build- ing a room on the high school floor received a part of the excess. Both the health of the pupils and the inability of the teachers properly to instruct so large a num- ber require that something should be done." At a meeting of the district it was voted to provide additional accommodations. The building committee held several
501
THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
meetings and decided to erect a three story building adjoining the high school building on the Elm street side. But in the meantime an injunction had been pro- cured; at a meeting of the board of education, September 8, 1886, the district com- mittee was requested to take no steps toward its removal, chiefly in view of the fact that a large school-house was being erected by the parish of the Immaculate Conception on Cole street, in consequence of which the proposed building on the high school lot would not be needed.
In the early part of 1886 an addition to the Bishop street school was commenced, also an addition to the Porter street school. 3
In 1888 an addition to the Sperry street school was built, and the Locust street (formerly the Long hill) school was enlarged.
In 1889 the district erected a new building on the site of the old Clay street school-house, at the corner of Elm and Clay streets. It contains eight large school- rooms, accommodating fifty pupils each, and has an improved and satisfactory system of heating and ventilation. The basement contains a room for the manual training school, and a room for an evening school, which can accommodate 150 pupils. At the date of its completion it was the best school building in the Centre district.
The crowded condition of the Bank street building made it necessary to provide additional accommodations, and a building containing one room was erected in 1889 for temporary use, in the rear of the old building on the Bank street lot. But in 1890 the district voted to erect a large school-house on Bank street, and it was finished and occupied in September, 1891. It contains twelve rooms designed to accommodate fifty pupils each, also four commodious recitation rooms and a room in the basement large enough to accommodate 150 evening school pupils. The heating, the ventilation, and the dry air closets are all satisfactory. At the present date it is the finest school building in the city. The cost, including the furniture, was about $60,000.
During 1894 two large recitation rooms were added to the school-house on West- side hill, two large school-rooms and two recitation rooms to the Locust street building, and two recitation rooms to the East Main street building.
At a special meeting of the district, August 9, 1894, it was voted to build an addition of four rooms to the Washington school-house.
The Hillside avenue school building was hired by the district, and its three school rooms filled by pupils transferred from Sperry street.
The superintendent of schools in his report for 1893 made the following general statement in regard to the school-houses of the district: "All the buildings now in use-fourteen in number-have been erected within the last twenty-two years. They contain eighty-four school-rooms and some have recitation rooms in addition. They are substantially built, are in good repair and afford ready egress in case of fire. Two of them, the Bank street and the Clay street buildings, are excellent in design and will compare favorably with any other school buildings in the state of the same grade."
The history of the district embraces, of course, much besides this record of external progress, and if the facts could be recalled and reduced to orderly arrangement the story would doubtless be of interest to many. The facts, however, to which we refer are peculiarly evanescent, some of the most valuable never having found their way into record-book or public print. The best that
502
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
can be done is to cull from accessible sources such items as seem to be of interest, and bring them together in chronological order .*
A small pamphlet published in 1853, entitled, "Regulations for the Schools of the Centre District of Waterbury," gives us the plan of organization which had by that time been adopted: "There shall be one high school, one grammar school, one or more inter- mediate schools, and such primary schools as the number and localities of the primary pupils may require." A vote passed in January, 1852, shows that at that date there were three primary schools-No. I at the Centre, No. 2 at the North Centre and No. 3 at the Gaylord Plain school-house-and that two others were about to be opened, No. 4, in a "school-house to be built next east of Sco- vill's bridge," and No. 5 in a "school-house to be built near the dwelling house of Edwin Sperry " on Sperry street.
On May 4, 1853, a special meeting of the district was held to con- sider the propriety of making all the schools free, and to meet the expense of running them by a tax on the polls and the ratable estate of the inhabitants. It was decided (but by an "informal" vote, says the record) that all the schools of the district and all the departments of the high school should be free to all the scholars of the district. This did not prevent the agitation, in 1855, of the question of an admission fee, and it was voted that the district committee should be instructed to lay such a capitation tax as they should think proper.
The subjects discussed at a meeting in November, 1853, show that differences of opinion had arisen in regard to the proper cur- riculum for the high school. It was proposed, first, "to prohibit the teaching of instrumental music in any of the schools of the dis- trict, and to sell the piano belonging thereto," and secondly, to pro- hibit the pursuit of "any branches of study not taught in the English language." Both of these proposals were "laid on the table," but the question of studies in other languages than English came up again. It came up, for example, in 1860, when it was voted at the annual district meeting that "the education taught in the high school " should be "an English education." A year later, however, this vote was forgotten, and it was unanimously "resolved that such additional studies as the board of education approves may be introduced into the high school." The "higher branches " were restored, and from that time to the present the school has been a high school in fact as well as in name.
* At the time of the fire, December, 1870, several books of records, with other valuable matter in print and in manuscript, were deposited in the library of the high school building. These were burned, and the information they contained in reference to the history of the schools of the district was almost entirely lost.
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THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
In 1856 the first evening school of the Centre district was opened, under the management of C. F. Dowd, who was then the principal of the high school. Classes were formed for both sexes. The first session was held on November 3, and the course consisted of eight weeks, with two sessions a week. A tuition fee of one dol- lar was charged, and the proceeds went to the purchase of a li- brary for the use of the high school. From that time onward night schools have been recognized as an "institution " of the district, but have not been held with any regularity. At the annual meet- ing in 1876 it was voted "that there be established and maintained not less than two night schools in the Centre district during the fall and winter months." At a meeting of the board of education, a year later, the subject of night schools was discussed and elab- orate rules were adopted. It was agreed that five or six schools should be opened in November, and should be in session four even- ings of each week. In 1878 a new set of rules was adopted, and a night school was opened in the high school building. In 1879 the total number of night pupils registered was 238, but the average attendance for the entire district was only seventy-two. In 1885-86 seven night schools were in operation. The average attendance in December was 268; in February, 201; but upon the whole no real progress was made. In 1889 the board of education felt compelled to make the following statement:
For the last two or three years the board has been obliged to report, not an absolute failure of these schools, but so small success that it has been a question whether further attempts to maintain free evening schools should be made. The instructors in these schools have been among our best, and the district com- mittee has done everything necessary to make the rooms comfortable and attrac- tive. Yet every year several schools, though opening with a crowd of pupils, are soon dismissed for want of numbers. We have become fully satisfied that evening free schools are appreciated by only a very few of the large class they are intended to benefit.
In 1859 a plan was adopted which had important bearings on the management of the affairs of the district. It was agreed that the board of education and the district committee "for the pur- pose of securing harmony of views and greater efficiency and despatch in the transaction of business," should hold joint meetings. The membership of the two boards at this time, and the constitu- tion of the joint board, were as follows:
Board of education: Dr. P. G. Rockwell, the Rev. J. H. Perry, the Rev. S. W. Magill, Dr. W. W. Rodman, the Rev. J. M. Willey, the Rev. George Bushnell, Willard Spencer.
District committee: A. E. Rice, D. B. Hurd, J. M. Burrall, William Lamb, A. G. Stocking.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Joint board: J. M. Burrall, the Rev. George Bushnell, D. B. Hurd, William Lamb, the Rev. S. W. Magill, A. E. Rice, Dr. P. G. Rockwell, Dr. W. W. Rod- man, Willard Spencer, A. G. Stocking (with C. F. Dowd as secretary).
On May 16 the joint board organized for service by the election of officers and various committees, and in July it began to hold its meetings in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian association. In 1863 a visiting committee was established by this board under a new set of rules. It was to consist of three members of the board of education, who had permission to subdivide their duties as might be agreeable and convenient to them. Acting in concert, they were to visit the schools thoroughly and efficiently and as often at least as once a month, and their compensation was to be $300 per annum. For a number of years this arrangement was continued; the affairs of the district were managed by a joint board, and the visitation of the schools was entrusted to a committee of three, the sum of $300 being divided evenly among them. Under the new charter (1880) meetings of the joint board were discontinued, and the board of education holds regular meetings on the first Tuesday of each month.
One of the most important events in the history of the district is that referred to on page 498, where mention is made of the "old Episcopal church " belonging to the parish of the Immaculate Con- ception. A school consisting of Roman Catholic children taught by Roman Catholic teachers was established in this building by the Rev. T. F. Hendricken, pastor of the parish, and in 1860 it was pro- posed that this school be received by the board of education as one of the schools of the district. At a meeting of the joint board, September 4, 1860, the Hon. Green Kendrick, who had been appointed "to consider the expediency of establishing a school on East Main street, in the basement of the old Episcopal church," reported in its favor, and it was " voted unanimously to establish a primary school in that locality, the room being furnished to the district without rent." A year later the joint board voted to estab- lish a school of intermediate grade in the same building, and in 1862 the district voted to hire the building. In 1863 the Rev. Father Hendricken proposed "to fit up the building in a thorough manner, to make it a good, comfortable and convenient school- house and rent it to the district." His proposal was accepted, and it was voted to pay him $500 per annum for it. The schools in the building at this time consisted exclusively of Roman Catholics, and it was understood that the religious exercises of the Roman Cath- olic church at the opening and closing of the various sessions need not be discontinued. The significant fact in the case, which soon
--
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THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
began to attract the attention of persons in all parts of the land, was that schools thus constituted and managed should be sup- ported by the "public money." Since 1865 a number of other schools in the district have come into the same category. In this connection it may be mentioned that at a meeting of the board of education, March 8, 1865, the following vote was passed :
That while it is highly proper and desirable that the pupils of the several schools assume a devotional posture during the opening and closing religious exercises, yet no pupil shall be compelled to assume such a posture, and the teachers are hereby instructed to require only a decorous and quiet deportment during such exercises.
This action was taken in view of a "difficulty" that had been reported in one of the schools, resulting from "requiring a devo- tional attitude during religious exercises;" and from this time onward the "denominational" problem in the schools of the dis- trict has been managed with considerable discretion.
The "joint board," as has been already stated, continued in existence until the adoption of the new charter in 1880. Since that time the board of education and the district committee have met separately, once a month, and the work of each has been more thoroughly systematized and more energetically carried on. The board of education decided that all the schools must be visited twice in each term by four visitors, and the district was divided into four sections with reference to this work. In 1884 a division into five sections was made.
In 1881 C. W. Wolcott of Southington was appointed instructor in vocal music, and the teaching of singing became general in the schools. In the autumn of 1883 a truant officer was appointed.
In 1885 much consideration was given to the subject of a revised course of study, and the superintendent of schools was instructed to report a new and carefully graded curriculum. It was adopted, and introduced at the opening of the spring term, 1886.
In 1888 the Centre district was divided, more definitely than it had hitherto been, into sub-districts,-their bounds being accu- rately indicated and put on record. They were named as follows :
Central.
East Gaylord.
Clay street.
Bishop street.
Dublin street.
Brooklyn.
Long hill.
Ridge street.
Westside hill.
Welton street.
Washington.
Sperry street.
Efforts were made during this year to annex the Oronoke and Town Plot districts, but the movement was opposed for various reasons by persons in both the districts, and therefore failed.
506
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
On July 16, 1891, the board of education adopted the following resolution:
WHEREAS, with the growth of the population within the Centre school district (the last enumeration showing over 7500 children in seventy-eight schools) the demands upon the time and services of the superintendent have greatly multiplied, while the high school, with a larger number of pupils than ever before (158), needs the constant presence and direction of a principal; therefore,
Resolved, that the offices of superintendent of schools and principal of the high school be separated; that the present superintendent be retained in that position at the same salary, and that a competent teacher (one holding, if possible, a similar position elsewhere) be engaged as principal of the high school, to assume charge at the opening of the fall term.
During this school year manual training was introduced in the schools, a room was fitted up in the Clay street building, and a · special teacher was appointed to take charge of the department. Classes in sewing were also established for the girls in the different schools. The report for 1890-91 adds the following item:
Among the memorable events of the school year may be placed the raising of a flag on the high school grounds. This beautiful banner, the largest in the state, was purchased by the alumni and pupils of the high school. The services were conducted by the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, and were wit- nessed by an immense concourse of people.
The annual report for the year ending October 1, 1894, showed that there were fifteen school buildings in use in the district. The number of school-rooms in use was ninety-three and the number of teachers, including assistants, was 120. The total number of children in the district in 1893 was 8475, the total number in 1894, 8670. The total number of boys registered during 1893 was 3145, and of girls, 2902, making a total of 6047,-an increase of 375 over the previous year. This is exclusive of pupils in the evening schools. The total number registered in the evening schools was 814. The average attendance at the evening schools declined from 495 in November, 1893, to 254 in February, 1894, and 114 in March. The number of pupils in attendance at the day schools during the spring term of 1895 was 5289. The following table will serve to show not only how they were disposed of, but the number and the location (approximately) of the schools of the district in 1895. (Under "high school" are included the temporary accommoda- tions in the Moriarty block.)
High school . II34
Porter street . 315
Sperry street 324
Eim street 490 Washington 262
Locust street . 383
Clay street 389
East Main street . 197
Dublin street . II7
Bank street
631
Ridge street . 356
Westside hill 14I
Bishop street 432
Hillside avenue . II8
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THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
Insufficiency of room is complained of in almost all parts of the district, but especially in the high school. During the winter term, 1893-94, the number of pupils in the high school proper was 191. Of this number thirty-eight graduated and a few left the school to enter employment. The number of grammar school scholars who passed examination for admission was 110, making the number at the summer term 252. These were packed into quarters originally designed for only 114. In several other rooms the condition reported was almost as bad, but in some of them at least temporary relief was obtained by the additions to the buildings or the secur- ing of rooms elsewhere to take the overflow of children. At the district meeting already referred to, held May 9, 1895, results were reached which are likely to relieve the difficulty for some time. For not only was it voted to erect a new high school building at a cost of $100,000, but to enlarge the Bishop street and Bank street schools at an expense of $30,000 additional. The expenses of the district during the year 1894 were nearly $150,000, of which the largest items were, for salaries $80,000 and new buildings, repairs, etc., about $16,000.
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