USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 27
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 27
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
roads in order to extend the grounds of the North school, and a portion, if not the whole, of the large triangle which now forms the school-house lot was then obtained from Amos Allen for a moderate sum. The town borrowed the money to pay for this land. Later a committee was appointed to stake out a school-house lot, and General Rice was authorized to sell a part for not less than what the town paid for the whole. In 1844 the local committee was authorized by the town to procure the blinds for this new school-house. The successive school-houses in the North district have been on, or near, the same site to 1911, which cannot be said of the school-houses in any other old district in Needham or Wellesley. The new school-house in the Upper Falls dis- trict was built by Richard Boynton in 1842 at a cost of $474, and the town authorized its treasurer to borrow the money. The building committee, William Eaton, Thomas Kings- bury, Elisha Lyon, Otis Sawyer, Spencer Fuller, William Flagg and John S. Bird located the new house on the south corner of what is now Central Avenue and Webster Street, where it still remains, but has long been a dwelling.
In 1844 the town bought a piece of land of William Flagg for $60, and chose Capt. Reuben Ware, William Eaton, Deacon Lyon, Mr. Kimball, Spencer Fuller, William Flagg and John Mansfield a committee with authority to select a site for a new school-house for the West district, and to sell the old house at auction for not less than $125. The town borrowed temporarily $750 to build this school-house, but it cost $960, besides $124.50 for eighty-three chairs, and $13 for two tables. Dea. Hezekiah Fuller was the builder.
The report of the school committee in the spring of 1846 stated that all of the teachers were good, and that the em- ployment of women teachers for the winter terms in three districts, viz., East, Centre and Great Plain, had proved a "profitable experiment". The East school had then been taught for two winters by a female, and persuasion was largely taking the place of the rod in all the Needham schools.
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
The Centre school was at that time large, and the building quite inadequate. For some years the parents had shown increasing interest in the schools, and for five years, or more, the examinations had been well attended by them.
The report for 1843/4 had referred to the great advantage in having two rooms in the school-house, and two schools in winter, in both the North and West districts. In the winter of 1837/8 Martha B. Morse taught "the small school in the west district" fifteen weeks.
In 1845 William Eaton made repairs on the South school- house to the amount of $400, and in 1849 the town paid Robinson & Roberts nearly $300 for painting four school- houses, and one or more buildings at the town farm. The cost of the lead and oil, provided by the town, brought the expense of painting to nearly $500, and it was the first large expenditure of this kind that the town had had. In the latter year a good sized wooden school-house was built for the Centre district, and the total cost was $1700 including furnishing. It was a two-story building, and was in use till burned in 1878. The site was a few rods southwest of the old Brick school-house, and at a less elevation from the road. The site had been selected in 1845 by a committee, and was purchased of George Revere for $30; the latter had acquired this land from the First Parish. The building committee for this school-house, as finally selected, consisted of Timothy N. Smith, Mr. Kimball, Thomas Kingsbury, Lemuel Kings- bury, William Pierce, Daniel Ware and Capt. Reuben Ware. Members of these special committees were paid for their services, as were the selectmen and other town officers. Hezekiah Fuller was the contractor for the Centre school- house, and Jonathan Fuller, Jr., did the mason work.
In 1855, after some years of consideration, the town built school-houses for the Great Plain and for Grantville at a total cost of about $5400. Timothy N. Smith constructed that on the Great Plain, and Gardner & Fuller the one in Grantville. The Grantville school dates from 1854 when
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
Miss Caroline L. Kingsbury taught twenty-nine children, forming a primary school. The house erected by Mr. Smith replaced an entirely inadequate building, which after two removals is now a dwelling-house on the Hicks estate. This school-house, and at least one before it, had stood on the north corner of Great Plain Avenue and Webster Street, but the new one was placed some distance further east on Great Plain Avenue.
The school-house for the Northwest district, Unionville, was secured in 1858 after seven years of defeat, and was sadly needed, as in the winter of 1857/8 thirty-seven children attended school in a small room totally unfit for school purposes. This school in the Northwest had been established in the summer of 1854 with twenty-six pupils, and Miss Hannah J. Ware was its first teacher. The building committee for the school-house in the Northwest consisted of George Spring, Silas G. Williams, William Flagg, Abijah Greenwood, Lauren Kingsbury and Franklin Stevens, and the same committee also directed in 1858 the construction of the North school-house, expending in all about $4000. The houses built in 1855 were under the supervision of a committee of nine, not identical with the original committee to which had been referred early in 1854 the entire question of new school-houses, including the location of them.
In 1857 the town directed the selectmen to put up on the school-houses the laws of the Commonwealth "in relation to killing birds, stealing fruit, and depredations on gardens".
In 1860 the school committee each devoted annually about fifteen days to the schools, and were paid $1.50 per day.
On August 28, 1870, the school committee issued a cir- cular establishing rules intended to check unnecessary ab- sence and tardiness. This circular would not be popular at the present time (1911), as it refers to "the poorer classes", and informs them that they had better avail themselves of the schools, which are maintained at the expense of others and paid for "by those who have the least need of such schools".
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
HIGH SCHOOLS
At the annual town meeting in 1853 the superintending school committee and Solomon Flagg, Lewis Sumner, Charles C. Greenwood, Josiah H. Carter, George K. Daniell and Moses Winch were chosen to consider the advisability of establishing one or more high schools, and to report on the school system of the town as a whole. The committee reported to the town in April, and the report was ordered to be printed, and a copy supplied to "every legal voter". In November the report was adopted, and the Rev. Mr. Kimball, the Rev. Mr. Barrows, Nathan Longfellow, E. K. Whitaker, Dr. Noyes, Lewis Sumner, Jonathan Fuller, J. H. Carter and Capt. Reuben Ware were to introduce the changes recommended by the former committee, but with no authority to establish a high school.
On April 14, 1864, a committee, consisting of B. G. Kim- ball and C. C. Greenwood for the Centre, Lauren Kingsbury and Jonathan Battles for the Great Plain, Henry Wood and Charles Blaisdell for Wellesley, the Rev. E. S. Atwood and M. N. Boyden for Grantville, with Marshall Newell at large, was chosen to consider "the establishment of a high school", and to report in four weeks. The result was that the com- mittee reported that the town was legally bound to have a high school, and on May 12 it was voted to have two, the cost not to exceed $1200 per year each, and $2500 were appropriated. A committee of eleven was named to locate these schools, and they were authorized to contract to pay rentals not exceeding $300 per year for each school. This was additional to the $1200 before referred to, and neither amount was expected to include furnishings. On March 6, 1865, it was "Voted, that the town establish & maintain two Schools, of the grade & character, of School provided for, in Sec. 2ª, Chap. 38 of General Statutes, one to be located on the West side of the town, the other on the East side of the town, which said Schools shall be for the benefit
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
of all the inhabitants of the town, and the attendance of Scholars upon said Schools, shall be regulated by the School Committee as may be found most convenient". The select- men were to provide rooms for these schools, or for one of them, whenever notified by the school committee that there were a sufficient number of scholars. There was provision made for closing a high school if it was found to be unneces- sary. Both schools were opened in May. The East High School was first kept in the upper part of the Centre school- house, but in the fall removed to Village Hall, which was leased from Obed C. Parker for four successive years for the school. The first teacher was Silas Bundy Rawson, who had thirty-two pupils with an average attendance of twenty- eight. He was from Maine, and later became a minister. He did his best with the scholars from the ungraded schools, and is favorably remembered.
The school committee from time to time to 1875 urged the union of the two high schools, and in 1868 a committee consisting of L. A. Kingsbury, the Rev. W. B. Greene, Emery Grover, Galen Orr, C. R. Miles, Lauren Kingsbury and C. B. Dana was chosen to consider building one or more high schools. Their report in favor of building was made to the annual meeting in 1869 and accepted, but another committee was chosen to consider details, with the ulti- mate result that no house intended solely for high school purposes was erected at that time.
The West High School opened in Maugus Hall, which was then owned by the Maugus Hall Association, who leased a room to the town. The town did not expend a large sum for furnishings, and in the autumn the school was established in Waban Hall, over Shattuck's grocery- store, Wellesley, and remained there until the fall of 1869. Waban Hall is a part of the store building, then owned by Jonathan, Granville and Augustus Fuller. In 1869 the school was poorly accommodated in a hall at Grantville hired of Sylvester McIntosh. In their report for the year
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
ending in the spring of 1872, the school committee stated that prior to 1871 the West High School had alternated between Grantville and Wellesley from year to year, moving the furniture, although three quarters of the pupils lived in or near Grantville.
On the completion of the new school-house at Wellesley the high school was located there, but returned to Grant- ville when the large Shaw school-house was ready for occu- pancy. The school-grounds at Grantville had been enlarged by a purchase from the Boston & Albany Railroad Company of some land that had belonged to the Torrey estate. David S. Farnham, the first teacher of the West High School, had thirty-four scholars enrolled, with an average attendance of thirty-two.
In 1867/8 the pupils in the East High School were in- structed by the Rev. Jonas B. Clarke of the Oakland Hall School, and the town paid tuition to the amount of $598. Mr. Clarke gave lectures before the high school on elemen- tary science during other terms.
The East High School Alumni Association was formed on June 24, 1880, and meets annually. Since the division of the town the word "East" has been omitted from its name.
In the spring of 1896 the need of an additional school- house was generally admitted, and a committee of sixteen was chosen to consider the entire question. Eleven of the committee, feeling that the comfort and health of the large number of young children was of the first importance, reported in favor of a new school-house on Lincoln Street, or in that locality, the expense to be about $7000. Five members of the committee reported advising a costly high school, and the minority report was adopted on June I, and immediately there arose a controversy as to the site. On June 22 $30,000 were appropriated, to be met by the issue of bonds, and $4000 additional for the purchase of a lot of land somewhere on Highland Avenue, between Mr.
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
Nickerson's and Highlandville, according to the language of the vote. On October I these votes were reconsidered, and, as a two-thirds vote to issue bonds could not be ob- tained, $30,000 were appropriated to be raised by taxation in 1897, and $3000 were to be taken from the School Fund to buy land on the east corner of Highland Avenue and Rosemary Street. Feeling ran high, and resulted in an in- junction from the Supreme Judicial Court so far as the appropriation was concerned, which injunction might have also included the vote selecting the site had it not been for a document unexpectedly produced. This school-house was an issue in the town election the following spring, but the selectmen then chosen to do certain acts at once were un- able to do anything, and on March 9, 1897, John Moseley offered to give the town a fine lot of land, next to Saint Joseph's Church, as a location for the school-house, and this gift was accepted, and again, more formally, on April I. A new building committee was chosen, consisting of Arthur Wallace Pope, chairman, Henry S. Locke, Henry M. Walradt, and the school committee, Francis de M. Dunn, Mrs. Adeline E. Harris and John W. Titus.
Aaron Twigg had been named for a place on this commit- tee, but declined to serve. The new committee discarded the plans prepared by the architect employed by the first committee, and engaged the services of Whitman & Hood, whose plan was finally adopted. The deed from Mr. Mose- ley was formally accepted on July I, and the munificent gift of this large lot, one of the best in town, was the most valuable present that the Town of Needham had received since its incorporation.
The high school building was dedicated on September I, 1898, and a number of gifts of pictures and equipment had then been received, including its first flag from George Kuhn Clarke, who had previously presented large flags to the Dwight and Kimball schools. The cost of this high school building was about $33,000, of which $5000 were taken
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
from the School Fund. F. G. Coburn & Co. were the builders.
In September, 1910, there were one hundred and sixty- seven pupils in the High School, including some third and fourth-year scholars from Dover. In September, 1911, there were one hundred and thirty-eight pupils, none from Dover attending.
SEVEN NEW SCHOOL-HOUSES
On March 18, 1867, the town referred to the school com- mittee the proposition to "establish and locate a school at Highlandville". The first school-house was built there in 1869, at a cost of about $7800, and was one of three school-houses erected that year. The work was done by the day, chiefly by Oliver Pickering and Andrew G. Gardner, who employed the other carpenters. This school-house was dedicated on April 27, 1870, at 3 o'clock, and Miss Jane G. Avery read a hymn which she had written for the occasion. After consideration by two large committees, the town voted in 1869 to build new school-houses in Wellesley and in Grant- ville, the former to be in the vicinity of Kilborn Place, and the latter on the site of the primary school, or in its imme- diate neighborhood. For each building $7500 were appro- priated, to which were added the proceeds from the sale of the old houses, and from land, if any was sold. A loan of $15,000 was authorized, and Galen Orr, Freeman Phillips and Charles B. Dana were chosen a building committee for both houses. The house at Wellesley was built by Mr. Phillips, and cost $10,000, independent of gifts of money from H. H. Hunnewell, Henry F. Durant, Edmund M. Wood and William E. Baker, which were gratefully acknowledged by the town. This school was named the Hunnewell School, and the house was dedicated on April 15, 1870, at 3 o'clock. Mr. Hunnewell presented the town with the land.
The school-house at Grantville was not erected till 1874,
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
owing to differences of opinion as to the needs of that sec- tion, and cost $21,000; the contractors were Clapp Bros. and Thwing & Clapp Bros. This school was named for John W. Shaw, who presented it with a clock, a bell and a globe. Further particulars as to the Grantville school-house will be given in connection with the one in the North district.
The school at Wellesley had been a grammar school, and that at Grantville a mixed school, but when the new build- ing at Wellesley was completed the hitherto migratory high school, as previously stated, was kept there.
The new East school-house, which is much nearer to the Upper Falls than its predecessors, also dates from 1869, and cost $6600. There were then seventy children between the ages of five and fifteen in that locality. The building com- mittee was the same as for the school-house at Highland- ville: - Simeon Grover, Jonathan Avery and Oliver Picker- ing. Messrs. Pickering and Gardner were the principal builders, and the work was done by the day. In 1869 the town also voted $7500 for a new school-house on the Great Plain, which was immediately commenced. Galen Orr, Freeman Phillips and Charles B. Dana were chosen a building committee, and a loan of $7500 was authorized. The school-house on the Great Plain was to contain the East High School in its French roof, and was built by Mr. Phillips by contract, and cost $11,500. The "East High School House" was dedicated on May 17, 1871, at 2 o'clock. The old house was bought at auction by the school committee for $2800, and removed to Greendale (formerly Pudding Point),1 by William B. Jewett, at an expense of $1250, where it was remodelled for $1209.69. It is still (1911) the home of the Harris School, which was opened in the fall of 1872, with seventeen pupils taught by Miss Fannie E. Longfellow. The large lot on which the school- house formerly stood was sold for $1000 in 1875.
1 Usually pronounced "Puddin Pint " by old-fashioned people.
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In 1872 the town declined to employ a superintendent of schools, and did not have one till Frank E. Parlin began his duties in September, 1893. He gave two fifths of his time to Needham, and the remainder to Natick. His suc- cessor, Henry M. Walradt, also served elsewhere. It was not until 1907 that Needham had the entire time of a super- intendent, when Walter Knight Putney was engaged.
In 1874 the town voted to assess $10,000, and to borrow $20,000 to pay for the school-houses to be built in Grant- ville and in the North district, and chose as a building com- mittee for Grantville Flavius J. Lake, Lyman K. Putney and Gamaliel Bradford, and for the Lower Falls the Honor- able George White, William Heckle and Henry B. Scudder. That year Needham expended nearly $50,000 on education. George Spring was the contractor for the North school- house, which cost almost $15,000, the old building bring- ing $1000. In 1873 the school committee had urged the erection of a house near Aqueduct Bridge. The old building at Grantville was sold for $2898.90, and is now a double house on Washington Street.
After some years of consideration and delay it became evident that a large appropriation for a new school-house in the South district could not be obtained, but the town built a house there in 1876 for about $5200, Captain Fiske, Freeman Phillips and Marshall Newell serving as the build- ing committee. On April 1, 1878, the town accepted a bell given by citizens, and which was already in the tower and in use. In 1876, and for ten years or more, a school was kept in the French roof of the Odd Fellows Building on the Great Plain, and the school committee advised the construction of a small school-house on the same lot with the Kimball school-house. The Kimball building was only five years old, but was already so inadequate that one de- partment, as stated, was occupying a hired room in a fire trap, which was burned in 1887, but fortunately when the school was not in session. The Intermediate school was
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the one in the Odd Fellows Building in 1880, and in other years.
In 1877 the committee urged the town to build a school- house between the Great Plain and Highlandville, and recommended improved instruction in drawing and music. During the seventies there had been a great advance in grading the schools, and in methods of teaching, which progress has continued to the present time. In 1878 twenty children from Needham attended school in Natick, and their tuition at $12 each was paid by the town.
The school-house at the Centre was burned on the even- ing of January 30, 1878, and that year a new one was built on a large lot purchased of Davis K. Mills, and early in 1880 the old site was sold for $50 to John Ward, owner of the Nehoiden Block property. Richard Marks was the con- tractor for the new building, which cost $4500, and the Hon- orable Galen Orr, Charles H. Flagg and Thomas Whitaker were the building committee. After the school-house was burned the pupils in the upper department went to High- landville for the remainder of that term and the whole of the next. A shop where knit-goods had been made, near the school-house lot, very poorly sheltered the primary school for several months, but in the autumn the new house was ready for use.1
In 1880 a committee of five was chosen to consider the insufficient school-houses on the Great Plain and at High- landville, and in April the majority reported in favor of two new buildings, both not to cost more than $6000, but the minority preferred one adequate house between the two
1 The Needham Chronicle and Wellesley Advertiser said of the loss of this school-house: "The destruction of the Centre Schoolhouse did not cause much interruption to the schools, the pupils of one being sent the next morning to Highlandville Schoolhouse, while the others were accommodated in a building formerly used for a hosiery factory ".
"On Wednesday night the Centre School House, in which two Schools were kept, was discovered to be on fire, and although quite a large number were soon on the ground, nothing could be done to prevent its destruction. The fire was doubtless of incendiary origin. We understood that it was insured for $1,500."
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villages. West Needham was not represented on this committee.
This question came up again in 1884, and in 1885 the town received $30,403.05 in its settlement with Wellesley, which sum, after paying expenses amounting to $2750, was made a School Fund. Of this money $11,000 were expended to enlarge the Kimball and Avery school-houses and $2500 to heat them with steam. A lot of land adjoining the Avery school-grounds was purchased in 1885, and the two school- houses, the Kimball and the Avery, were cut in twain, the ends separated, and the space filled with new work, to which wings were added. On August 4, 1884, the town appropri- ated $700 to pay for school-books, and has since made annual grants for this purpose. By vote of the town the South school was named the Parker School on April 1, 1878, in honor of Jonathan Parker, whose home was near, and who was killed at West Cambridge on April 19, 1775. In 1886 the other schools were appropriately named as follows: Those at the Great Plain, then all in one building, the Kimball School, in honor of the Rev. Daniel Kimball, who did much for education in Needham, those at Highland- ville, the Avery School, in honor of Jonathan Avery, who was the pioneer in developing that section, the one at the old Centre, the Dwight School, in honor of Timothy Dwight, who gave the School Land to the town, the school at the Upper Falls, the Eliot School, in honor of the Apostle to the Indians, and the one at Greendale, the Harris School, in honor of John Morton Harris, a useful member of the school committee who died in the spring of 1884.
In 1889 the town refused to build a new school-house on the Great Plain, but the next year expended $1 500 to improve the ventilation of the Kimball school building.
Until April, 1895, the instruction in drawing was given by the regular teachers in the different schools, but that year a special instructress was employed, and a drawing teacher is now considered indispensable. In 1897 $4000 were appro-
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priated for improvements of the Avery school-house, in- cluding better ventilation, and also $250 for the Kimball school building. The latter sum was taken from the School Fund, which was virtually extinguished on November 12, 1897, when the selectmen burned the bonds of the "Electric Light Loan" to the amount of $13,500, par value, in which the balance of the fund had been invested. This action had been authorized by the town on "All Fools Day" (April 1), 1897.
Appropriations which formerly would have seemed large have been made from time to time for modernizing the school-houses, and for the health and comfort of the pupils, and in 1905 and 1906 a new Avery school-house was built, on the opposite side of the street from the older one, which continues in use. The new building, which is of red brick with sandstone trimmings, cost about $23,000, with the land and grading, and was ready for occupancy in Septem- ber, 1906. Horace A. Carter gave 5000 feet of land on the southeasterly side to enlarge the grounds, and Alfred J. Mercer an equal amount on the east. The building com- mittee consisted of the school committee, and William Gorse, who was the chairman, Joseph B. Thorpe, Edmund G. Pond, Henry Godfrey, Jr., and William P. Bailey. The architect was Lemont D. Litchfield, and the contractor J. J. Prindeville.
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