Question: The year is 1950 and these crisply turned out young men are ready to embark on a special adventure. Photographer Mark Chapman took the photo as the Scouts posed at the main entrance to the Baldwinsville Academy on Elizabeth Street. Do you recognize any of these fellows and do you recall what made their upcoming experience very special?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo showed the steel framework of Baldwinsville’s new junior-senior high school, to be named after Charles W. Baker. The photo was taken in late summer of 1951. The view is looking east from Oswego Street just north of the East Oneida Street intersection.
The north-south classroom wing is at left center; the music-auditorium section is at the extreme right. Note the bus garage in the distance at right; the district office building didn’t exist.
By 1950, several circumstances had converged that caused Baldwinsville to take stock of its entire school facilities. In May 1949 the school district had voted to consolidate, thus bringing all of the remaining country schools to a close and sending their students into the new centralized program. The district had 1,900 students with more on the way.
New housing was springing up. The 6,500 acres on Route 31occupied by New York State Ordnance Works during the war was available for development. Five hundred acres had already been carved out for Valley View, with 1,000 new homes anticipated there. The baby boomers were getting ready for kindergarten. The school district had already started to supplement school building facilities with off-site classrooms. School expansion was a necessity.
In November 1950, district voters approved a $2,250,000 bond issue to build a new junior-senior high school, transform the Academy on Elizabeth Street into a grammar school and make significant improvements to the Southside Elementary School. A large district bus garage was also part of the program.
The bond issue would actually save taxpayers money. At the time the district was using 18 off-site classrooms, with nine additional ones needed for the next year. Spaces had to be retrofitted and equipped, and New York state would not contribute towards expenses for classrooms not on school property. At the end of the rental period, all spaces had to be returned to their original condition. It would be more costly to rent than to build and own.
The junior-senior high school was the first project. The new school could be built on the former Bolger farm just north of East Oneida Street, a 60-acre parcel purchased for $5,000 in 1946 by the district to be used for athletic facilities. Baldwinsville architect George Ketcham designed the new school. Ground was broken on a bitter cold winter day in February 1951. The new building was first used, in part, for junior-senior high classes starting in September 1952.
We had numerous correct answers from readers on our Facebook page and website.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
