Ardsley High School - Ardsleyan Yearbook (Ardsley, NY)

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A H ARTH STONE TALE OF A H S Coontinuedl Hard benches, rough floors, far too inadequate facilities pronounced the doom of the 'little red school house' despite major like sincerity and en deavors on the part of the teachers to attain a har monious atmosphere for the welfare of the students Thus did Mr Abraham Storms at a subsequent date donate the property very adjacent to that of the site of the 'little red school' for the sole purpose of its being utilised for educational purposes, and he went so far as to make it a stipulation in the deed that if compliance with the purpose to which it was dedicated were not enforced, the property would auto matically be surrendered The historic old edlfice that was constructed of wood Just beside the Proud foot estate on this very property was later moved to Railroad Avenue and converted into a livery stable Even the street itself has been obliterated, and in its place is the Saw Mill River Parkway After Mr Ropes' dismissal from service, Mr Gilbert Buck, grandfather of the young Stymuses, was few, who still survive in Ardsley, gained their start in life msmxxxmxmxmmxmxxxsxs As we are seated we look into each other's faces and reflect how much warmer the fire is becoming, how much more intimate a1e the etchings, how proportions are being augmented Day has virtually slept away, and the advent of a new day brings new, rejuvenated interest in those historic etchings dancing on the hearth Our scene shifts to a portion of what is now the Municipal Building It was here that Mr William Slocum assumed the reins as principal in 1872 and served a major portion of his principalshlp Mr Slo cum,a very public spirited man, a capable pedagogue, and an accomplished disciplinarian really by virtue of the systematic disposition he himself possessed, his sportsmen like and paternal interest in the af fairs of his pupils successfully administered Justice and encouraged law and order At the beginning of his administration the enrol lment at the school was approximately eighty five. The school comprised but two rooms, one devoted to the needs of the elementary department, the other to those of the senior department In fact it was one large room merely curtained off, and there for forty solid years did Mr Slocum endeavor with all the fer vor with which the Lord had endowed him to inculoate a spirit of learning through which he endeavored to teach the subject matter more successfully. He had 22 principal of the aforesaid school under whose roof a 0 O Ee

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A HEARTH STONE TALE OF A H S Ccontinuedl woodlands, and even fords across the Saw Mill River Mr Eli Ropes was principal of the school at that time, and it is a matter of fact, taken from the 1846 budget quotations, that Mr Ropes was paid a little in excess of 310 for his services The figure seems quite preposterous on the face of it, but even that was enor- mous in comparison with a remuneration of 241 to a cer tain miss Ann Eliza Hoard who taught for a period of time To understand how limlted were facilities and ac commodations at the time, we must reali7e that the 'little red school house', then the institution accom modat1ng D1qtTiCt Number 3, whose boundarles were the junctlon of Ashford Avenue and Albany Post Road ln Dobbs Ferry on the west, far up into Worthington on the north, Daisy Avenue and Sprain Road on the east, and Mount Hope on the south, had an enrollment of prob ably a half a hundred pup1ls ranging from kindergarten to senior high school age 'For mercy's sake'n you will ejaculate, for this revelation is more 1ncred1ble than any In 1840 the from a torn yellow record sheet appertaining to expend itures, assessments, and the various tabulatlons on real estate taxes of 1846 The asses ed valuation of Ardsley ln that bygone day was an lnfiniteslmal 3106, 975 as compared with 39,527,000 for the fiscal year 1935 Where the present school is situated the prop erty, consisting then of about fourteen acres which belonged to Mr Southern, incidentally, was assessed for 3800 and the annual tax bill aggregated 581 Mind you, this was Westchester County only eighty nine yeans ago, today a most flourishing section with lmmeasura ble potentialities What is now Woodlands, all of which Mr Samuel S Howland then owned, was the highest assessed piece of real estate in the dlstrict, being placed at 330,000 with an annual taxation of Q21 60 levied on it Clerk Lawrence's grandfather owned practically all of Chaun cey together with additional land adjoining it, and at the rate of 721 per thousand, his tax bill for 1846 amounted to about 52 45 Meadow Brook of today, owned by a Mr Francis Hildebrandt, was taxed for 511 Reverting momentarily to the little red school house', we discover that Mr John Lefurgy, who pos sessed a name familiar to us in l935,was one of a group of three who comprised the Board of Education in 1846 He was the great, great grandfather of the Le furgys who attend Ardsley High School now Also the names of Mr Charles Lester and Mr Anthony Stone are worthy of mention as the other two Board members 21 1 0 . 4 O total appropriation for tutoring was 544.77 as derived A . s O O 0 QL c D Q a l 0 Q 0 N . 9 O D I O

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A HEARTH STONE TALE OF A H S Ccontinuedl library where Miss Van de Werker put in so much time and energy in cultivating a liking for good literature and the like Where the Fifth Grade is now Mrs Flint began teaching the sixth grade in 1920 Mrs Kinder vatter kept commercial students in rhythm where the Intermediate Grade is now Mrs Ehler and Mrs Fergu son have been in service a good many years as Third and First Grade teachers respectively Subsequent to a brief substitution by a Miss Coe while Mr Bennett was in France and subsequent to Mr Frank York's principalship, Mr Arthur W Silliman the deliverer of A H S into the 'lap of repute' and all that is good and desirable for an educational in stitution, came into the foreground bringing with him the stamina, sagacity, and discretion which has so prominently marked his most progressive administration. From 1916 till the present has transpired the greatest and most favorable transformation in all the eventful history of the school, but this progress pro extra curricular activities had their birth here and virtually led to the mollification of a restless stu dent body who found satisfaction and contentment under Mr Sillimans institutions The two or three years prior to Mr S1ll1man's ar- rival on the horizon were emphatically unsatisfactcr as weighed in the terms of educational ethics and methods, for even in a small cosmopolitan community where there exists a wide divergency of social pract ices the school is responsible in a large part for the dissemination of the seeds of harmony, appreciation for self government, and subsidiary interests, which are entirely embodied in extra curricular activities Matters had arrived at a crisis, and Mr Silliman was the individual to whom the distressed faculty turned for wise counsel They were gratified and well re munerated for their patient toleration, for the new principal diagnosed the case and prescribed the preoisa medicine for coping with matters Thus did the Studen Council derive its origin and was the Honor Society later formed by plans and specifications submitted by a student committee Incidentally, in the year 1921 there was but one graduate, Elsie Goerz, while at the graduation of the ensuing year three were graduated, Beatrice Goehren, Josephine Nannariello, and Dorothy Underhill Th class mottoes were 'Never sometimes, but alwaye', and 'B square and be Y's', respectively In 1922 a magazine known as 'Pep' was issued by the student body, and in 1923 THE ARDSLEYAN was initi ated as a quarterly, although in the succeeding year 23 O O Q bably reached a culminal point in the year 1925 when Y e 0 . Q