Benjamin Franklin High School - Key Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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ETHEL PLACE BUTTERFIELD January 9, 1884 February 28, 1940 At 14 years, a member of the dm of 1898 at Groton High School, Her fav- orite subjecti, Latm and Greek. A FRIEND OF FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL Ethel Place was a born teacher. Her lather and mother were teachers, too, and she later married a teacher, our own beloved Roy L. Butterfield. She loved young people and found her hap- piness in home and school. Graduated from Cortland Normal School at the age of eighteen, she taught for four years in the public schools of Ithaca and even after her marriage, acted as a supply teacher occasionally in emergencies. Mrs. Butterfield's interest in schools continued as she followed the careers of her sons as pupils and her husband as principal. She was present on that September day, nearly ten years ago, when the doors of Franklin High School swung open to admit its first classes. Her older sons, Roger and Lyman, had already gone on to college, but the youngest, Alfred, belonged to Frank- lin. She knew of all that happened here, became personally acquainted with many student officers and lead- ers, delighted in Franklin Day activities, Key teas, senior plays and banquets, graduation programs, and the teachers' social activities. Any honor or recognition shown a Franklin person gave her joy. A musician herself, she sang often in oratorios at Cornell University as a young woman, and her fine alto voice was heard in church choirs wherever she lived Naturally the Franklin Choir was a great source of pride to her. It is a privilege to pay tribute in the 1940 KEY to Mrs. Roy L. Butterfield and to record her name as one of the first and best friends of Franklin High School. 8

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TABLE OF CONTENTS HISTORY FACULTY SENIORS ORGANIZATIONS SPORTS FEATURES ADVERTISEMENTS 7 East vs. West Commercial Art Class

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I s The Benjamin Franklin High School is thoroughly American, even to the site upon which it stands. For what is more American than the old-fashioned circus? And Norton Street, corner of Hudson, was once famous as the circus stamping ground of Rochester. Big and small, learned and unlearned, serious and care free, they all came to Norton Street to feed the elephants and to see the man on the flying trapeze. Then, lest the idea perish, though not from con- scious design, our Key for January, 1938, took the circus as its theme and came out resplendent with big top and all. And surely we can't forget the James M. Cole Indoor Circus that only last fall per- formed on the big gymnasium floor. Barnum and Bailey have folded their tents, it is true, but they haven’t moved away. TORY ever before, Norton Street is vibrant with American life. But, to begin our history, the need of a North- east High School ’ was recognized by the Board of Education as early as the year 1915. In 1916 the first portion of the campus was purchased, 15-3,10 acres for $10,000. In 1921 the school was asked for, at which time the cost was estimated at $1,- 500,000. In October, 1925, there was made a survey of school needs in this section, as a result of which two years later, December, 1927, the sum of $2,300,000 was authorized for the construction of the building. There is something about the bigness, the busy- ness, the vitality, and the general appeal of the circus that is attuned to the American idea of tackling big things in the joyous spirit of adventure and of opportunity for all We hope that this is true of Franklin. The place is a big one—one of the largest and best equipped in the country. Young Americans of many national groups, some of them not long here, work and study and play together. The Almanac, sent to prospective students during the summer before the opening of the first school year, declared that the school would be of the cosmopolitan type We still like the word cos- mopolitan. Sturdy old American traditions con- nected with Benjamin Franklin and colonial days have been sought out and perpetuated in the name of our student council, the Junto, and in the names of all school publications—the Almanac, the Key, and the Courant. Franklin is the meeting place of the old and the new, the near and the far. More than A mile of corridors! Mr. Sabin finds the solution. The first shovelful of earth was lifted On March 28, 1928. From that time the work went vigorously forward until the grand opening on Tuseday, Sep- tember 2, 1930. We were impressively Imown as The Benjamin Franklin Junior-Senior High School, with the regular junior-semor program, and carrying grades eight through twelve. The final cost, includ- ing site and equipment, was $2,922,821.10 Re- cently a considerable addition was made to the size of the athletic held; the campus now includes twenty-six acres. The building was planned originally for an en. rollmcnt of 2,500, but before school began it was plain that more than this number would appear, Six