Blue Mountain Academy - Echoes Yearbook (Hamburg, PA)

Page 8 text:

History of P. A. Deep within the heart of each student at the old school, was the dream of a school of his own. Day after day in Bible classes the prayers of supplication would ascend to God from the hearts of these young people that he might open the way to make this dream a reality. Then early in the spring of 1945 events began to occur that had a great influence on the future of Philadelphia Academy. The building they were renting was sold and the school term closed in June of that year with no home for the following year. But in the hearts of the students was the earnest conviction that his was the answer to their prayers over the years and now God was gently forcing them to make the move that in His providence He had planned all along but no one had courage to accept---a school plant of their own. Shortly after graduation the principal, Mrs. C. C. Ellis, and the chairman of the board, Elder C. L. Blandford, received one of those very uninteresting looking letters, where the first impulse is to slip it quietly into the waste basket without taking the trouble to open it. But they did open it and it was found to be the notice of a school property, which was for sale and had been on the market for two years. There never has been the slighest clue as to the identific- ation of the one who placed those letters in the mail at that time. The members of the board were immediately summoned and a group of them decided to go over to see the property at 6063 Drexel Road after the board meeting. They passed the property several times because all they could see was a tremendous over growth of hedge fronting a plot of wild weeds that were almost taller than they. In the darkness of the night they finally saw the buildings so completely forlong and empty as to be frightening. But in their hearts they saw this pile of stone and mortar begin to live and throb with the pulse of Christian young people. They heard the halls echo with the songs they would sing, they felt the inspiration they would feel here, they saw the workers for God who would go forth from these doors to hasten the soon coming of Christg and in the darkness of that night, choked by the over grown weeds, Philadelphia Academy was reborn. Then the work began. Men of the churches got out their scythes to attack the weedsg saws and hatchets began to hack away at the over grown hedgeg and women with brooms and scrub- brushes went to work on the grime and dirt that had settled in the building for more than two years. Eager students knocked out walls to make more class room space and carried away alto- gether one hundred and twenty baskets of plaster. Teachers skilled with hammer and saw began to contruct needed cabinets until our whole sciencelab was the handiwork of I. Byron Logan and Elder Ellis. But in spite of such help and enthusiasm the day for the beginning of school came in Septem- ber without a desk in a class room, a table in the dining room, or a chair in the chapel. But news of our distress soon reached the ears of many friends and by the time the students arrived for class fifty class room desks has been received as a gift from one of the church members, dining room chairs and tables began to move out of peoples attics and the East Pennsylvania Conference supplied camp meeting chairs for the chapel. From that day to the present the story is tinged with blood, sweat, and tears, but as we look today upon the macadam play- ground that replaces the weeds, the lovely but simple decorations in our chapel, and the mar- velous additions we have made to class room equipment we take just pride in the phenomenal growth of Philadelphia Academy. Our real pride is not in our physical plant, but in the boys and girls who have walked these halls to go forth into fields of service for God and we bow our heads in all humility to say, What hath God wrought. Burning of the Philadelphia Academy mortgage in 1948.

Page 7 text:

Elder H. W. Bass, the first principal of Philadelphia Academy guided the school through its formative years while located on Germantown Avenue During his administration from 1939- 1943, nineteen students graduated from the Academy. Elder Bass is now Educational Secretary for the Potomac Conference. The photograph is a recent picture of the Bass family. List of Graduates Under Elder Bass CLASS OF 1940 Edna Andress-Bouland Virginia Creamer Jack H. Hamm Madeline Roeder-Schmidt CLASS OF 1941 Luther Belote Ruth Henderson-Gimpel Rose Huber-Guinn Mico Klingler Philippe Klinger C LASS OF 1942 Betty Seith-DiNenno Barbara Gimpel Kathryn E. Hamm Dorothy Hallman-l-lopwood Paul Iac kson Catherine Goumas-Nash Horace Reading Wallace Stephens CLASS OF 1943 Mary Jo Mitchell-Hasso Mary Gilbert

Page 9 text:

'U H '1 ,.-- , 4 .,. 4 mmm.. L F 1' 12 J, A, if Q32 M 1 , ff' 2 sv, , f S K ! 1' Q h . 5 J, I 4 fa.. QQ A, 4 ffrl, ' ' 'Y ' , fx 4 4, 4 -:gy f Q5 A A ' , W , . r ,ll '11 il F- 45 Q-4 Ax Q I 9 fs Ig .1 1 3 n V4