Marple Newtown High School - Memories Yearbook (Newtown Square, PA)

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50 Years The following pages are devoted to the develop- ment and organization of Marple-Newtown Senior High School. It is hard to believe that the modern school on Media Line Road went through the varied stages pictured below. A school system, like any other functioning body, changes with the times. Her facilities have to expand as the classes grow larger. With each significant growth of students, our school system has found it necessary to provide additional space and new activities to meet the needs and the varied interests of the developing student body. Starting as a .rural high school whose enrollment was only thirty-one pupils, Marple- Newtown has progressed into the school we are so very proud of today. In 1914 Marple and Newtown townships joined to con- struct a four year agricultural and vocational school. The eight-room schoolhouse met the needs of the two rural communities for the next twelve years. From 1926 on, regular additions were made to the building to keep pace with enrollment. This picture shows the high school as it existed in 1949. Although the facilities were adequate, an addition to the build- ing was soon to be constructed as part of the continuing program of expansion. RWjgJI i jj A workman inspects the foundation of the propped addi- tion to the high school. In the background stands the old structure which was decimated by fire only a few months after the completion of the addition. 2

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On the 50th anniversary of the school, Marple-Newtown Senior High School, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, THE SENIOR CLASS PRESENTS . . . MEMORIES Co-editors; Genevieve Holm and Gloria Cardinal Faculty Advisor; Mr. VC illiam C. Capriotti

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Of Progress This was the devasting scene on April 9, 1956, as the oldest part of the high school went up in flames. 1 he fire caused an estimated damage of $500,000 and the loss of fourteen classrooms. In 1957 this building be- came the Junior High, while grades 10 and above were educated in other local buildings until the construction of the new senior high school. (Courtesy of Evening Bulletin) The Senior High, as the Class of 1964 knows it, was dedicated in 1958. From 1958 to 1961 the student body was com- prised of grades 10, 11, and 12. In 1961 the tenth grade was moved to Paxon Hollow High School to eleminate crowded conditions. The construction of the new addition to the Senior High School begins in the summer of 1964. Costing three million dolars, the addition will accomodate 1700 pupils in grades ten, eleven, and twelve and will double the area of the existing building. The athletic fields will be moved to the area behind the Dunwoody Home. For half a century, Marple-Newtown has been a stepping stone to the future. Time and pro- gress have altered her face and changed her form; she has forged ahead in size, enrollment, and courses. Throughout the years, Marple- Newtown has evolved to meet the needs of each tomorrow; and so she will continue, bridging the present to the future. Just as students have for fifty years before us, we too shall look back with pride to Marple-Newtown. We, the Class of 1964, dedicate this yearbook to all those who have made the progress of our school a continu- ing reality. 3