Portland High School - Totem Yearbook (Portland, ME)

Page 15 text:

THE TWIN SCHOOLS THE TWIN SCHOOLS Colonial America, changed by the Revolution into a prosperous young Republic, began to expand its physical and cultural resources. Falmouth now became the City of l'ortland and one of the busiest ports on the seaboard. Large homes had been built by prosperous business men. The merchant and the mariner now man- aged the wealth and government of the city, and no longer did the clergy have the prominent part that their predecessors had had in the attairs of govermnent. The school of Stephen Longfellow had only been the beginning of a growing school system that, in the year 1830, was to build the first of what is now remem- bered as the Twin Schools, the second following in the early thirties. The panel, entitled The Twin Schools, has as its center the two buildings then located at Spring and Oak Streets, one built in 1830 and the other soon after. :Xt the extreme right of the picture is Commodore Edward Preble, redoubtable naval lighter and member of a family long preeminent in naval affairs, and in the center is Schoolmaster jackson, a famed educator of the day, for whom it is believed the present jackson School on Forest Avenue was named, lt was at this time that Schoolmaster jackson was instituting the monitorial system in the gram- mar schools, and adding to the three R's geography, the classics, grammar, and some science. The costumes of the ladies and gentlemen of the period and the ship's sails seen in the background are again symbolic of the importance of the port's greatest industry. The two other panels will have more modern themes, recording scenes in the present curriculum of Portland High School. l11l 3

Page 14 text:

GOING TO SCHOOL IN OLD FALMOUTH MURALS-SCHOOLS OF EARLY PORTLAND Under a P. XV. A. project started early in january, Thomas Thorne, an alumnus of Portland lligh School, under the supervision of Alexander Bower. has already painted two of the four murals allocated to our school, and these have been placed over the doors of the large study halls on the first floor. In 1728-29 the lVlassachusetts General Court warned the town of Falmouth that unless a schoolmaster was provided for the children of the settlers, a fine would he imposed upon the township for neglecting the laws of the Puritan Common- wealth. The town, however, did nothing about this until 1733, and it was not until 1745 that we have any definite record of a regular schoolmaster. The panel entitled Going to School in Old F almouth, over the entrance to Room 103, is typical of Portland, then called Falmouth, about 1745. This mural shows Stephen VVadsworth Longfellow, center, the great grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, on his way to a citizen's house to begin the school session, accompanied by two of his younger pupils, since at that time, no schoolhouse had been built, and classes were held in private homes. At the extreme right is Rev- erend Thomas Smith, a famous character of the day and parson of the First Parish Church, who was instrumental in attracting Longfellow, then a young graduate of l larvard, to Falmouth, as a result of the Massachusetts court ruling that each town must support its own instructor. The old mail coach: the First Parish Church spire in the background: the prow of the ship Ranger: the merchant's home, built of brick brought from England : and the other dwellings in keeping with the period, all go to make the panel a true scene of colonial Falmouth, while the sailor and longshoreman on the left represent what Portland was to become-a shipping city. ll0l

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