Springfield Trade High School - Beaver Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

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l:11e building of trade school through the years Etgffffwgfw msn mu ' E' J The Old Hooker School ,Emi 1920 'ww ..--f- Sprlng Street 1921 Taylor Street Bu11d1ng 1911 As we are today

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, 'X N-s dedication We the Class of 1948 gratefully dedlcate th1s book to helper to all sen1or classes for many years past and who has glven generously of h s txme strength and energy to makmg our year book as well as those that have gone before both artxstxc and mterestmg Mr Elvm will always have the best wlshes of the Class of 1948 eg sg Mr. Joseph B. Elvin who has been a sincere friend and

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history of trade school and the class of l9ll-8 Here agaln IS that most excrtmg part of every student s career Graduahon Day We are all thankful that we ve reached our goal that weve had the courage and stam1na to carry us through the past three years so successfully But rf we ll g1ve thx matter a second thought we ll see that our success rs due not only to our own hard work but ln large part 1t IS due to the unceas1ng efforts of Trade School to turn out well educated future c1t1zens of the commumty If we look back at the h1story of Trade School we w1l1 see that 1t has been do1ng th1s very thlng for the past forty years smce 1ts begxnnmg rn 1909 xt has been cont1nual1y grow1ng and developmg to g1ve the com mun1ty the best possxble opportun1t1es for learnmg vocat1onal skxlls and the des1rab1l1ty of good c1t1zensh1p Let us for a moment look back about forty years to the start of Trade School Trade School had a very humble begrnnmg as far as slze goes w1thout even a bu1ld1ng of 1ts own Pr1nc1pa1 Dr Wrlbur F Gordy organ1zed two groups of 25 boys each one rn woodworkxng the other ln machrne shop pract1ces Durmg the mormng the boys stud1ed the theoretrcal Slde of Vocat1onal tra1n1ng one group gathered at the Howard Street School bu1ld1ng and the other at the Chestnut Street School bu1ld1ng After school hours rn the afternoon they used the Techmcal H1gh School shops These three schools used for vocauonal tra1n1ng were located more than one m1le apart In Iune 1911 the school board decxded to take advantage of the ard offered by the state to such vocatlonal schools as should meet 1ts requxre ments 1n adm1n1strat1on teachrng staff and houslng On September 5 1911 the school opened on the second floor of a factory bu1ld1ng on Taylor Street The lnstructors Nere men of educatlon and pract1ca1 experrence 1n the1r several trades government were moved from the former Pynchon Street School bu1ld1ng to the1r present locat1on on Court Street Th1s vacant bu1ld1ng was turned over to the Vocatronal School Th1s made 1t poss1b1e for the add t1on of two new courses prmtmg and pattern makrng The enrollment lncreased from 50 boys to 113 1n the year 1916 and stayed at th1s level untxl 1918 when young boys sxxteen and even younger found no d1ff1cu1ty 1n securrng lobs due to the f1rst World War The years 1918 and 1919 were very lean for the school By 1919 cond1t1ons were better and the boys were apply1ng for admrssxon 1n such large numbers that 1+ was necessary to establxsh a Wa1t1ng 11st It was durxng th1s year that Dr George Burrldge who had been asslstant pr1nc1pal s1nce 1917 was made pr1nc1pal of the Vocatlonal School As the wa1t1ng 11st grew and demands became more pers1stent the author1t1es found lt necessary to ask for a new bu1ld1ng Land was secured and a bu1ld1ng erected at 32 Sprmg Street whxch was ready for occupancy 1n 1921 Th1s IS the buxldmg now used as the adm1n1strat1on bu1ld1ng for the School Department Th1s new bu1ld1ng was thought to be large enough to accommodate the expand1ng Vocatlonal School for many years but by 1924 the school had agaxn become overcrowded and boys were agam bexng turned away and placed on Wa1t1ng l1sts In 1923 the name of the school was changed from Vocatlonal School to Trade School The Massachusetts State Legxslature passed the Cont1nuat1on School B111 rn 1920 makxng 1t compulsory for all employed boys and g rls under slxteen to attend school four hours each week whxle employed and twenty hours each week whxle temporarlly unemployed Th1s b111 fostered the Con t1nuat1on School orgamzed ln 1920 wxth a spec1ally tramed staff 1n an abandoned grammar school bu1ld1ng the so called Old Hooker School on North Ma1n Street When the school was f1rst organ1zed there were , I I .... S I , .I I . , - , , - . . 1 , , In 1914 another advancement was made. The offices of the city , . , , . . i . . I - - ' ' ' I '