Ware High School - Limelight Yearbook (Ware, MA)

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HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL By the Nenameseck River, Where of old the Indian wandered, Stands the High School of the valley. The 1948 Nenameseck In a quiet residential district on upper Church Street in Ware, Massachusetts, stands the local high school. It is an attractive brick building, set far back from the street and surrounded by a wide expanse of green lawn, shrubbery, and stately trees. Its location commands a view of Ware's distant hills and Grenville Park through which the Nenameseck winds its way to town. The site of this historic stream recalls to mind the days of The Legend of Nenameseck , when this valley was a wilderness and wild beasts roamed what is now park and school grounds. Then red men speared salmon in the river, and from the sky above fell ducks and geese, pierced through by the Indian arrow. What scenes of treachery and bloodshed, too, may have been enacted on this very spot, for the old Indian Trail, leading from Ware to Hadley, crossed Church Street very close to, if not on, school land. Perhaps Grey Eagle and White Dove wandered over the same paths our feet travel daily, for according to the Indian story, didn't the two often walk the forest trails together? Such is the legendary-historic background of our Alma Mater. In 1893, work was begun on Ware High School, and in the spring of 1894 the building was ready tor occupancy. So in February of that year the high school students, with books under their arms, walked out of High Street School, which, since 1849, had served as high school to Warriors and Maidens of that day, climbed Church Street hill, and entered their new quarters. The building to which they came was well-constructed and up-to-date. It contained five classrooms, a large study hall, an assembly hall, a chemistry- physics laboratory, two book rooms, the superintendent's office and the teachers' FOOTTI. The first class to be graduated from the new school consisted of fifteen pupils, seven boys, and eight girls. In 1916 a chapter of Pro Merito, an honorary scholastic society, was established at Ware High School. I In 1924 the need for a school library was met by dividing the study hall into two rooms. One of them was furnished with shelves, tables, chairs and other necessary equipment. Dr. Reilly, superintendent of schools at the time, got together a small collection of valuable books, which through the generous assistance of Miss Mary Smith, town librarian, and Miss Grace Loney, assistant town librarian, were made ready for school use. The room was named Nathan R. Smith Memorial Library in honor of a former school principal. The year 1925 marked the erection of the iunior high school which took care of increasing enrollment at the senior high, besides housing the ninth grades until their discontinuation in 1927. Eighth grades also had their quarters there. The new Ware Junior High, which was connected with the senior high by a passageway, contained eight classrooms, physics-chemistry laboratory and class- room, cafeteria, gymnasium, two tiny rooms used as offices by coaches, school nurse, and doctor, and a very small teacher's room, the latter being on the third floor. On February 27, 1932, the last day of the mid-winter term, the iunior high was destroyed by tire. Only basement, gymnasium, and brick walls escaped complete destruction.