The Jefferson school was located on the southwest corner of Centre and West Streets. When the "Penny School" at Jardin and Cherry St. closed in June of 1945.
I was transferred to the Jefferson school to start fourth grade in the Fall.
It was about a block and a half farther from our house and I can remember standing in the bitter cold many mornings waiting for the doors to open. It was on one of those mornings as my legs turned red from the cold that I decided that, should I have the choice, I would never wear short pants again.There was a small family bakery located in a house on New York St. a few doors west of the back door of the school and we would often stand outside the bakery enjoying the warm air from an exhaust fan as well as the delicious smell of the baked goods.
This photo of the Jefferson school was shot in 1998. The school
originally extended back to the sidewalk of New York St. which can
be seen in the lower left corner of the picture. The demolition of the
building had begun several years before and then was halted for a
period of time. Note the size of the trees growing in the empty lot..A view of the side of the front part of the building (1998).
Each set of two large windows represented one classroom area.I remember that about mid-morning, classes would be halted for a short time while half pints of milk and graham crackers were distributed to all the children to eat at their desks. I later thought that this was some sort of government program, but my mother said that the teachers themselves would donate the money to buy the milk and grahams because some of the children came from very poor homes and were probably malnourished. A member of the Methodist church and family friend, Elizabeth "Beth" Broom, taught at the school and probably told my mother about this.
It was here during class one morning in 1945 (1946?) that huge clouds of smoke could be seen rising off in the northeast as the Capitol Theater burned to the ground. Our teacher asked us to kneel down beside our desks and pray that one one was hurt in the fire. We all did with no objection.
After school, most of the boys I knew headed to the fire scene to watch the proceedings and to pick up reels and reels of unused theatre tickets scattered about by the firemen. We all had thoughts of using the tickets for attending free movies but all was for naught as the theater, after being quickly re-built, changed the colors and design of the tickets and none of us had the courage to try and bluff our way in.
