Jun 11, 2005 By Glenn Tunney For The 9 min read

The “pleasant occasion” was Bridgeport High School’s 1908 commencement exercises, an unforgettable ceremony whose stunning encore was the roaring blaze that destroyed the school. The 1908-09 school year was scheduled to begin in September, and the borough’s school directors – R.C. Rogers, Joseph Gray, George L. Moore, Alex Lockhart, R.R. Bulger, and A.D. Pringle – faced the challenge of replacing the burned building as quickly as possible. They wasted no time tackling the job. A week after the fire, the Clipper-Monitor reported that “the Bridgeport school board is taking prompt action in order that the borough may have a new school building in the fall. Two important meetings have been held, one on Friday (May 8, two days after the fire) and the other on Monday evening (May 11).”

In 2005, we have become accustomed to school construction and renovation projects taking several years for selection of an architect, design of a new or renovated building, awarding of contracts, and actual construction of the building. A century ago, events moved much more quickly, as was demonstrated by the Bridgeport School Board’s actions in the weeks following the fire.

Within five days of the blaze the board had met twice, and the Clipper-Monitor informed its readers that “architect (A.C.) Fulton (of Uniontown) has been employed and is now making preliminary sketches. By the later part of the week they will be ready and if satisfactory, plans for the foundation will be drawn up at once and a contract for this portion let. The board has money enough to do that much without waiting for any bond proposition. The emergency is great and requires prompt measures.”

Ironically, as Bridgeport Borough worked feverishly to replace its burned school, two nearby school districts were also moving toward new buildings. During the summer, the Brownsville Borough School Board contracted to have W.A. Hazlett of Connellsville erect a new 12-room school on the site of the Commons (opposite “Bowman’s castle”). The new building would include an auditorium and would replace a schoolhouse at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Church Street, on the site where Brownsville General Hospital was later built. Meanwhile, across the river in Blainesburg, East Pike Run Township was looking forward to opening its new $5,000 Blainesburg School in September 1908, a four-room building that would house 135 pupils.

Meanwhile, the Bridgeport School Board’s major concern was how it would finance immediate construction of a new school. In 1853, the now-destroyed Bridgeport building had been constructed and furnished at a cost of less than $5,000. A $6,000 bond debt was still owed on it, most likely incurred when a new $11,000 section had been added to the building around 1896.

“As the matter looks now,” the Clipper-Monitor explained, “it will require $45,000 to erect a suitable building or a bond issue of $35,000, subtracting the insurance money ($10,000). An attorney has been requested to draw up the legal proposition for a bond issue. As soon as it is ready a special election will be called, which requires 30 days notice.”

The Clipper-Monitor editorialized that the school board should not build an extravagant replacement for the burned school, stating that “many citizens, doubtless, would like to see a magnificent building rise upon the ruins of the old, but the best opinion is it will be wise to proceed cautiously. If the town grows, some time a ward school will be required in Harlem and one towards the Woodward farm. That being true, it would be folly to build too large a school on the old site. A moderate, substantial building, however, will be justified for it can always be used for high school purposes.”

Ironically, less than one week after the fiery demise of Bridgeport High School, approximately 60 people met in the Bridgeport Borough Building to plan the creation of a fire department for South Brownsville (the new name by which the borough would be called as of June 5, 1908). One week later at a subsequent meeting, the department was organized, officers were chosen, a membership limit of 30 was set, and fund-raising efforts began. The new South Brownsville Volunteer Fire Department hoped to assure that the new school house and other borough buildings would stand a greater chance of surviving a fire.

On June 29 the school board, with an eye toward constructing a fire-resistant school, decided to order steel beams for the school’s first floor. “This is a part of the fire-proof plan for the lower story,” explained the Clipper-Monitor on July 3, “and the steel must be ordered early in order to have it when needed.”

The school board awarded the contract for the foundation of the new building to the Brownsville Construction Co., and by the end of July, the foundation for the new school was nearly complete. The Clipper-Monitor reported, “Mr. Ebbert will begin laying brick this Thursday. The chimneys or stacks have to be started first and then the walls. As soon as the walls proper are started, about 25 men will be employed.”

The Clipper-Monitor also revealed some details about what the finished building was expected to look like. “The basement story rises well above the ground and contains 54 windows,” the newspaper said. “There are playrooms for the small boys and girls to be used in bad weather, toilet rooms, heating apparatus, etc. The first floor will rest on the walls and great steel beams.

“The brick in the main portion of the walls can be laid in about five weeks of good weather. The contractor promises to have the building enclosed with heating arrangements, etc. in place so school can be opened Nov. 1. The plastering, then, will not be done until next summer. The first story and the stairways will be fireproof and the main stairway will be 11 feet wide.”

During the summer, the school board elected its faculty and administrator for the coming year. Named were O.O. Saylor, principal; Mr. Sheely and Miss Lindsay, high school; and Miss DeLaney, Virgil Hess, Miss Shook, Mr. Hiller, Miss Bakewell, Miss Britton, Mrs. Jeffries, Miss Martin, and Miss Mitchell, elementary.

Although they were hired, they had no building in which to teach and no students to instruct, so through September and October, they received no pay. When it became clear in mid-October that the building would not be ready to open by the Nov. 1 deadline, the 37 high school-aged students began attending classes in the basement of the Central Presbyterian Church.

By Thanksgiving, students in the remaining grades were informed that their school year would begin on Nov. 30. R.C. Rogers, president of the South Brownsville School Board, announced that students should come to the new school “on Saturday morning (Nov. 28, 1908) to receive their books and to prepare for opening session on Monday.” The school year, he continued, would continue until July 1909, making for an eight-month term.

Opening exercises went off without a hitch on Monday morning. “The heating and ventilation equipment seem to work perfectly,” the Clipper-Monitor gushed, “and with such a furnishment for cleanliness and pure air, the pupils ought to make a better record this year than ever. The board has secured a new building in about six months, an enviable feat. The teachers were paid for November, a bit of generosity on the part of the school directors that is much appreciated by all concerned.”

The new building was two stories high with a deep basement. It was made of a light shade of pressed brick with chipped brick trimmings and a native stone foundation, the stone being from the Miller quarry in South Brownsville. In the interest of fire-resistance, the stairways were of iron and the treads and platform of “marbleithic” material.

The front of the building was not to be completed until the following summer. According to the Clipper-Monitor, it would be “surmounted with a porch in classic design, formed with stone monoliths, or stone columns, each shaft in one stone instead of in short sections, thanks to one of the members of the board who will bear part of the expense. Wide stone steps lead up to it, the floor will be marbleithic, triple doors will lead into a wide hall entrance way and this terminating in a large rotunda in the center of the building, which is open to the roof and brilliantly lighted by skylights, being quite different from the old-fashioned corridors running through the building and of necessity being so dark that no one could be recognized. From this rotunda a broad stairway leads up to a platform, then parts and lands at each end of the second floor in the rotunda from which doors lead into each of the school rooms.

“To the right of the entrance is the principal’s room which is large enough to accommodate the graduating class. To the left of the entrance is a rest room for the women teachers and anyone ill with a toilet room communicating and a toilet room nearby for the use of the male teachers. At the rear of the rest room is a large library where it is to be hoped a well selected collection of books will be placed by the citizens. In the first floor rotunda is a sanitary, cupless drinking fountain.

“Each of the 14 other rooms is large and well arranged for modern school work. Two of the larger rooms are separated with a hoisting partition covered with blackboards and arranged to hoist up into a pocket so that the two can be made into an auditorium (that could hold 300 students).”

In 2005, middle and high school students in the Brownsville Area School District have been attending classes through a major renovation and construction project. In 1908, South Brownsville students had a similar experience, prompting the Clipper-Monitor to point out, “Some inconveniences will develop, but it will be necessary to make light of them in order to have school at all.” Who could have imagined that students would be attending old Bridgeport High School in May of 1908, and in November of the same year, students would be sitting at their desks in an impressive new school on the very same site? Construction of the Prospect Street School in so short a time was a remarkable achievement. Although that solidly-built school was demolished a few years ago for construction of the Brownsville Apartments, in the memories of many former students, Prospect Street School lives on.

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Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201 or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to editor Mark O’Keefe, 8-18 East Church Street, Uniontown, PA or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com . All past articles are on the web at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/