College Elementary School

In July, 2000, I happened to run into a woman who, in conversation, mentioned that she had been in third grade when the Training School burned.  That occurred in January, 1933.  We got to talking about the Training school and although she could not recall all that much, what she could recall was pretty interesting.  Here are some of her recollections...

Summer school was for slow students (not for everyone, as it was when I was in the College El--I wonder when it changed...)

There was a "teaching garden" at the corner of Bellows and Franklin, on the north side.  This garden was used by the classes as a chance for instruction in planting and cultivation.  (I wonder if the location is correct, though; on some old postcards of Central there seems to be a garden area at the corner of "Church" Street [Normal-College-University] and the street that used to run through, east to west, in front of the pre-Warriner Hall Administration Building.)

She recalls going to an auditorium by way of a rear entrance to the Training School.  Presumably, this was the auditorium in newly built Warriner Hall.

There seemed to be a "district" which fed the Training School, much as other elementary schools in town had a district.  She remembers that when she moved to Douglas Street, she was out of the Training School's district and so could no longer attend.

Her recollections of time in the school building include her throwing a ball in class and breaking a lamp; and having desks that were in disrepair fixed.

She was in third grade when the building burned (January 1933; see the history page).  She remembers the fire.  It burned her tennis shoes and books; the class' pet crab was incinerated.  After the fire, the students went to the Maple Street School; she does not recall the new College Elementary School, so she had probably moved out of district before the new school was built for 1934-35 (I think).

As fellow classmates, or at any rate students at the Training School, she recalls Tom Northway and Bill Theunissen.

Ruth's husband's name was Floyd; she lives at 115 N. Lansing, Mount Pleasant.