Page:Brunswick 100 Years of Memories.pdf/84

principal in September 1907. Under him the school

became accredited in September 1909. Next, a commercial course was instituted, with bookkeeping, stenogz:aphy, typewriting , and allied branches, under Mr. Roger G. Harley. Under Mr. Harley students in this course ranked high in county contests. In 1906,all schools in Brunswick wereputun der the high school principal until 1911, when again each school had its own principal. Again crowding required drastic steps. Rooms were rented throughout town and used for classes. Citizens repeated demands for a new building. The search for a site was time consuming; none was found on the lower level of town, so two acres were purchased on Sandy Hook Hill in 1911. On February 8 three representati ves from Brunswick decided to erect an eight-room building there; the town was required to grade the street. The school building was started in April 1912 and students were using the school on March 4, 1913. The building cost $40,000. Mr. Roger Harley became principal in the fall of 1912. The 1913-14 school year saw Domestic Science being added to the courses. The growth of the schools reflected the remarkable growth of the town during its first two decades. A September 3, 1914, article in the Brunswick Times credits Mayor Eugene Harrison with an active interest in the school from the beginning, as a member of the Board of Trustees. A decade later, the school was again bursting at the seams. An addition to Brunswick High School had been discussed before the destructive fire rendered the building useless. On April 6, 1927, the Board of Education decided to confer with the architect regarding the earlier proposed addition for Brunswick. On December 7, 1927, Messrs. Lloyd Culler and Harry Funk, a Frederick and a Brunswick contractor respectively, were to be interviewed regarding the proposed addition. Some citizens had been agitating for a relocation of the school, and three prominent businessmen offered three different locations at the February 8 meeting. FIRE

Then came the fire of February 1928. Students continued their education in makeshift accommodations around town. After the fire the office was in the Methodist Church, and curtained-o ff classrooms were there as well as at the Eagles building. At the lumber yard, manual training classes were held. Oasses were held on the third floor of the Orrison building for

85

shorthand and typing. When time came to change classes, the students did so by walking the streets. A special meeting was called February 26. For economic reasons the old site was retained, and the addition previously planned was to proceed: an auditorium for 500 spectators, an 18-room building "with appointmen ts, convenience s, and capacity greater than any other school in the county with the possible exception of Frederick High School." The cost would be at least $25,000. On March 7, the inspector found BHS sound, well built, and reusable. Since the corridor was concrete, the building and walls could be tied together, so failure was almost impossible. By June 20, the buildings and additions were recommend ed and the cost was to be $102,700. A new full-service facility opened in September of the year of the fire. The destroyed school had been a two-story structure with four rooms on each floor of the west side of the building with halls and cloak rooms on the front or east side; there was also a student lounge, and a teachers' room. Folding doors allowed two classrooms to be converted into an assembly room. Rest Rooms, locker rooms, and a science room occupied the basement. A shed at the north end of the building accommoda ted horses ridden to school by students. By contrast, the new school had eight rooms on each floor, an office, and a teachers' lounge on the top floor; eight classrooms and two cloakrooms on the main floor. In the basement were locker rooms and rest rooms, boys' shop and physical education rooms, home economicE room, kitchen with numerous stoves, cooking and storage areas, a cafeteria.Th ere was an auditorium with stage and gymnasium . This facility served from September 1928 to June 1965, when it was demolished . Demolition was not easy. The wrecking ball bounced off the side of the building as it struck. This was a stronglybuilt building. No longer could one see old Brunswick High School standing strong and mighty as one crosses the bridge into Brunswick, wrote Bill Cauley in the July 1, 1976, Frederick Post. For a while the hope prevailed that the 1928 structure would be used as an apartment house, a community center, a factory for light industry, a senior citizens home. The town watched sadly as the former noble hall of learning succumbed to vandalism, which caused its windows and doors to disappear and its interior to be gutted. The uninhibited verdant growth surroundin g the edifice choked the very life from it as the elements seeped, then poured, through the weakening roof and unprotected openings, causing the plaster