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ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS -

Three East Potomac Street up the hill to the little school. This was in the early (eighteen) seventies. A wonderful little Irish Lady was her teacher. Her name was Ellen Theresa Brady, born in County Donegal Ireland in 1846. Miss Brady later became Mrs. Wm. W. Wenner of Berlin." Today's generation knows her grandchildren as Evelyn W. Mclane and George W. Wenner, Jr.

PUBLIC

WHERE DID THE CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL?

A law of 1825, supplemented in 1830, imposed duties upon certain persons entitled "Primary School Inspectors" and "Wisely and equitably" directed moneys to be appropriated according to the number of children in each school. By 1838 Berlin was District #16 of 81 districts. (Remember all those one-room schools that served until consolidation and buses closed them down?) Some new districting appeared in records of May 21, 1839. The November 16, 1840, records devoted a page to the trustees of Berlin District. From that date to May 18, 1847, the district's school allocation was $634.84. Those dates represented seven school years; therefore, the schools averaged $90.69 per year. What this paid for and where the"collections" came from were not readily apparent. "Collections" for 81 students in 1841 amounted to $72.90. Allocation per pupil amounted to sixty cents in November 1843; eighty cents per pupil in May 1845. November, February, and May appear to be collection months. Enrollment at that period of time (1840's) hovered between 99 and 102. Where were classes held? Berlin's plat in Titus' ATLAS shows no schools. Evidence is needed to answer that question.

BRICK SCHOOLS

In 1890 W. W . Wenner donated an acre of land on Brunswick Street for a one-room brick school. This was on the site of the present Masonic Hall and post office. When more space was needed, the oneroom brick building was moved to "J" Street as a school for the less numerous black population. Later a frame house was rented for the 41 black students. The county built a few rooms and a corridor on the Wenner (Brunswick Street) property. According to minutes ofFebruary 8, 1911, a decision to add two rooms to West Brunswick was made. On July 5 a contract for a $3997 addition was awarded to C. B. Karn. Meanwhile, in 1892 at Sixth A venue and "A" Street, the B&O RR donated two acres of land upon which a four-room school was erected, to become known as East Brunswick School. By 1901 it served 374 students. Its addition of four more rooms, occupied in January 1902, was to accommodate the growing Brunswick High School. When that level moved into its new building atop Fourth A venue in 1913, East Brunswick Elementary assumed use of the total eight rooms. Recollections of the 1890 East End School bring visions of students carrying water from the old Gum Spring to the classroom. Later, central heating and inside plumbing accounted for fewer interruptions in the classroom. The early 1920's summons a picture of mothers, working with crepe paper and ribbons, making costumes for competition in the annual Apple Blossom parade in Winchester, Va.; of mothers making costumes for Maypole dancing and for characters in school plays; and of mothers bringing refreshments to PTA meetings and field days.

FIRST IDENTIFIED SCHOOL

The first identifiable public school was a log structure on the comer of Maple Avenue and West "B" Street, then called First Street. It was titled to the Frederick County Board of Commissioners, who replaced it in 1869 with a one-room frame structure which served as a school until 1890. It then became a residence. Today it is the Education Annex for the Baptist Church. (At that time Brunswick was still in the Petersville election district 12; not until 1892 did Brunswick become election district No. 25, separate from Petersville.) When Clarence J. D. and Ella B. Shewbridge conveyed the property to Bessie Wigington in 1920, it was still referred to as the "School Lot." This quote from a handwritten account by Lula B. Darr McMurry clearly refers to the annex: "These hills became aglow with wheat and corn fields. A school house was built on the lot of what is now the corner of Maple Avenue and "B" Street. My mother waded through wheat fields from what is now

NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

When a modem elementary was finally built in 1952, children from the antiquated East and West End Schools attained a common loyalty to Brunswick Elementary School. Since then growth of the community has required three additions to Brunswick Elementary School. W-MMM

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