Letter to the Editor, Feb. 19, 2010

Published: February 19, 2010

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The Old South Main Street School

EDITOR: The laughter of children once again echoed down the halls of the old south Main Street elementary school, on Saturday, Feb. 13. Children came with their parents, 300 to 400 of them, to view the final end of this grand old lady. She was built in the 1920s as a four-room elementary school. The old wood wainscoting that ran two-thirds up the wall and on into each class room reflected a style that's not used in school building in the 21st century. Each class room had a coat rack of a sort and small shelves for depositing lunch pails, gloves and mittens. A few grandparents reminisced how they had attend this school.

In the 1950s an addition was added to provide two more class rooms, office space and a large gymnasium/lunch room/auditorium and kitchen. Lunch pails were no longer taken to school and the children received a hot lunch at noon time. On a rainy day the children could play indoors and still exercise their legs and body in the gym. But if the wainscoting walls in the old part of the school could talk, they would tell of rainy days spent playing board games and may have provided a backing for a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.

In the 1970s the building found a new use and Bradford County used it as a day care center. It was from this use the building was enjoying its final crowd. Saturdays, children and parents came to buy the items no longer needed to run a day care facility. Nothing was done in a small way. Strollers were large enough to hold four children at a time. Changing tables were five feet high and six feet long. The trikes had tires more fitting for a farm wagon and there were two or more of every kind of toy to make a child happy. Everything had to go - from small tables and chairs and sleeping cots; to the kitchen items; jungle gyms and the swing set. Everything fell under the auctioneer's hand.

The toys and furniture were going to find a new home and new children to love and use them, but what of the grand old lady who has set up on a knoll off of Main Street, for all these years. She's solid and warm â¦ she had an auditorium of her own when a partition was pushed aside and two class rooms became one large room so children of long ago could entertain their parents and show off their "acting" accomplishments. Who knows, maybe the basement was large enough to be used as a "rainy day" playground â¦ it didn't take much to make a school full of "friends" have a good time.

She's for sale to the highest bidder. The Bradford County Commissioners are accepting bids on her until 10 a.m., Feb. 25. If you love old buildings like I do, help find a use for her and give her a look over and help her put her loving wooden arms around another generation of children.

Carolyn Visscher

Nichols, N.Y.

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