A Good Foundation

Concrete is being poured at the new site for Central Middle School.  We'll be seeing many more hardhats during the coming year of construction.  I plan to share the progress of this exciting construction at various stages of development.  Those high-rise apartments in the background are highpoint on Quarry Street.

Willard School Building

This beautiful Gothic and Tudor Revival style building was built in 1891 as a school for children of the granite workers in West Quincy; it housed 1000 students at its peak. Not only is this building unusual for the picturesque style chosen for its architecture, but also it is unique for its tripartite plan; no other school in Quincy was built with this configuration. The Boston firm of Sturgis & Cabot (John H. Sturgis and W. R. Cabot) were the architects for the Willard School and borrowed some design influence from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The building was named in honor of Solomon Willard, the "Father of the Granite Industry" and the architect and builder of Quincy's City Hall, and the Bunker Hill Monument

The Willard School was unfortunately closed in 1982 (due to a budget crisis) and sold for use as office condos.

Waterfront Campus

The University of Massachusetts Boston campus is just a stones throw from Squantum Park at low tide. There are more than 15,000 students enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs here; we are lucky to have a public university so close by.

Mother & Child

This primitive painting was captured on a basement window of St. Ann's School. Update 12/22/11: this window disappeared when the school was demolished and the land cleared to make way for a new Central Middle School. I do not know whether any effort was made to preserve the window or auction it off.

Now You See It . . .

Soon you won't see St. Ann's School which closed after more than 50 years of operation to make way for a new public middle school.

One, Two . . . Buckle My Shoe

Students will begin heading back to school tomorrow. However, not all teachers and school librarians will be heading back. Quincy's teachers gave up their salary increase to help save their colleague's jobs, but many are still without work. This will be a tough Labor Day for them and many others who find themselves unemployed.

Rolling To The Finish

Carts and materials are lined up outside the new gymnasium at Quincy High School. Schools will open here in two weeks.

A Breath Of Fresh

The air is being cleared of construction particles and final work is being done on Quincy's new high school. I will be posting a few more images from the site as the opening of school fast approaches.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Weekend. Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Reuse

This is one of Quincy's many school conversions that took place in the 1980s. Many schools were sold off when severe tax-cutting measures were voted into law; we have had to build 2 new schools since then . . . there may be a lesson here, children. Academy Place served as the Adams Elementary School, which was built 90 years ago.

Inside Phase 3

This is the construction site of the Humanities wing of our new $126 million Quincy High School. Most of the work has moved to the inside and is on schedule to be finished and opened in September, 2010. Click HERE to see the last picture I recorded of the wonderful curved roof-line on the left face.

Floor by floor

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This iron worker is slicing corrugated metal flooring for the new wing of Quincy High School.

Opening Day in Wing A

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The Science, Math, Technology Center opens to students at Quincy High School today. This is a very exciting accomplishment for our city and puts the new high school building project at 36% completion. We will visit the state of the art interior as soon as I get inside to document it. (I can't wait for the dirty snow to go away.)

Wednesday Doorway

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This doorway belongs to one of Quincy's first schools, the Coddington School, designed by Charles Brigham in 1908. The Coddington School and Coddington Street are named in honor of William Coddington, Quincy's earliest benefactor. Coddington was a treasurer of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a magistrate and also had the distinction of building Quincy's first brick house. This entryway served Quincy College students until construction began on the new Quincy High School this year; it now serves as the entryway to the west campus of the High School. Brick and granite make for longlasting, handsome public buildings.

Adams Academy

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In 1872, prominent Boston architects, Ware and Van Brunt, designed this handsome brick and granite "Stone School House" opened as a classic academy providing a high caliber education focusing on the classics to prepare students for higher education at Harvard College. The Academy closed in 1907, but stands as a monument to John Adams and his interest in education and devotion to the people of Quincy. The leader and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock,was born at this site.

Today, this beautiful building serves as a museum, library and home to the Quincy Historical Society. It is located at 8 Adams Street and is included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Woodward School for Girls

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When the Woodward School opened its doors in 1894, educating women was a relatively new concept, still not widely held as essential. Dr. Ebenezer Woodward, however, did not accept this approach and established a new school for girls that would be a companion to the Adams Academy for Boys founded by the former President of the United States, John Adams, who was both his patient and his relative. The Woodward School has always resided in the same Hancock Street location in what is now an historic building, the only school built in the Queen Anne style. The School opened its doors on April 10, 1894, with seven teachers and seventy-six students, and has operated without interruption through the present day. It now has an enrollment of 160 girls in grades 6-12.

Going up!

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This is the first phase of the new Quincy High School complex. There has been lot of progress over the last 5 months . School is in session in the adjoining buildings during construction.

School conversion

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The "Quincy School" is one of many schools that was closed and sold in the 1980s due to tax cutting mandates. Many of the schools have been converted into businesses and residences like this one. The school system was decimated and never fully recovered. In the 1990s, the city had to build new schools to ease over-crowding.

I wonder if any teachers live here . . .