Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Carroll Co Schools History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carroll Co Schools History. Show all posts

Friday, June 19, 2015

WESTMINSTER: Study of schools in Carroll provides an interesting education by KEVIN E. DAYHOFF June 10, 2015



The e first weeks of June are a time when many young adults in Carroll County look forward to the end of the school year and graduation ceremonies.

In researching the history of schools in Carroll County, one comes across many references to early graduations and the "first" beginnings of a system of education in the county.

According to research for the Historical Society of Carroll County by historian Joe Getty, it was "in 1865 when the state government mandated formation of a county school board. Carroll County protested this development, but the county school board was established…" http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/carroll/westminster/ph-ce-eagle-archives-06-20150610-story.html
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Sunday, August 09, 2009

Westminster High School in the 1920s

Westminster High School, Westminster, MD, in the 1920s

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2009/08/westminster-high-school-in-1920s.html

http://tinyurl.com/kmgez3

Catching with some old friends today, coupled with some recent reader questions, reminded me of a piece I wrote in March 2007 on the Westminster High School building on Longwell Avenue in Westminster.

The image above is from 1908, is the first Westminster High School building, 1898-1936, at Center and Green Street in Westminster, MD. Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/d936f

This image is a 1977 picture of the second Westminster High School building, 1936-1971, at Longwell Avenue in Westminster, MD. Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/d92z2

Westminster High School in the 1920s

March 28th, 2007 by (c) Kevin Dayhoff

East Middle School, located on Longwell Avenues just north of Westminster City Hall, originally opened as a new “Westminster High School” on November 30, 1936. It is one of two buildings in Carroll County built in the Art Deco style. The other is the Carroll Arts Center which opened as the Carroll Theatre on November 25, 1937.

Art Deco was all the rage from 1920 to 1940 but some argue that the style had a significant presence in architecture and art from 1900 to 1950. A highly decorative and elegant style, it was considered ultra-modern in its day.

The 1936 school building was not the “first” Westminster High School. The first was located at the corner of Green and Center Streets in Westminster and was built in 1898. By all accounts it was the first “public” high school built in Carroll County. It is accepted that the first “public” high school in Maryland started in Talbot County in 1871. By 1907 there were still only 35 public high schools in the entire state.

It was not too long after the 1898 structure was built that complaints began about the inadequacy of the physical plant. As with so many infrastructure improvements in Carroll County, getting a new high school built was fraught with a great deal of acrimony and dissent. In 1921, the Westminster High School yearbook, “The Mirror,” editorialized the increase in enrollment since 1898 with alarm. It had increased from “less than fifty” to over 260 students.

In those days the school housed all 11 grades. There were 7 students in the graduating class of May 1900. Compulsory school attendance was not passed into law until 1916; however, Lisa Kronman reported in an account entitled a “History of Public Schools in Westminster,” “the attendance rate was 93.8 percent of school age children.”

The Mirror lamented “we have seen the school out-grow its surroundings. The present building and equipment are entirely inadequate to the needs of the school…” The editorial explained dire consequences would result if the school were not replaced quickly. Of course, “quickly” in Carroll County took another 15 years.

According to historian Jay Graybeal, there were 139 schools in Carroll County in 1920. 107 had only one teacher. There were approximately 7500 students and 208 teachers. 158 of the teachers were female and only 9 were married as marriage was strongly discouraged for the county’s female teachers. As a matter of fact, a resolution, passed by the school board in the 1928 – 1929 school year, barred female teachers from getting married unless a special exception was granted.

Mr. Graybeal explained that high school teachers were paid an average $903.70 and “elementary teachers in white and black schools had average salaries of $537.85 and $431.87 respectively… Teachers who had served twenty-five years, reached the age of sixty, were no longer able to continue their duties in the schoolroom, and had no other means of comfortable support received $200 per annum” from a state financed pension system.

In 1920, the Carroll County public school budget was $204,000 and the school administration was a staff of four; Superintendent Maurice S. H. Unger, Miss L. Jewell Simpson, Supervisor; G. C. Taylor, Attendance Officer and Charles Reed, Clerk. In 1916, the state board of education was run by three individuals.

The Union Bridge Pilot reported on February 18, 1921: “Teachers' pay are being withheld owing in lack of funds and it appears the county has reached the limit of its credit.”

It is in this air, atmosphere, and environment that the county unsuccessfully tried three times, May 15th, 1922, September 26, 1927, and April 3, 1934, to get the voters to approve bond bills for roads and schools – to include a new Westminster High School.


Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kevindayhoff AT gmail DOT com r visit him at http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/
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http://twitpic.com/d92z2 2nd Westminster High Sch bldg 1936-1971 Full story: http://tinyurl.com/kmgez3

http://twitpic.com/d936f 1st Westminster High Sch bldg 1898-1936 Full story: http://tinyurl.com/kmgez3
Carroll Co Schools Westminster H S, Carroll Co Schools Wster HS Class 71, Carroll Co Schools History, Dayhoff writing essays history, History Westminster 1920s, History Westminster,
20070328 WE Westminster High School in the 1920s
20090808 sdsom
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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

19480702 Democratic Advocate: Teacher Fowble Slugged By Hitch-Hiker

Teacher Fowble Slugged By Hitch-Hiker

Democratic Advocate, July 2, 1948.

Fred Fowble, Westminster High School teacher found unconscious early Saturday on the Old Frederick road near Hollofield, Howard county, told police he was assaulted by a young "hitchhiker."

The assailant, who fled in his victim's automobile, struck Fowble on the head shortly after being picked up near the Patapsco River bridge. Fowble, thrown from the car, was found lying in the roadway by Andrew Huppler, a passing motorist, about 2 a.m.

Huppler took the unconscious man to the Ellicott City Police Station.

When he was revived, Fowble gave Patrolman Charles Linthicum an account of the assault. Fowble said he was returning to his home in Westminster from Baltimore when the youth, standing near the bridge, solicited a ride.

After picking up the "hitch-hiker," Fowble reported he had driven about a quarter of a mile when he was struck on the head and lost consciousness. In addition to stealing his car, the assailant robbed him of his cash. Fowble was treated by a doctor in Ellicott City for a head wound before being returned to his home at 60 Court street.


Democratic Advocate, July 2, 1948.


Carroll County Public Schools Westminster High School, Carroll County Public Schools, Carroll County Public Schools History, History Westminster 1940s, Public Safety Law and Order, People Carroll County, Education Teachers

19480702 Democratic Advocate: Teacher Fowble Slugged By Hitch-Hiker

Friday, March 09, 2007

20070309 My 2nd Grade Class picture

My 2nd Grade Class picture

March 9th, 2007

A few months back my wife and I had dinner with my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Griffin. I borrowed our 2nd grade class picture from her and I need to return it so I just got around to scanning it in this evening.

This picture was taken in March 1961 at East End Elementary School, in Westminster, Carroll County Maryland. At the time, East End was located at the corner of Green Street and Center Street in Westminster in the old Westminster High School which had been built in 1898. East End School closed quite a number of years ago.

The picture above depicts the school as it looked in 1908.

The old 1898 high school, in which East End was located, had moved in 1936 to the building on Longwell Avenue in Westminster. That building ceased to be high school in 1971. I was in the last graduating class.

When I attended East End, I lived about two blocks away at the corner of Washington Road and Green Street and walked to school every day – the source of many great memories to this day.

Schools located in the community are a wonderful thing and it makes me sad that so often they are now located on huge tracks of land in the middle of a cornfield outside of town.

In 1961 my family lived in an apartment in back of Samios Food Market.

The picture above is from the 1930s when it was then Ensor’s. Samios Food Market and the apartment where we lived was made into a Joni Mitchell song many years ago; “they tore down paradise and made it into a parking lot…

Across the street was the old Newark Shoe Factory which opened in late May 1925. When I lived on Green Street, it was the Westminster Shoe Factory and many folks in the neighborhood walked there to work.

Community markets, schools, and community employment were some of the main reasons for the quality of life that was Westminster when I was growing up in town.

Nowadays, schools located right in town are a thing of the past and community markets and employment are near impossible with this thing we call progress, err, Euclidean Zoning which most often will not allow the overlay of residences, markets and stores and work places. The again, perhaps it is not progress at all.

The corner of Green Street and Washington Road was essentially the site of Corbit’s Charge, a Civil War engagement on June 29th, 1863 in the days just before the Battle of Gettysburg – which is one of the reasons for my continual fascination with that aspect of Westminster history – and history in general.

Someday – I’ll have an extra minute to sit down and keyboard all the names in the March 1961 photograph…

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos of a Westminster long ago, when we really had a wonderful quality of life and sense of community.

Oh – we still have a great quality of life in Westminster; it’s just different these days.

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Dayhoff personal, History Westminster 1920s, Westminster File Ensor's Grocery, Westminster File Samios Grocery, Westminster File Green St E, Westminster Planning Zoning, Carroll Co Schools History, Carroll Co Schools Westminster H S, Carroll Co Schools East End ES, History Westminster, History Westminster old photos, Westminster File Newark Shoe Factory, Westminster File Westminster Shoe Factory, Urban planning Euclidean Zoning, Music Mitchell Joni, Dayhoff photo gallery