As the Anderson Community Schools board contemplates a new round of building closings — and parents agonize over having their children uprooted — it’s worth noting that the present pattern of schools bears little resemblance to the picture half a century and more ago.
In those days one public high school served Anderson and its suburbs. The Anderson High School of the 1950s and before had stood at the corner of 14th and Lincoln streets since 1910, with an annex added in 1938. Next door was the original Wigwam. And across 13th Street was the previous high school, then serving as Central Junior High School with the connecting Lincoln building that was once an elementary school.
“Big Central,” as it was known, was one of four junior highs in Anderson during the late 1940s and early 1950s. North Anderson, Washington and Central Avenue elementary schools all included seventh- and eighth-grade students. The trio was replaced in 1956 when construction was completed on South Side Junior High School.
Every elementary school operating during that era has since been closed. Others included Longfellow, Hazelwood, Shadeland, Park Place, Hiawatha, Meadowbrook, Seventh Street, 29th Street, Columbia and Riley.
Westvale was built during the early 1950s, and the old Park Place School, located where the upper parking lot to Park Place Church of God now stands, was replaced by the one at Fifth Street and Park Avenue that was closed a couple of years ago.
Other schools were located outside the city limits of that time, including Forest Hills, College Corner, Chesterfield, Edgewood, Lindbergh, Franklin, Leach and Roosevelt.
As Anderson grew and the baby boom outstripped the schools’ ability to hold increasing numbers of students, more buildings were added. Highland Junior and Senior High School opened for Richland and Union Township students, and Madison Heights High School took the Anderson Township students living outside the city limits. Eventually a junior high was added at MHHS. New elementaries in Edgewood and Forest Hills replaced the old ones, and Killbuck, Valley Grove, 10th Street, 25th Street, Southview and Brentwood elementaries were added as well. Inside the city, Robinson Elementary was built.
Annexation changed the picture, bringing Madison Heights and the other township schools into the city school system. Eventually Highland also came in, forming the present Anderson Community Schools.
But the baby boom topped out, and enrollments declined even before Anderson’s manufacturing base began to contract. More than one round of school closings took place, the oldest and smallest buildings among the early casualties.
Basically, neighborhood schools no longer exist in the Anderson area. It is not hard to understand the anguish that is happening as even more buildings are targeted. Including the two schools I attended in Minnesota, not one single building where I went to school still serves the purpose it was doing when I was making my way through the grades.
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Jim Bailey’s reflections on Anderson’s past appear on Sunday. His regular column appears on Wednesday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey@earth link.net.
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