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Weekly News March 16, 2009Description
Wilmington Friends School, (1748- ): By far the oldest continuous private school in Delaware, Wilmington Friends was founded in 1748 at Fourth and West Streets in Wilmington, the center of an area now called “Quaker Hill”. The school may have been housed in the then- existing Friends Meeting House, but if so it soon moved across West Street into what must have been a one-room schoolhouse. Attached to this little schoolhouse (or on the site of it), a red brick school building appeared in the 19th century, which had additions added frequently until the 1920’s. This rambling building and the large brick meetinghouse across the street (built in 1816) were active hiding places for escaping slaves using the Underground Railroad. Hand-dug tunnels connected the properties to the bank of the Christina River, four short blocks away.
The school was open to all denominations, but for many years before and after 1900 members of the Religious Society of Friends got a discount in their children’s tuition. Members of Wilmington Monthly Meeting, that owned and operated the school, got a larger discount. About 1897, with 3 trains a day between Yorklyn and Wilmington, 15-year-old Warren Marshall was enrolled, soon followed by his sister Anna, his brother Clarence, and his cousins Albert and Henry Marshall and Henry and Ellen Mitchell. The Marshalls boarded the train at Yorklyn; the Mitchells near Hockessin at Mill Creek (Valley Road). Except for the Auburn Heights Marshalls, the others had a walk of 1-1/2 miles each way to catch the train. On the Wilmington end, however, the B & O Station was at the foot of Market Street, 7 short blocks from school. Warren and Albert were graduated in the Class of 1900.
The enlarged brick school was built tight to the brick sidewalk, with the first floor being only one step above it. In my father’s time, the school may not have touched Fourth Street, but it was three full floors above ground and had a basement housing a dark and dingy gym. Toward the east (looking toward the center of the city) the ground dropped off precipitously, and Tatnall Street, one short block from West Street, was at least 25 feet lower in elevation. The cindered back yard provided the only playground. Older students, however, were allowed to play across the street in the meetinghouse yard and in the cemetery behind. In the early 20th century, a new gym with a racetrack balcony was built on the 5th Street end of the property, and an elementary school was added tight to the corner of 4th and West. Other than kindergarten elsewhere, I began my educational career in September, 1930, in Ruth Pusey’s first grade, in a room on this corner, first floor. Her father operated the flour mill at Ashland, her mother was Ruth Marshall’s great aunt, and all the Puseys long had been members of Hockessin Friends Meeting.
The old school was a neat (cool) place. Although the Underground R.R. tunnels were off limits, they were nonetheless exciting places to explore. There was a great view of the city from the fire escape landing just off the third-floor auditorium. The lunch room and the chemistry lab were also on the third floor with circuitous ways to get to them. From the second-floor hallways, 5 or 6 steps had to be climbed to reach the large classrooms on that floor. The old gym in the basement had been converted to a shop, which sometimes was called “manual training”. The track around the balcony in the “new” gym was banked and covered with leather, and a sliding pole was the favorite way to change floors: track to main gym to locker rooms in the basement. I attended school here until the school was moved to Alapocas in 1937.
For the next 20 years or so, the old school building was used for low-income apartments. I’m sure building codes eventually made this impossible, and it was demolished about 1960. The gym building along Fifth Street remained for 25 more years, also divided into apartments. I’m reasonably sure all is gone now. More on the first years at the Alapocas campus may appear in a future edition of the “News”.
Last Tuesday, the Museum Committee met with John McCoy at the Hagley Museum, who devoted his afternoon suggesting how our museum can be improved. The Events Committee met that evening, followed by the first lecture in the Steam Car Operators’ annual course. On Thursday, the Executive Committee of the Board met with Catherine Coin, and she explained her strategy for raising funds in the coming months. Steve Bryce, new president of FAHP, had a full and worth-while agenda. The Stanley Model 607 is just about completely apart, and Walter Higgins is helping us develop a logical restoration schedule and strategy. Progress was made in building the third A.V.R.R. storage track in the shop’s basement, with expert welder Ted Simpkins securing the rail to the vertical supports. The 2-stage air compressor has been moved and is ready for hook-up at its new location in the “tool shed”. 3 of the 5 steel shelf units are in place and are already serving a good purpose. Rose Ann Hoover and Art Wallace looked at many old photographs of Marshall family activities made available by Dan Citron.
Bob Wilhelm will conduct the second lecture on Stanley operation tomorrow night, March 17, at 7:30 P.M. in the Reception Room of the Museum. This session will feature steam generation and control, covering boilers and burners for the most part. About 9 P.M., Bill Rule will do his “3-tube indicator” demonstration. We hope all members seriously interested in operating a Stanley car will try to attend.
We are happy to report that Art Hart, longtime manufacturer and supplier of Stanley parts to the steam car community, has been approved for the new liver-cancer treatment at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. The procedure is supposed to take place on March 19, and he will be in the ICU for about 3 days. Our thoughts are also with Emil Christofano, who will have a hip replacement at Wilmington Hospital on March 20. We wish both of them our very best wishes for full recovery.
Tom
