Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Franklin School February 1903

Description

These Franklin School students were the first to occupy the new school at the corner of Nahant and Traverse Streets. Planning for the new school started two years earlier, in 1900, when Town Meeting voted to study whether an addition to the existing school building on Franklin Street would be enough to address the overcrowded conditions. For the School Committee Report for the year ending January 31, 1900, the committee stated, 'The residents in the Franklin Street district are also asking for better accommodations, and their request is reasonable. They have been patient and long suffering. At the present time, all children above the fourth grade are obliged to attend either the Hamilton or Lincoln schools; the present building is entirely inadequate to the needs of the district.' In April 1901, Town Meeting voted to build a new eight-room school building, and that $30,000 dollars would be raised and appropriated to purchase the land and erect the building. When the new school opened on September 9, 1902, 240 student were in attendance, 30 more than anticipated, with more expected in the following days. According to the School Committee Report for the year ending January 31, 1904, 'For the relief of the new Franklin building, which can be repaired and put into commission again.' The old Franklin School, near the corner of Franklin and Nahant Streets, was eventually demolished.

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2018

Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Historical Society.

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

100 Nahant Street (Wakefield, Mass.)

Date

02-1903

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

School buildings

Franklin School (Wakefield, Mass.)

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

26 x 19 cm