A Brief History of Corning, N.Y.
Northside High School
By Kitty Pierce - February 01, 2017
For Sale in 2014 Torn down in 2017
The last blog posting shows the
postcard of a Northside High School.
A former Lindley resident was curious as to the date. Using
the Internet, he found a copy of the
postcard dated 1905. After a discussion about the
age of the Northside High School that has
been in recent Corning Leader news articles, he
located a September 14,1927 article on the Fulton Archival
Newspaper website that said the new high school had
opened . Corresponding with him about
the date and other information regarding the school had piqued
my curiosity .
Knowing that so many Lindley residents had attended a Corning Northside High School or had
a connection with it, I decided to research the history of
the schools. As Town Lindley Historian , I
had provided Ian Mackenzie with information about the Lindley one room
schools when he was writing his book -"The Birth of Education
In One Room Country Schools. The Story of all
the one room and other schools in the Corning-Painted Post Area School
District, New York from 1793 to 1957 published in 2005. I
decided to check his book for information.
The first schools on the Corning Northside were log cabins
or wood buildings -starting in 1793 on Wallace Street-followed by others on
Jennings, Sly and Flint Ave.
High Schools
In 1888, Knoxville
Village ( which
is now known as Corning, N.Y.'s Northside) built a brick school for $12,000
on the Northeast corner of Jennings and Sly Ave. (Now the Gregg Elementary School paved School Ground).
There were 120 students grade 1-8 and classrooms
for high school.
In 1895, additional classrooms were added on the east end of the
building for $6000
In 1897, the first high school students graduated --
3 girls
In 1898
6 more high school students graduated
In 1889- 90, a teacher
training class was started above a local store.
In 1903, an
annex was added on the west end of the building and the Teachers Training class moved into the
building.
1905 Postcard
(1888 building with East and West Additions
)
In 1910, another
high school was approved . It cost $50,000 plus $10,000 for
the land . It was built on the opposite side of Jennings St. on the east side
of Flint Ave. (Between what is
now Jennings St. and the Patterson Inn .-the
parking lot for the Hugh Gregg Elementary school. The Grammar School remained in the old
building across the street.
1910
In 1925 ,still another high school was approved on Princeton and Kingsbury
Ave.
This opened in 1927 and cost $450,000. The 1910
building became the Northside Grammar School
grades for grades 5 - 7 .
1-4 remained in the 1888 building (with the early
additions) -(-Primary
Grammar School
In 1932, 82
students graduated from the new high
school.
In 1952, $210,000 was approved for a new Elementary School (Hugh Gregg ) on Jennings
and Flint Ave -west of the old school buildings.
In 1953, Kindergarten
to 3rd grade began attending this-while 4th to 6th graders went
across the street to (Northside Grammar School ) until
1971 .
In 1954 , Corning /Painted Post schools became a consolidated
district
In 1957, the
old Primary School was razed for an addition to the
Hugh Gregg Elementary .
New elementary schools were opened throughout the
district.
One room schools were closed .
In 1963, East and West High
Schools opened and Northside High School became Northside Middle School for
grades 7-9. Later called Northside Blodgett Middle School.
In 1971, the 1910
building was demolished -area now a parking lot.
In September 2014, One
Corning/Painted Post High School opened on East High School site. West
High School became a Middle School.
Northside Blodgett Middle School had a For Sale Sign on
it.
September 19,2016, Corning
/Painted Post School District voters approved the sale of
Northside Middle School for $200,000. Arbor Housing and Development
had made a purchase offer. ( The school would be
demolished and one family homes built on the site.)
January 26, 2017, City of Corning and Arbor announced that $480,150 had
been received to demolish the school and new homes will occupy the 5
acres. Project expect to start in Spring 2017
The bell is from the first Northside
High School-1888
|
|
|
Northside Blodgett Middle School |
A personal note
My husband lived on Corning Northside when he
started school . He remembers the Grammar School having a stairway and a bell. In 5th grade
he remembered going across the street to the 1910 High School and
seeing the date 1928. ( I am guessing this
is the year the 1910 High School became the Grammar
School. In 1943, his family moved to Lindley where he attended
the 6th grade in the one room Station School on River Road . He likes to tell his Grandchildren
that he was the smartest and dumbest in that
grade. He was the only student in that
grade.!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found Ian's book very helpful
and informative. I would
like to thank him for all his time, effort and research that it took to document the local Corning-Painted Post
Schools' history. Rather than try to duplicate his work, I have tried to summarize his documentation with
enough dates and brief descriptions that Blog Readers will be able
to recognize the various schools mentioned. The colored photos
can be found by googling the various school names .The
wonders oft the internet..!!!!!!!
Thanks Ian and Larry for sparking my curiosity about the school that will soon be a thing of
the past. If readers would like to know more details from
Ian's book -I am sure there are copies in local Libraries, the
Historical Societies , Museums or book stores. Of course, the
Internet is also a great resource as is the Fulton newspaper website
Enjoy the history of
one of Corning's popular high schools.
Kitty
Please excuse the format at the end. Looks great on my
computer but blog and the computer had a different version when I post it and
all my efforts to change aren't working.. Sigh Kitty
|
|
|
1888 with Addi Jennings St. .
In 1932,
there were 82 graduating students.
.
Reprint and reformatted version of following site. Just trying to make it more readable. |
|
|
