544 Chestnut Avenue, The Burg.
Once upon a time this was Immaculate Conception Grammar
School.
Thank you Stephen:)
3 years ago
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11 comments:
Mack,
This was the original Immaculate Conception Grammar School. I guess sometime in the 70s or 80s the classes moved to the main building of the former Trenton Catholic HS on the other side of the IC church. This building was renamed the Sr. Georgeanna Learning Center. I have no idea what it is used for now. Classrooms were on the top two floors. The red brick addition contained the bathrooms and stairways. The side of the red annex you can see was the girls side and the opposite side (not seen) is where the stairs and bathrooms for boys were. The schoolyard (where the van is parked) was segregated by sex also. The second floor contained first-third grade classrooms, the principal's office, nurse's office as well as the eighth grade classrooms. the third floor was where the fourth-seventh grades were located as well as the audio visual room and lunch room. The main door of the building (it's the red door in front) and front stairway were not used by students unless you were late for school or you were being accompanied by a parent into the building. There was also a kindergarten at ICS until June 1955. I started kindergarten in Sept 1955 so I went to Jr.2 that one year. There was at least one Higham at ICS every yesr from Sept 1936 through June 1969 and during every school year 1954/55 through 1960/61 there were at least six of us Highams in attendance at ICS (never in the same class). The bottom floor conatined a stage/auditorium. This is where school wide meetings were held as well as the annual Christmas pageant (Nick Werkman's mom played Santa the years I attended). Durings the early 60s there was a major renovation of the church so while the rreconstruction was going on, church services were held in the auditorium. Behind the stage was a passageway which connected to the parish rectory and the church. At the far left end behind the building was a tall incinerator. Attached to the back of the building was a long garage with about six bays for the parish vehicles. There were about four cars for the parish priests and one car for the nuns. Sr. Iphigenia never referred to vehicles as cars or automobiles; to her they were always "machines". I beleieve Sr. Calvaria was the designated driver for the nuns. Two eighth grade boys were chosen at the beginning of the year to raise and lower the flag each school day. But if I remember correctly the flagpole was located just inside the tall metal fence to the left of the front entrance and it was not in the middle of the asphalt area. Mondays were always the best day as school let out about an hour early so CDC classes could be conducted by the nuns. Although I remember a lot from my days at ICS, I wouldn't necessarily call them fond memories. The nums for first and second grade seemed suited to dealing with 5, 6 and 7 year olds, but by third grade (Mrs. DiLeo) unquestioning fear was expected of students. I recall that seventh grade was a respite from this tyranny as Sr. Theresa (?) seemed genuinely interested in educating her students. Sr. Georgeanna was my first grade teacher and seemed quite nice. She returned to ICS as principal sometime after I graduated in June 1964. The principal usually had the dual role as eighth grade teacher.
Thank You Stephen:)
I think this is still used as some kind of school (a charter school?).
I went to Immaculate only as a
Church and for religious instruction in 70s summers long ago.
Stephen...1954-1962. 1st grade-Sr. Georgine, 2nd Grade-Sr. Filicine Marie, 3rd Grade-Mrs DeLia, 4th Grade-Sr Colette, 5th Grade-Sr. Calvaria, 6th Grade-Sr. Natalie, 7th and 8th Grade-Sr Floretta Joseph and our Principal-Mother Bertilda (really). I can't believe I remembered all of those names. The school nurse spent half day at Immaculate and half day at Trenton Catholic, so if you got sick after lunch, you had to go to TC.
The auditorium was where all the cool stuff happened-Book Fair, Movies, Christmas Pagent, Fr. Carmillus lecturing us how to be "good Catholic Girls" and Graduation Pictures.
Mrs. Werkman WAS Santa Clause to me for many years, she was perfect.
Barb P,
1956-1964 Had the same teachers as you for first, third and fifth grades. Sr. Filicine may have been my 2nd grade teacher also. I think I had Sr. Floreta Joseph for eighth as you did. Can't recall my fourth grade teacher at all (was a bad year for me and had several heated exchanges with the nuns). Definitely had Sr. Iphigenia in sixth-to this day the thought of her is maddening. I was ever so glad to move on to seventh grade. I had forgotten about the book fairs. Really enjoyed them. Our eighth grade picture was a group one in front of the church with Fr. Roger Nelipowitz, pastor of Immaculate at that time. Called him "Jolly Roger" with sarcasm as he never seemed to smile. I also remember the soft pretzels sold in the schoolyard at lunchtime and having to stop playing at noon when the church bells peeled to say the Angelus and attending mass "en masse" on Fridays mornings during Lent. On occasion would dash home to Revere Ave for lunch. God help you if you didn't get back on time after lunch.
I remember walking there from Jr. 4 on Monday afternoons for catechism. Afterward, I'd walk down the street to Treonfettis to meet my Dad, who was playing penuckel (spelling?)with the guys as usual and get a ride home.
Bob,
Pinocle and Catch Five!
These were two Burg card games that were pretty local, especially Catch Five"!
Try and ask anybody in California to play "Catch Five" and see the blank stares.
I was fortunate to find three other guys from the area while in the Navy to get up a game.
That's really funny about Catch Five. I taught my wife and daughters to play it, and it's still the only card game I know, or know very well. And I mean really well :)
My memories of ICS are all warm ones. Think of it. A school with few resources and huge classes. Everybody learned how to read and write, and even to diagram complicated sentences.
Nine and out hearts to ICS.
Stephen, Our graduation picture was taken on the long steps at the entrance of the auditorium. There were so many of us, we filled 4 steps, 20 across...still have the picture, it's 32" long. We also had Fr "Smiley" in the middle of the photo.
We always called Sr Floretta Joseph, "chin", as she always pulled at her chin, just before she gave them a "chambersburg head slap". You remember those, Stephen, the one that came out of nowhere, and hit you in the back of the head.
She was so slick, she held her rosary beads when she came into the room, so we couldn't hear her coming.
Barb P,
I still have a copy of my ICS graduation picture too. There are 41 (18 boys/23 girls) of us in it and I know of at least one person that was missing. I've been able to scan it in two sections and then merge the two sections into one. I was able to recognize all but nine. Also have a scanned copy of the IC altar boys from 1964. 78 of us in that picture.
1963/4-1st grade with Sr. Georgine. 1964/5-2nd grade with Sr. Marie St. Joseph. 1965/6-3rd grade with Miss Sawyer. 1966/7-4th grade with Sr. Joan Anthony - the music teacher with the pitch pipe - and the only "stern" sister I had in my short tenure there.
Sr. Georgine was the perfect 1st grade teacher - really suited to handling over 50 6-yr-olds with no "classroom aides" or "room mothers," like they have today. In fact, she was the one who recognized that I was lip-reading and not really hearing very well; turns out I needed a tonsillectomy, and the problem was solved!
Sr. Marie St. Joseph let me teach a grammar lesson - not sure why, but it was fun and fueled a desire to become a nun (OK, later it morphed into a desire to be a teacher instead, but still...)
Miss Sawyer was the only lay teacher in the school that year and very nice.
Sr. Joan Anthony was feared throughout the school, because everybody had SOME contact with her, as she was the music teacher for the entire school. Very quick with the yard stick on your knuckles, and EVERYONE took a turn staying after school clapping erasers and washing blackboards, which we all hated.
When I think back on Sr. Joan Anthony, I also remember her telling us about "the domino theory," altho I had no idea then she was talking about the spread of communism in Asia. And she told us - 8 and 9 year olds! - horrifying stories of what happened to Catholic missionaries in China. Scary woman!
But I did love going to Immaculate and felt so much a part of something there - public school never really provided that same sense of belonging.
I'm going to search for my class photos and upload them when I get a chance. I've recently reconnected with some old Immaculate friends on Facebook, too.
I'll ask if anybody knows about the dates of the buildings on the IC parish campus...
The current church has a cornerstone of 1888, which must mean that the building was opended for worship soon after.
The rectory, originally a seminary, is probably older than that? It looks like it might be.
I see a reference to a small wooden church that stood on what is now the front lawn of the rectory. Evidently this was a temporary church, which would track with the common sequence of things. Parish schools were often built before the parish church, in this case a seminary.
The ICS building was evidently built later, around 1915 or so, but not sure.
Here's a question: The school building to the left of the church as you look at it from the front, says Immaculate Conception Grammar School etched on the facade. Yet it was used as Trenton Catholic Boys High School in my day. Was this the original grammar school?
There was another brick building next to it that was torn down long ago, but it was part of the high school in the early 1960s. When was it built?
The convent looks like it was built in the 1950s, which would track with the post-war baby boom and peak era for catholic schools.
I'm curious to know whether the IC parish campus might have included the entire area from Kent to Roebling in the year 1900. A
whole block for the Deaf School, and a whole block for IC parish adjacent. Anybody know?
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