Stephen Higham Remembers Immaculate

Stephen Higham Remembers Immaculate

Stephen wrote:
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 contained 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 reconstruction 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.