Date: Fri 21-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Hawley-School-history-75-years

Full Text:

75 Year Anniversary - A Milestone For Hawley School

Hawley School seen shortly after it was built in 1922, when there were no

connecting additions on the north side. The two big maple trees that today

guard the school's Church Hill Road entrance were then mere saplings.

-Photos Courtesy Daniel Cruson

This early photo of one of Hawley's nine classrooms shows wooden desks with

inkwells and a real blackboard - which was a rarity in those times.

Lab tables in the back of this classroom, with bottles and containers lining

the upper shelves and drawers below, indicate that this was probably Hawley

School's first science classroom.

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

On April 5, the Hawley School will turn 75.

That's a lot of years for a town building to continue functioning in the

manner first intended. Yet anyone driving by the familiar yellow brick

landmark would have to admit it: Hawley School has aged gracefully.

If one studies an old picture taken from Church Hill Road shortly after the

school was built, there is the sense that time has stood still.

The old clock that was painstakingly refurbished last spring keeps track of

the minutes and the hours but makes no mention of the years.

Seen from inside, the pale light of late winter still filters dimly through

the double fan light decorating the front door.

Two sugar maples still guard the front entrance, but the two frail saplings in

the old photo have grown up to be venerable giants.

It's obvious that three quarters of a century has, indeed, passed.

The open space behind the original Hawley School is now taken up by bricks and

mortar - the two major Hawley School additions. The first was built in 1948/49

and the second is scheduled for completion in July 1997. Now, the old core

building and its two connecting additions extend north, far back into Taylor

Field.

The children playing there today are much younger than the high-schoolers whom

we might have seen enjoying outside recess or competitive games between the

years 1922-1953.

Originally built as a high school, Hawley officially became the town's first

all-elementary school on March 17, 1953. That was the day when the high school

students moved over into the "new" high school building on Queen Street.

Hawley has remained an elementary school ever since, and every year Hawley

welcomes more children.

In 1922, there were only 84 students in all four high school grades.

Today, there are 384 elementary students enrolled in grades K-5 and a maximum

of 575 (with redistricting of Sandy Hook students) is projected for 1997-98.

Birthday Party

Next Fall

Hawley School Principal Linda Siciliano says she has begun collecting Hawley

memorabilia and photographs, but she isn't planning to hold a formal 75th

birthday party this spring.

"We'll do that sometime during the fall, after the new addition is completed,"

she said.

Even so, she and Hawley librarian Lorraine Littlejohn would not have the date

slip by unnoticed - especially considering the debt the town owes the school's

founder and benefactress, Mary Hawley.

Miss Hawley not only donated $100,000 to build the school, she did so despite

repeated protestations by local residents that the town wouldn't be able to

afford its maintenance.

Her final design, which included nine classrooms, an auditorium and a

gymnasium, was actually a reduced version of her first design - to keep

expenses down.

Miss Hawley also endowed the school with an additional trust fund to provide

furnishings and upkeep when it became obvious the town wouldn't pay for those

items.

"She was an amazing person of real vision. Imagine what this town would be

like today if it hadn't been for Mary Hawley," said Barbara Cottingham, who is

a longtime Hawley library volunteer and works alongside Mrs Littlejohn.

Perusing the Hawley files and rummaging through one box the custodian brought

down from the attic, the two women were able to find an old school scrapbook

from the early 1980s that contained earlier newspaper clippings from Hawley

School's 75-year history.

"The really old, old stuff has been packed away," said Mrs Littlejohn.

She guessed the older files were probably in the attic or the basement,

awaiting relocation in the new media center now being completed.

One interesting document they unearthed was a retrospective narration that

must have been used during the 50th anniversary rededication ceremony held in

1972 by then-Hawley principal, Edgar Rodrigues.

It included several stage notes, was titled "Our Children Deserve The Best"

and offered a look back to Hawley's beginnings in 1922.

No Library Or Cafeteria

In The `Good Old Days'

When Miss Hawley made her donation to the town on June 4, 1921, she asked that

the new school be named in honor of her parents, Mary (Booth) and Marcus

Hawley.

A press release from the time stated that the architects would be Sunderland &

Watson of Danbury, and that construction, which began June 6, 1921, would be

by the Hewlett Company of Bridgeport.

The building committee selected by Miss Hawley was composed of Cornelius

Taylor, owner of Taylor Field, A.T. Nettleton, C.A. Peale, Thomas Holian and

C.G. Morris.

The architects decided Hawley School would be built according to "an old

academy design," with "the exterior to be of Harvard or Buff brick with sills,

quoins, water tables, key blocks and cornices of limestone."

The front entrance trim would also be of limestone and the interior walls,

floors and ceilings were to be reinforced concrete, making the building

fireproof.

As a result, when Hawley School opened its doors to students on April 17,

1922, it was the first fireproof school in Connecticut.

Although the school was built without a library or cafeteria, money was soon

raised by the newly formed Hawley School PTA (organized November 3, 1921)

whose members set out to provide for those functions as well as they could

within the existing building.

Life In 1922

Mr Rodrigues's 1972 retrospective included several bits of information that

offer an interesting historical perspective.

In 1922, when Hawley School was built, Warren Harding was President and it was

a Republican age for Newtown as well as the country.

The United States was still recovering after World War I, shifting gears from

wartime to a peacetime economy. As a result, there was widespread unemployment

with many factories having been closed.

"Times were bad," Mr Rodrigues states, a fact that might help explain why in

1921 Newtown residents were wary of committing any public money to school

maintenance.

They couldn't have known then that things would get even worse during the

Depression of the 1930s, he also points out.

When Mary Hawley made Hawley School her first gift to the town, women had just

gained the right to vote.

Favorite dances of those days were, "The Shimmy," and "'Neath The South Sea

Moon" and favorite slang expressions were, "Oh Hang!", "For Pete's Sake" or

"Godfrey!"

At that time, Newtown children in the elementary grades attended one-room

district schools, and they walked to and from school.

Even if buses were available, they couldn't be used from October to May

because the unpaved roads contained such terrible ruts. When not frozen, those

dirt roads were "knee deep in mud," Mr Rodrigues said.

When Hawley opened, Lester Badger was the first principal and there was only

one bus.

Taylor Field

Cornelius B. Taylor, a lifelong Newtown resident born in Hattertown, offered

eight acres in the rear of the building for a playing field. His gift was made

shortly after Miss Hawley's donation for the school.

An article in the December 7, 1979 issue of The Newtown Bee states that Mr

Taylor's gift came in the form of a hand-written deed "for the consideration

of love and affection for said town as my home and for the children of my

fellow townsmen."

Taylor Field had once been used as a fairground to provide amusement for local

residents as well as "out-of-towners," according to the article.

"The fairgrounds attracted tourists because of its racetrack, and the outline

of the track can still be seen from the air," the article states.

In later years, another donation was made for upkeep and maintenance of Taylor

Field when in 1971 Newtown resident Otto Heise gave $10,000 for periodic

drainage work.

Desks Bolted To The Floor

Mr Rodrigues's notes and several early photographs loaned to Mrs Siciliano by

Town Historian Daniel Cruson give an enlightening view of Hawley's early days.

For one thing, they reveal that teaching and learning in the early part of the

century took place in a more formal and regulated manner and that classroom

supplies were limited.

Wooden desks with hinged tops and ink wells were arranged in neat rows - and

the desks were frequently bolted to the floor so they would stay that way.

In most schools of the day, blackboards were just plasterboard painted over,

but in Hawley proper blackboards had been installed as part of Miss Hawley's

gift for equipment.

Standard classroom extras included a flag, a picture of the President, and a

map. The teacher or the students supplied plants.

It seems that the children cleaned their school themselves.

Mr Rodrigues noted that they "brought milk over from the Beer's cellar for hot

cocoa," which constituted "hot lunch" when it was combined with sandwiches

brought from home. They also brought in wood from home for the school wood

stove.

School sports consisted of basketball and baseball.

Several classes might have shared one room, and discipline was strict.

"High hilarity" was punished by banishment from study hall and teachers were

known to use a ruler, willow branch or the proverbial "hickory stick" across

the back of the hands to discipline their students.