Whitesboro Central High School

Whitesboro Central High School - 1936

This wonderful school building was built in 1936 to deal with the district's growing need for space. It presently serves as the middle school for the district. It houses grades 7 and 8. Grade 6 is housed in a one-story structure off to the left in the picture which was built in 1953. A more in-depth analysis will soon follow but more research must be done first. However, I will post the pictures I have of it and share the knowledge I currently know.

The Auditorium

Here's a view looking towards the stage in the auditorium. This is truly and elegant room. This picture was taken only a couple months after they refurbished it. For this project, they installed a new rug, reupholstered the original seats with new maroon fabric and had the arched metal seat backs painted in a matching color. They also reintroduced the gold accents on the ceiling which were there originally but not in the recent future.

Here's a view looking at the back wall of the auditorium. Unfortunately, they didn't design this room with a balcony as in many other old schools. Nevertheless, this room seats over 900 people, an excellent capacity for its day.

Here's a view of the left side wall of the auditorium. This picture captured 4 of the 6 wonderful hanging light fixtures. You can also see the five windows on this wall, which are mirrored on the opposite side wall making this room symmetrical. A neat feature is that these window openings actually contain full-size real windows. Too many schools either block all or part of the windows up in their auditoriums. I applaud Whitesboro for paying attention to all of the details in this great room.

This pictures shows the carving of the New York State Seal above the opening for the stage. Directly under the seal itself in the same square is the date "1936". I'm not sure if it was originally in color, but it wasn't before the recent renovations. This adds a interesting element to this room that further sets it apart from anything modern construction could hope to create.

This picture is of the front foyer to the auditorium. To the right are the doors into the auditorium and to the left are the door leading in from the outside where the great entrance with the pillars are located. The lights in the foyer are really neat. Only 2 of the 3 are showing and they are still in great shape. They resemble planets with there spherical shape and ring around their centers. The rings, if I remember correctly have Greek mythology carvings in them. The door straight ahead conceals the staircase leading to the projection room and "The Dead Bass Room". The "Dead Bass Room" is a storage area where old musical instruments are stored, though it may have originally had a different purpose. Even in that room, it contains beautiful wood moldings as well as a built in wooden bookcase. The details truly abound in this magnificant structure.

Other Pictures of this Great Building

Here's a picture of the plaque for when the school was dedicated. Since the date on the plaque is one year later than on the corner stone, it tells you it took awhile for the school to be finished. I believe the first class didn't actually graduate until 1938, meaning it would've opened in Fall of 1937. I cannot be sure of this, though.

This picture show the "Girls" entrance to the side of the auditorium, which is located inside the great wooden arch to the right in the picture. Notice the keystones used in the arches to add extra style. The lower sections of the walls when you enter by this door (as well as the identical one on the opposite side of the auditorium where the "Boys" entrance is) is covered in both light and dark shades of marble. The floors are made of terrazzo, I believe. It's a nice elegant touch. By the way, these two entrances really do have the words "BOYS" and "GIRLS" displayed over them in the masonry. When the school was built, the boys had to enter the one and the girls had to enter the other. The other two front entrances located farthest from the auditorium also used to be labeled "BOYS" and "GIRLS", respectively. However, these less prominent openings had the words in metal letters which were taken off of the wooden surrounds, though the outlines of the letters can still be seen.

Even the bathrooms in this school are elegant. The stalls consist of marble slabs and tiles line most of the way up the wall. The floors are terrazzo. The doors on these two remaining stalls are the originals (the only Boy's room that still has them) which as brown painted paneled doors. This is the Boy's bathroom in the upper back wing. To the right, notice how the wall where the urinals are located looks different. This is because they weren't originally here. When the school was built, none of the Boy's rooms had urinals. In this particular bathroom, unlike the others, they ripped out several regular stalls to install the urinals. So basically, the row of two stalls you see would extend toward the camera all the way out to the marble slab by the door which is there for privacy. They built out from the wall to make room for the plumbing, hence the different colored tiles. The holes on the floor from the toilets were imply filled in and aren't very noticeable. Other Boy's rooms in the school had the urinals placed on the wall opposite the stalls but for some reason, they did it differently here.

This view is looking west down the central hall of the school. This was taken before they put the blasted dropped ceiling in in the summer of 1999. It was a miracle they survived this long intact. Further down toward the central part of the hall near the auditorium hangs several bowl-shaped light fixtures. Since the ceilings there are more decorative, they left this section in tact with the original light fixtures. Also, further down is a neat piece. There's a lighted sign for the Nurse's office. I believe there was also originally one for the main office on this side of the auditorium. I say this because there's a plate on the wall that's covering an electrical box above the door to the main office and it would then be symmetrical with the Nurse's sign. The walls in the halls are covered in this nice ceramic tiles. The corners where the halls meet contain rounded corners.

This picture is of another hall. It located in a four-room addition I believe was done in the 50's (though they did an excellent job of making it look similar to the original structure) looking into the original. Notice where the walls jut out a little on each side and a little beyond that the ceiling drops. That's where the connection was made. They had to raise the ceiling in the original structure for the windows that were there. The rest of the halls have no windows so there was no need the entire hall ceilings needed to be raised higher.

This picture was taken in one of the classrooms off the main hallway. Straight ahead, you can see the beautiful cabinet used for the teacher's coat and books to be stored in. Right next to it is the door which has the old style door knobs and skeleton key locks. The glass area is made up of 9 separate pains, all except the middle one being translucent. These cabinets and doors are great and are still used is the majority of the classrooms throughout the school. Also in this picture, notice the great baseboards and the hard wood floors. I believe all of the wood used was oak, but I'm not sure on that. There are still a good number of classrooms that have the wood floors and I think all the rooms in the original structure still have these great baseboards. The chalkboard are also original with their wooden frames. The door frames are metal, but are styled to look like old decorative wood. They may be original and were simply used for durability.

This picture shows three of the six hanging lights in one of the classrooms. I don't know if they're original, but they are certainly old. Unfortunately, when they installed the dropped ceilings just a couple summers ago, these were removed. It's sad because these lights, along with many of the other details I showed are what make up the character of this building. However, I was fortunate to at least have them there when I went to school here and at least many of the other details are still there in many of the rooms. This building is a constant source of stress, though, because I'm always afraid they'll decide to take another detail out. You can be sure I fight, just as I did to keep these lights. I should say one room still has these lights are the renovations. The library, which has great crown moldings, was untouched because of them. This meant they also left the old lights in place.

This is all I have on this great structure at this point. I will try to do more research and also get some clearer pictures of the auditorium. If anybody who is reading this page has gone to school here or knows anything about it, please e-mail ([email protected]) me with your knowledge. It would be greatly appreciated.