THE "OLD HIGH SCHOOL"
ON SCHOOL STREET.
ITS TEACHERS AND SCHOLARS FROM 1828 TO 1840.
The first building erected iin this town for a high school house is yet standing, being 43 and 47 School street, and is occupied as a dwelling. The main part remains the same as when first built. The cupola's outward appearance is but little changed; "the bell that hung within" rings no more to call those who were to pass its doors. On the east part of the building wings have been added on the north and south sides, which increase its former proportions. What memories cluster around the venerated building, calling up the scenes of boyhood days! the teachers! the scholars! Of the former only two survive; of the latter, alas! many have passed to the "other side," some hardly arrived to manhood, others had entered middle life, a few had reached three-score and ten, while those remaining are verging on and many have passed the allotted time of life.
On the 2d day of April, 1827, "the town voted to choose a committee to report at a meeting some plan for establishing a high school, and where the same shall be kept, and also to make an estimate of the expense. The committee were Joseph Pease, Solomon Hatch, George Bliss, Jr., David Rice, Allen Bangs, Israel E. Trask, and William Child."
May 14, 1827, "the committee report, and recommend that the town build a school house of brick, 65 feet by 30 feet, two stories high, with a woodhouse under it, and a cupola and bell on one end, and with a proper outhouse attached;
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