An undated photo post card view of the fourth public school building in Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
In 1894, construction was begun on a two-story brick building at the north side of West Broad Street (currently 45 W. Broad Street), Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. When that building was completed, the building at Main and Church Streets was sold to George W. Uhler, who razed it in 1895.
The new building, pictured above, was dedicated with great fanfare on 7 September 1895. It was a two-story brick structure, 72 feet by 78 feet, with vestibule extension, 6 classrooms, two inside staircases, and a 31 x 75 foot auditorium. Each room had running water and steam heat.
When school opened on 16 September 1895, 182 students were enrolled.
It was from this building that the first high school class of five students graduated in spring 1896. A picture exists of those five students, taken in 1893, when they began their 3-year course, in front of the Third School Building.
This 1895 building, without additions, served until the late 1930s when public funding was received to construct a large, one-story addition on the north end of the building, This addition had a large, modern auditorium which doubled as a gymnasium; chemistry and physics laboratories; a home making room; and showers and locker rooms in the basement. The old auditorium in the original building was turned into a library; classrooms; an administrative office; a small health facility; and some supply rooms.
With enrollment growth following World War II, and no room on-site to expand, additional classroom space was found off-site to accommodate program needs. In 1953, a vacant shoe factory at the corner of Spruce and Church Streets was purchased from J. B. Lesher of Williamstown and converted into classrooms for grades three through six, with use beginning in the school year 1954-1955. Prior to converting this old shoe factory, the Industrial Arts program, added in 1948 by Earl Bruce Romberger, teacher, had been conducted in a shed on the grounds of the Kepler Convalescent Home at 44 South Market Street. It moved into the basement of the Spruce and Church Streets building in 1954.
In 1954, the Upper Dauphin School Jointure was formed, the purpose of which was provide a united effort for the young people of the Lykens Valley. The Elizabethville Board of Education had taken the lead in this effort by holding annual meetings over the years to discuss how a more modern and unified school system would be the best way to move forward. A tract of 23 acres was purchased in Washington Township, adjacent to the northern border of the borough. Financing was put in place and ground was broken on 15 June 1957 for a new junior-senior high school, which would combine and replace facilities in Elizabethville, Berrysburg and Gratz.
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For further information about education in Elizabethville, contact the Elizabethville Area Historical Society, 100 E. Main Street, Elizabethville, Pennsylvania 17023.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.