Vacant Former School Building in NY
Maine Central School - J. Ralph Ingalls School, Maine New York
The J. Ralph Ingalls School, completed in 1940, is an outstanding example of Georgian Revival-style school architecture in Broome County and an important work by regionally prominent school architect Gordon Bain Cummings. Cummings, of the Binghamton firm Conrad and Cummings, executed the design under the guidance of Dr. Clement G. Bowers, a prominent local resident with a strong interest in historic architecture. The design that resulted from this collaboration made explicit historical references to well-known Colonial era monuments, both national and local.
The Ingalls school (originally Maine Central School) design both incorporated features advocated by educators and produced the practical and economic building preferred by the rural school board. The building was a product of the school centralization movement, the major impetus to the construction of numerous school buildings throughout rural New York in the early twentieth century. As in many other localities, the new Maine Central School consolidated eleven smaller local districts and substantially changed the type and character of education in this rural area of Broome County. Closely tied to the centralization movement was the federal government's involvement in funding major public works projects in this period. Like many others, the Maine school was the beneficiary of federal Public Works Administration funds that made its construction possible.
The school is also important in that it represents contemporary attitudes towards assimilation and American values and the efforts to promote these values through architectural designs for public buildings and educational programs. This theme is especially relevant in the context of the Binghamton-Endwell area, home to Endicott-Johnson, the enormous shoe manufacturing concern, and hence thousands of European immigrants in the early twentieth century.
In Broome County as elsewhere, public officials and influential citizens saw social and education programs as the means by which to mold the newcomers into good American citizens, more like themselves. The design of school buildings provided ideal opportunities to recall the forms and ideals associated with Colonial America, thus evoking a sense of history, place and the value of education. Thus, inherent in Dr. Bowers's conception of the new school was the intent that it serve as an example of "appropriate" aesthetic sensibilities and instill in students a deeper interest in American history.
The area around the village of Maine, originally in the town of Union, New York, was first settled by natives of eastern Massachusetts in the 1790s. Lumbering gradually gave way to farming in this section of Broome County, while by the mid-nineteenth century, the village contained a few mills, a tannery, a rake factory, a hotel, and a few creameries, in addition to an array of small stores and shops. As might be expected by virtue of the origin of the first settlers, meetinghouses and churches of the Congregational, Methodist-Episcopal and Baptist faiths were the first to be built in the area.
As with many communities in upstate New York, the rapid increase in the number of children during the early nineteenth century was answered by an increase in the number of schoolhouses; however, in many places, the need for a high school was addressed by a private academy. The post-Civil War rise of public education, spurred by increased immigration, led to the construction of schools throughout the state. In Maine, a four-room, frame, clapboard school was constructed during the late nineteenth century on Church Street, set back about 130 feet on a generous lot. This set the context for the Maine Central School, built in the same location in the mid-twentieth century.
As in other parts of Broome County, the population of Maine leveled off by about the turn of the century, as farming began a slow decline. This was offset to some degree by the arrival of immigrants from Eastern Europe, who worked in the nearby factories. During the 1920s and especially in the 1930s, as Binghamton swelled, some city residents sought to relocate in villages and towns where the land was cheaper, taxes lower and the children could have more freedom of movement. Hence, the need arose to provide the rural children of Broome County with an education that was equal in scope and facilities to that being offered to the urban children.
The effort to consolidate rural schools in order to provide facilities equivalent to those in city schools began in Massachusetts at the close of the Civil War, but it did not gain substantial support among educators until the early twentieth century. The town governments of New England offered a certain advantage in controlling local educational reform, aimed at increasing enrollment and attendance, better classification of the grades, broader curriculum offerings, and certain administrative economies of scale. During the 1920s, as the centralization movement gathered strength in New York State, significant opposition developed due to the depreciation of property adjacent to the dispersed one-room schoolhouse, the expense of transporting children, first by wagon and later by bus, and the inevitable rise in taxes. As the Depression wore on, however, the advocates for centralization gained ground among the Board of Regents because learning the "three R's" by rote seemed an inadequate preparation for the depressed job market. New facilities were expected to contain not only classrooms, auditoriums, cafeteria and gymnasiums, but also workshops, laboratories, libraries, typing rooms and even model apartments for home economics courses, to teach students more applied skills.
While vitally interested in the era's educational progressivism, rural school districts such as those in upstate New York often lacked the financial ability to undertake centralization without federal and state assistance. Indeed, some school officials believed the federal government would, in time, recognize the need and establish permanent policies for school buildings. Not until the Public Works Administration offered assistance to construct new centralized facilities in several other New York State counties would the village of Maine receive funding for a new school.
In anticipation, in 1938 a committee on centralization was formed, with representatives from each of the eleven districts involved. The committee, chaired by Dr. Clement Bowers, included Ralph Ingalls, Kenneth Koon, Alton P. Lewis, Wellington C. McIntyre, Leslie E. Oliver, Herbert H. Ray, Jerome Shaver, Wellington Tymeson, Ralph Young, Lemneus West and Harry Woodward. Under their direction, the activities housed in the four-room school in the village of Maine were combined with those in the four-room school at Union Center and the one-room schools at Bowers Corners, Tiona, Gates, Allentown, Mt. Ettrick, East Maine, Brockett Hollow, Pollard Hill and Broughamtown.
The site for the new school was formed of two large lots: the one previously occupied by the four-room school and another to the west, occupied by a residence and a carriage house. The drawings for "Job 3807," the "School Building Maine NY, Central School District No. 1 the Towns of Maine, Union and Nanticoke, Broome County, and Newark Valley and Owego, Tioga County," Public Works Administration project number 1775F, were completed in November 1938. Soon thereafter, the old school building was moved aside and its basement was filled before laying the foundation for the new structure.
Construction proceeded throughout 1939 and into the spring of 1940, with the materials and labor provided by the general contractor, Vincent J. Smith of Binghamton. Dr. Clement G. Bowers, the chairman of the committee, guided the execution of many of the details. Dr. Bowers, a world-renowned botanist, maintained an avid interest in genealogy and historic architecture. His father, LaMont Bowers, had become relatively secure working as a project manager for John D. Rockefeller and, in 1905, "retired" to Binghamton, amusing himself by expanding his modest six-room house into a thirty-room mansion. Clement Bowers grew up amidst this nearly continuous construction, leaving to receive his advanced education in botany at both Cornell and Columbia Universities and working for a time at the New York Botanical Garden. In 1929, however, Dr. Bowers turned to Broome County to reclaim his father's birthplace in "Bowers' Corners," at the northern edge of Maine. Dr. Bowers's familial connection to the activities of the Rockefellers and his interest in gardening precipitated his attraction to the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Hence, during the 1930s and 1940s, Bowers had the resources, time, and inclination to become involved with restoration projects in his community, including the Andrew Taylor house, the Jefferson Ransome house, and the Flosson house on Tiona Road. Proceeding much in the manner of Williamsburg, these "restorations" often removed any late-nineteenth-century elements and additions.
In the design process for the new Maine Central School, with the endorsement of the architect George Bain Cummings, Dr. Bowers advanced his belief that the building should serve as an example of the appropriate aesthetic sensibilities and instill in the students a deeper interest in American history. This was accomplished by attending to dozens of details in the design of the school.
The general appearance of the Maine Central School reportedly combined elements of Independence Hall in Philadelphia with Washingtonian Hall, near Hooper, in Broome County, built about 1799. Given the close historical relationship between this area of the Southern Tier and the South, via the Susquehanna River, the models are generally appropriate. Bowers's debt to the architecture of Tiderwater Virginia was more evident on the interior of the school, especially in the choice of color.
In another initiative, Bowers supervised the choice of brick for the exterior and consulted Cornell University faculty to develop a mortar formula that would not suffer efflorescence.
As the construction came to an end, Dr. Bowers began to plan the dedication, which took place in the auditorium/gymnasium on Friday evening, May 29th, 1940. The guests invited for the occasion included W.B. Tymeson, K.S. Koon, W.C. McIntyre and L.E. Oliver of the board of education; Alton P. Lewis and Ralph Ingalls, clerk and treasurer, respectively; Herbert H. Ray, attorney; J.F. Shaver, supervising principal; the Rev. Ralph E. Gould; the Rev. Charles W. Miller; and the architect George Bain Cummings, who presented the keys to the building to Kasson E. Belby, district superintendent of schools. The high point of the evening was a concluding address by the Rev. Wilson E. Tanner, rector of Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church in Binghamton. Mr. Tanner exhorted the 700 people in the audience to "energize their traditions in the face of world unrest and uncertainty." As news began to reach the United States that Hitler was expanding his hold on Europe, the public reaction against Germany was mounting. In part, Dr. Tanner's address might be considered a caution against this, as he recalled the accomplishments of Germany, especially those in the field of music. At the same time, however, his address can be seen as applauding the efforts of those who were intimately associated with the project, as he reminded all that "no man lives or does by himself," with each member of the human race part of the "body politic."
Just as the Maine school benefited from the careful eye of Dr. Bowers, it should be seen as a significant example of the work of Gordon Bain Cummings, a partner in the regionally prominent firm of Conrad and Cummings of Binghamton. As a pre-eminent specialist in school building design in the eyes of those outside Maine, he brought instant recognition to the project.
Cummings was born on February 11th, 1890, in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, son of the president of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, and was raised in New York City. He graduated from the Boys' High School in 1907 and entered the Department of Architecture as Cornell University, graduating in 1912. His college scrapbook, in the archives of Cornell University, displays proof of his design talent and wide-ranging social interests, which would serve him well in future years. His professional career began in the city as a draftsman with the firm of Carrere and Hastings, architects, with which he remained for five years. When the United States entered World War I, he enlisted in the army, received an officer's commission and was assigned to the Air Service. After serving sixteen months, chiefly in France, Cummings was discharged in February 1919, whereupon he returned to professional activity and briefly served as head draftsman for the office of Trowbridge and Ackerman, architects, in Manhattan. In May 1920, he removed to Binghamton and was employed by L.O. Lacey. A decade earlier, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design graduate Charles H. Conrad had moved to work in the "Parlor City," and, in 1926, as a result of the association of Conrad with Cummings on the design and construction of the Benjamin Franklin School in Binghamton, the two architects formed an association that lasted until 1961.
The first commission of the new firm provided a portent of the future, as school buildings came to lie at the center of Conrad and Cummings's work. The viewpoints of Gordon Bain Cummings regarding the importance of school design became known through his work with officials of the New York State Department of Education, his public speaking and his writing. Cummings's role as representative of the architectural profession on two special committees of the New York State Department of Education's Buildings and Grounds Division kept him well-informed of the changing regulatory definitions that controlled design. For example, the statutory requirements for heating and ventilation were dedicated to maintaining healthful and comfortable conditions, with appropriate temperature and humidity levels, free of airborne infections, chemicals, and odors, and with appropriate movement of air with drafts. Cummings's position on the Committee on School Building Heating and Ventilation, conferring with both upstate and New York City mechanical engineers, health authorities and architects, ensured that he was aware of the latest experimentation. These ideas affected all of his designs. Cummings's design for the Unadilla Central School, completed in 1935, was considered a model project, combining all features of the site, long-established as the setting of an academy, with all the advantages of a modern, forward-looking educational program.
Although no information has come to light explaining why the centralization committee chaired by Dr. Bowers chose Gordon Bain Cummings, both were active by the early 1930s in the West Presbyterian Church in Binghamton. As Dr. Bowers chaired the Broome County Planning Board for a number of years during and after World War II, he was certainly aware of Cummings's contributions to the area. The firm designed numerous residences in New York's Southern Tier, and Cummings served as the architect of the United States Post Office and Courthouse, First Church of Christ Scientist, City Hospital and the Broome County Airport Administration Building, all in Binghamton. Cummings achieved national prominence in professional circles through the American Institute of Architects. He served on the board of the AIA in 1942-43 and 1949-50, became secretary in 1953-55 and president in 1955-56. After he retired in 1961, the interests of the firm of Conrad and Cummings continued under the leadership of his son, John Butler Cummings, and a new partner under the name of Cummings and Pash. By 1982, the two firms had designed 117 school commissions in forty-six school districts, including Afton, Bainbridge, Delhi, Spencer, Trumansburg, Vestal and Waverly.
J. Ralph Ingalls was treasurer of the school board when the Maine Central School School was constructed in 1938. Although his impact on the region was not as great as that of either Bowers or Cummings, he did more to maintain the property than either of his contemporaries.
Ingalls, a navy veteran of World War I, resident of Maine and thirty-year employee of Endicott-Johnson Corporation, devoted a tremendous amount of his time to elementary and secondary education. After seven years as treasurer, he became a member of the school board and, five years later, he was elected its president. In 1957, when the Maine School District was combined with the Endwell School District, Ingalls oversaw the merger, and he was chosen to serve as the president of the board of the combined system. In 1970, to honor a man who had served the cause of local education more than half his life, the board renamed the Maine school in his honor. His name was added to the entablature of the projecting portico of the building at that time. Two years later, he died unexpectedly at his summer residence at Deer Lake, Windsor.
Building Description
The J. Ralph Ingalls School is located on the south side of Church Street in the small hamlet of Maine, Broome County. The property is roughly a block from the chief thoroughfare through the village, NYS Rte. 26. It sits in the midst of one of the oldest residential neighborhoods of the community, characterized by a variety of two-story frame houses in the popular styles of the nineteenth century, including Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne, and graced by mature maple and elm trees.
The two-and-one-half-acre property is the original parcel associated with the school. The property slopes very gently to the southwest and the school is set considerably back from the street within a park-like setting. A broad central concrete sidewalk provides access to the main entrance. Asphalt driveways extend from Church Street along the east and west property lines to the rear of the school, where there is a paved parking lot. There is a fenced playground in the rear. The only remaining vestige of the residences that pre-dated the school on this site is a concrete foundation pad for a garage at the northwest corner of the property.
The J. Ralph Ingalls School is a substantial, nearly square two-story school building constructed in 1940. The building sits on a concrete foundation, has a steel frame structural system and a blue-grey slate roof. The walls are red brick over concrete block and the trim is limestone. The building is regular and symmetrical. Its primary, north elevation is defined by a large, seven-bay center block framed by smaller, one-bay recessed pavilions. Behind this nine-bay-wide and one-bay-deep composition, the ends of a larger square pavilion, containing the main block of the school, project on either side. The end walls of each section are finished in brick quoins. The larger, center section features a low-pitched hipped roof with stepped ends crowned by a multi-stage octagonal wooden cupola with a Chippendale-inspired balustrade, originally decorated with turned wooden urns. The recessed pavilions have flat asphalt roofs behind brick parapet walls above flat stone band courses.
The main block is organized around a center entrance within a monumental two-story, three-bay projecting wooden portico resting on a slightly raised deck and supported by wooden piers and pilasters. The portico has a tongue and groove flush-board tympanum and a modillioned wood entablature. The main entrance is through double-leaf wooden panel doors surmounted by a rectangular glass transom and set within an overscale wooden trabeated enframement. Windows are twelve-over-twelve double-hung wooden sash in the center pavilion, except above the door, where there is a pair of windows with nine-over-nine lights. First-story windows have splayed brick lintels and stone keystones. Second-story windows are flush with the heavy wooden entablature. Each of the end pavilions is defined by an entrance at ground level and an oversized multi-pane round-arched window above. These entrances are recessed double-leaf wooden panel and glass doors within heavy simple surrounds with projecting lintels.
The side, east, and west elevations of the school are identical. These are defined by three groupings of four windows on each floor, each group defining a classroom. Window trim, band courses, and quoins are similar to those on the facade, and parapet walls are topped by stone coping. These elevations are otherwise undecorated.
The rear, south elevation is defined by a projecting center section containing two groups of four windows on each floor flanked by ground-level entrances beneath oversized round-arched windows. Although, this elevation is somewhat sparer, materials and details are similar to those on the other elevations. The original rear wooden doors have been replaced with aluminum but retain their original multi-pane transoms. On either side of the center section, the rear wall is blank, detailed only by brick quoins and a stone band course and coping. A four-foot square brick chimney rises from the rear section of the building, generally behind the southwest entrance.
The floor plan takes the form of a square. The auditorium/gymnasium fills the large, interior center section, outlined by corridors on all four sides. These provide access to classrooms and administrative spaces, which are located along the exterior walls. Stairwells are located at the corners. Most of the administrative and formal public spaces are located in the front section of the building. The main entrance opens into an entrance hallway and octagonal meeting space, vaulted overhead, marking the administrative center of the school. Administrative offices flank the entrance on the first floor, while the library is located immediately above. Classrooms generally occupy spaces along the longer, side walls, providing a maximum amount of the preferred east-west light to these areas. The shower and locker rooms are in the basement.
The most highly decorative interior spaces are the foyer and the library. The library is detailed in pine, stained to simulate mahogany. Built-in bookcases and cupboards line all four walls and the doorway features a large pedimented surround.
Many of the original interior finishes survive. These include plaster walls and ceilings, birch trim, terrazzo floors in vestibules, stair halls, and corridors, maple strip parquet floors in classrooms, and cement and tile finishes in bathroom and kitchen areas.
The auditorium/gymnasium features plaster walls, a maple strip floor and a linoleum-covered wainscot, which is original. The proscenium is framed by coupled Doric pilasters and a full entablature. The auditorium seats 600 with folding benches built into the rear and beneath the stage.
The level of alterations is generally low and most changes are cosmetic. Some of the parquet floors have been removed and some covered with non-historic materials. Some ceilings have been covered in acoustical tiles and others have been dropped. Certain spaces, such as the kitchen, lunchroom, science labs, vocational and home economics rooms have seen more alterations in an effort to incorporate up-to-date services and programs.
Front facade (1996)
West elevation (1996)
South rear elevation (1996)
East elevation (1996)
