Sherburne High School, Sherburne New York

Date added: June 08, 2023 Categories: New York School

Education in Sherburne began almost with the settlement of the village in 1793-94. John Smith's History of Chenango and Madison Counties (1880) states that while the settlers were still living in log cabins, school meetings were held. A permanent school building was constructed in the 1820s. The Sherburne Free Academy served the needs of the village until 1870, when the Union Free School was constructed on Chapel Street. The brick Italianate style structure was large and imposing, as befitted a village made prosperous by the Chenango Canal (1837) and, later, the Utica, Chenango & Susquehanna Railroad (1867). By 1875 the village contained six churches, three hotels, a National Bank, factories, mills, a newspaper, and numerous shops.

Sherburne's growth as a regional agricultural center brought with it new demands on the old Union School. In 1919 the original with four other nearby districts to create one large school district. The increasing use of buses to transport students made this move possible. Convenient, reliable transportation also allowed all grades to be centralized into one building, sharing communal space such as an auditorium. The desire, too, for a modern facility was uppermost in the minds of some members of the Board of Education; in 1923 the decision was made to build a new school building and demolish the old Union School.

The call to construct a new school was made by two local benefactors, Mrs. Grace Newton and Miss Carrie Pratt, who promised to donate $25,000 each if the district would issue a minimum of $75,000 in bonds for the new building. "The school proposition," as it was called by the Sherburne News, was heartily endorsed by the voters at the annual school meeting in May, 1923. Almost immediately, the Board of Education engaged the services of Rochester architect J. Mills Platt, who specialized in school and bank architecture and designed several large buildings in Rochester. Platt was trained in Bridgeport, Conn., had taught architecture at the Rochester Mechanics Institute, and was a charter member of the Rochester Society of Architects. By the time he received the Sherburne commission, Platt had been practicing for over 30 years and was considered to be one of the most eminent school architects in western New York. The stipulation that the school district raise $75,000 to match Mrs. Newton's and Miss Pratt's donations ensured that an adequate sum was raised to retain the services of an experienced, well-known architect.

The construction contract was let to general contractor Henry O'Connell of Earlville in October 1923. Excavation for the three-story brick building began immediately, although it was not completed and dedicated until March 1925. Over 600 people attended the opening ceremonies, which took place in the spacious auditorium and were presided over by Dr. William Little, the president of the Board of Education and a special guest speaker, Dr. Alexander C. Flick of the State Department of Education. The 133-foot-long, 106-foot-wide terra cotta brick building was trimmed with Norwich blue stone and made fireproof by the use of steel joists and concrete floors and foundation. It contained grade rooms for elementary students and separate rooms for each of the high school classes. Special purpose rooms were numerous and included a domestic science department, an agricultural department with shop, an auditorium with a stage and dressing room, three recitation rooms, a laboratory, and an English room.

The 1925 Sherburne School was built with growth in mind since the continued consolidation of the school district was anticipated. Such was the case when, in 1930, fourteen additional districts joined with the five of School District #7, making a total of nineteen districts serviced by the new building. Six buses were purchased to cover the transportation needs of the outlying areas and a garage was built on the south end of the school property. The first-floor homemaking and agricultural departments were converted into classrooms and additional space was obtained by purchasing residences in the neighborhood, the Lucas house to the north, and the Cotton house to the east, for special classes.

In 1934 two more districts were included in the consolidation plan, which extended the area served by the school from Columbia to Smyrna. It was at this time that the Board of Education proposed building an addition to the eleven-year-old building using a $47,000 grant to the school district by the federal Public Works Administration. In May 1935, the voters approved spending the additional $120,000 necessary to construct the $167,700 addition, and work began in July. Raymond A. Freeburg was engaged as the architect (J. Mills Platt had died in October, 1929) and Frank O'Connell was hired as the general contractor. According to currently available information, nothing else is known about either Freeburg or O'Connell.

The addition contained the most up-to-date facilities and special purpose rooms, including a home economics department (with bedroom, living room, kitchen, and store room), shop, agriculture department, kindergarten room, cafeteria, gymnasium, two science laboratories, a social science room, study hall, and library. Construction was completed by the fall of 1935. Notable exterior features of the addition include a clock set within the face of the front (north) facade of the building, an oversized cast-stone owl standing atop a pedestal, also on the north side of the building, decorative cast-stone panels separating the large arched windows of the front facade, and plaster of paris bas relief plaques in the interior of the gymnasium depicting sports scenes.

Improvements to the grounds continued throughout the late 1930s, due primarily to the federal aid projects funded by the Civil Works and Works Progress Administration programs. The large lot east of the school was cleared for a playing field. One of the most significant improvements was the construction of a stone terrace at the rear of the addition for loading students onto buses. The terrace walls were built using fieldstone taken from the walls of the Chenango Canal, which was closed in the 1860s and slowly dismantled thereafter. At the time of these improvements, two additional school districts voted to join the #7 Sherburne district, increasing the total number to 23 and extending it from south Hamilton on the north to nearly north Norwich on the south.

By the 1960s the trend toward centralization was outweighed by the tremendous need for additional classroom space and, as a result, an adjacent elementary school and separate high school located on the outskirts of the village were constructed. The new high school was completed in 1971 and represented a merger of the Sherburne and Earlville school districts. The old Sherburne School was used as an intermediate school until 1980, when its functions were fully superceded by the new buildings and it was closed. The district sold the building and its grounds to the village in 1981.

In the late 1980s the building underwent restoration for use as professional and residential space.

Building Description

The Sherburne High School is a three-story terra-cotta brick structure with stone and concrete detailing in the Collegiate Gothic style of the 1920s and 1930s. The original building was constructed in 1924-25 and is on an east-west axis. An addition was connected at the southwest corner in 1935 and is on a north-south axis. The building sits on a large (5.484-acre) lot, with grass surrounding the building on all but the south side, which is used as a parking lot. (The original lot was 7.39 acres)

The southeast portion of the property, along Mad Brook, is heavily wooded. Beyond Mad Creek, the village gives way to rural farmland. A one-story brick garage is located south of the school.

The surrounding neighborhood is residential in character. One- and two-story detached frame dwellings dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are located to the west and north of the school. Further to the northwest lies the Sherburne Village Historic District, a large collection of residential, civic, commercial and religious buildings in the historic core of the village. A one-story brick-faced elementary school, built in the early 1960s, occupies the property immediately to the southwest of the property. A one-story, gable-roofed frame professional building (currently occupied by the Mid-York Health Center) is located just east of the high school.

The school building faces Chapel Street with its front (north) facade. Despite the 10-11 year difference in construction dates, the original building and the addition present a very unified appearance. The front facade of the original building is defined by its fenestration: a series of five large, three-part wooden windows with double-hung sash containing multi-pane lights over one light on each floor. All the building's windows are similar, changing only in size. The second-story windows of the front facade are capped with decorative brick and stone arches, while the third-story windows are connected by a single stone lintel the length of the building. The east and west corners are punctuated by windowless sections projecting slightly from the face of the building. The building has two front entrances, located next to the end towers. A plaque with the date of construction and the name of the school rests on the third-story lintel, below the coping of the eaves.

The 1935 addition is similar to the original building in materials, style, and fenestration. The front facade comprises a central projection and flanking wings. The wing nearest the original building contains a round-arched entrance on the first floor and a window lighting the second and third-floor staircase above. Directly above the entrance is the seal of Sherburne (a shield flanked by two figures) molded in cast stone. The east wing is taller than the rest of the addition because the stepped gable rises to a peak in which is set the face of a clock. Also, to the west of the entrance is a multi-story pedestal upon which rests a large cast-stone statue of an owl. The center section projecting from the face of the building contains two large windows on each floor, separated by brick buttresses capped by cast-stone tablets incised with trefoil detailing. Decorative cast-stone panels depicting shields separate the second and third stories.

The east, west, and south facades are less regular than the front sections. The east facade of the original building (and its mirror image, the west facade) contains two four-part windows (with multi-paned upper sash) separated by a double window. The fenestration clearly reflects interior function: large classrooms separated by a staircase. In the center of the first floor is a double door. At the southeast corner of the building is a brick smokestack, which is part of a one-story boiler room. The east facade of the addition has irregular fenestration, with large tripartite windows on the first floor and a mix of smaller, single, two-part and tripartite windows on the second and third floors.

The south facade is highly irregular. The addition projects southward to a considerable degree and is extended further by a stone terrace. A small, one-story section once used as a boiler room projects from the original building, with a double-door entrance located near the southeast corner. The second and third stories contain a series of four-part windows separated by two square vent stacks. The fenestration of the addition is highly regular, with large tripartite windows on the first floor and taller tripartite arched windows on the combined second and third floors. The most important special-purpose rooms of the addition are located in this section: the cafeteria on the first floor and the large gymnasium on the second floor. A near windowless section defines the southwest corner of the addition, punctuated only by a rounded bay window on the first floor. The fieldstone of the terrace rises to approximately six feet in height and wraps around to the west facade.

The west facade contains banks of tripartite windows on the first, second, and third stories, and a squared bay window near the north corner projecting from the second and third stories.

There are two particularly notable rooms in the interior: the auditorium in the original building and the gymnasium in the addition. The two entrances located on the front facade of the original building open onto hallways, between which is the auditorium. The auditorium was constructed to hold as many as 600 people, exclusive of the raised stage at the south end of the room. Entrance is taken from doors at the northwest and northeast corners of the room with steps leading down to the floor or bleachers, since the room is depressed several feet below the other rooms on the first floor. A series of windows line the north, east, and west sides of the auditorium, with both the east and west side windows opening onto the hallways. Dressing rooms are located behind the stage, to the south. The wooden floors and reed molding plaster detail surrounding the stage give added distinctiveness to the interesting spatial characteristics of this room.

The gymnasium is located on the second floor and is a large, open room with exposed brick walls and wooden floors. Decorative plaster panels depicting sports scenes - baseball, football, and basketball - adorn the walls. Tall, arched windows light the interior from the south wall.

South of the school, on the edge of the parking lot, is a large, garage. The long, one-story brick utilitarian building features a shed roof and irregular fenestration.