Smyrna Elementary School, Smyrna New York

Date added: September 06, 2023 Categories:

Smyrna Elementary School was built in 1941 to accommodate consolidation of Smyrna School District #2 with the Sherburne Central School and housed grades 1 through 6. The school was designed by architect Gordon Wright of Fayetteville and built by George E. Williams and Son of Utica. In 1956, the school was enlarged by means of two additions on the east and south elevations.

The area that became the town of Smyrna was settled in the late eighteenth century by New Englanders from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The earliest settlers are recorded as Joseph Porter and family from Conway, Massachusetts, who arrived in August 1792. The town of Smyrna was divided off from Sherburne on March 25^th, 1808, and named Stafford. Less than a month later, the name was changed to Smyrna, reportedly after the ancient city of Asia Minor. The town was formally organized on March 9^th, 1809. The village of Smyrna developed along Pleasant Brook, now NYS Rte. 80, and was formally organized on April 20^th, 1829.

Pleasant Brook, a natural source of water power, supported lumber mills. Farming was, and still is, an important industry. Well into the 1900s, the village was served by a railroad, the Ontario & Western, which moved freight and passengers in and out of town. The small community was characterized by churches and residences, cheese factories, milk stations, and other businesses. Fifteen school districts existed throughout the town in the early twentieth century, most within walking distance of farms. By the 1930s, the availability of easy transportation by automobile and truck brought changes to Smyrna. A number of businesses closed because people could easily work and shop in larger communities. During this time, Smyrna found itself unable to offer the educational opportunities offered in centralized schools and there was a decrease in enrollment in the outlying district schools. A merger with another school district was one way to correct the imbalance and on July 9^th, 1940, the people of Smyrna voted to consolidate School District #2 with the Sherburne Central District. Educational facilities were to be divided between the two villages, with Smyrna accommodating grades 1 through 6 and Sherburne grades 7 through 12.

A larger and more modern building was deemed necessary to house Smyrna's new elementary school. The existing brick and concrete school building on the site was razed and adjacent property owned by Lillian Endries was purchased to provide a larger site for the new building. The new school was designed by architect Gordon Wright of Fayetteville, about whom nothing is nothing. The school was constructed by George E. Williams and Son of Utica.

The new school opened in September 1942. The building was in use for about fourteen years, between 1941 and 1955, before Smyrna was again faced with a shortage of classroom space. On August 13^th, 1955, village residents authorized construction of an addition to the original building. The addition was designed by Ketchum, Miller and Arnold, Architects and built by the J.G.A Construction Corp., both of Syracuse. Completed in September 1957, the addition included a wing with a kindergarten and several new classrooms. A second, smaller, rear addition to the auditorium provided a contemporary kitchen. In form, scale and materials, the 1957 additions are very similar to the original section.

The Smyrna school is a typical small village school building from the pre-World War I era. Schools of the 1930s and 40s generally reflected a number of educational reform theories and laws that had been developed in the early twentieth century. These various initiatives were aimed at health and safety issues, the development of a broader curriculum, and the provision of equal and adequate educational opportunities for all residents of the state. Among the most influential of these was the movement for school centralization, in which numerous independent, local school districts were combined into larger, centralized facilities that could offer more up-to-date and diverse instruction, while making the most efficient use of resources (such as the number of available teachers). In addition, central schools were also viewed as community centers, and buildings were often planned so that their auditoriums or gymnasiums could serve as public gathering spaces.

Beginning in the mid-1920s, centralization was encouraged by New York State laws that provided financial incentives to districts wishing to centralize, and in the late 1930s, centralization was further encouraged by the Depression-era relief programs of the federal government, specifically the Public Works Administration. [It is not known whether the Smyrna-Sherburne Central School District took advantage of any of these incentives.] The centralization movement had a substantial effect on the state's rural areas, where numerous one and two-room schools were replaced by large, modern buildings. In the town of Smyrna alone, the central school district replaced fifteen smaller ones.

Other ways in which the Smyrna school was typical of its time include its one-story form (increasing fire safety, allowing easier construction and providing for easy expansion), the inclusion of a gymnasium/auditorium, the location of the gym in an area that is somewhat separated from the rest of the school (for easier public access), the inclusion of a kindergarten (larger and separated from the rest of the classrooms) and a library, and the absence of large banks of windows in classrooms (reflecting the general acceptance of artificial light).

In style, the building embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Art Moderne mode, defined by a restrained and stylized application of classical forms and features. As embodied in this building, the Moderne aesthetic is illustrated by the use of geometrical forms and massing, broad expanses of brick, a flat roof, the lack of a cornice, a utilitarian interior and a symmetrically arranged entrance pavilion featuring a center entrance within a monumental but plain limestone enframement. In its illustration of this style, this small-scale public building is reminiscent of a number of small post office buildings in New York built in the late 1930s and early 1940s, which combine restrained colonial features (such as brick construction, balanced fenestration and multi-paned window sash) into more modern and streamlined compositions featuring little embellishment or applied detail.

The Smyrna school served in its original capacity until the early 1990s, when all classes were consolidated in the Sherburne and Farlville school buildings. The village of Smyrna took title to the school in 1992 and it is currently owned by the Chenango County Improvement Program, which hopes to convert the building to housing.

Building Description

The village of Smyrna is located in the northernmost part of Chenango County, New York, approximately three miles from Sherburne on Route 80. The village is located in the town of Smyrna and in the Sherburne-Earlville Central School School District.

The Smyrna Elementary School is located on School Street, in a residential neighborhood on the south side of the village. The building is located on a 3.93-acre parcel. The site is bounded by residences on the east and by residences and a lumber mill on the west. There is a paved parking lot in front of the building and recreation fields, of approximately 2.25 acres, at the rear. The building is set back ninety feet from the street on a relatively level parcel. The land drops down rather quickly (approximately eight feet) about forty feet from the rear of the building and then slopes off gradually to the south at the recreation fields.

The original building, constructed in 1941, encompasses approximately 8600 square feet, including a partial lower-level boiler room. In 1956, a 4,650-square-foot addition was constructed in two sections: a classroom wing on the east side of the original school and a small kitchen addition on the south elevation, at the rear of the gym. The original building was L-shaped in plan; however, the new wing on the east side of the building created a U-shaped configuration.

The school is a single-story building with a basement and mezzanine workspace. In form, it can be described as a series of rectangular pavilions, of varying heights. The building is constructed of concrete blocks faced with brick. The foundation walls are poured concrete. Floor construction in the original building is gypsum panels over bar joists, except for slabs on grade and at the gymnasium. In the addition, floor construction is concrete over a metal deck on bar joists over a crawl space. The flat roof of both the original building and the addition consists of metal roof joists and gypsum decking covered with built-up roofing. There are wooden double-hung sash with twelve-over-twelve and nine-over-nine lights in the original building; these windows feature limestone sills. Each classroom in the addition features a long, rectangular, five-part aluminum window set within a limestone lintel and sill, providing a large expanse of glass on its outside wall. All exterior doors are metal or wood.

The primary (north) facade is asymmetrically arranged, with an entrance pavilion on the north end and a classroom wing extending to the east. This entrance pavilion is five bays wide, dominated by a monumental central entrance feature, which rises from ground level and breaks the roof plane. The entrance consists of a small, single, wooden panel and glass door flanked by sidelights. The door is set within colossal stone pilasters, capped with a stone lintel. Glass blocks fill in the space above the door, allowing light into the vestibule. At night, these are lighted from the rear. Above the glass blocks, a concrete panel contains the words SMYRNA SCHOOL. Bays in the entrance pavilion are marked by full-height stone pilasters extending from the concrete basement to a stone band at the roof. Windows in the pavilion are larger in size than elsewhere in the building. A brick chimney for the basement boiler rises above the roof at the rear of the building.

The classroom wing to the east is smaller in scale than the entrance pavilion and features similar but less elaborate embellishment. The west and south facades are also similar in style and material to the primary facade; however, they are more utilitarian in appearance.

The 1956 addition is compatible in form, scale, and materials to the original building. The most significant difference is the fenestration. The addition features banks of large-scale aluminum window walls rather than the smaller, multi-light wooden windows of the original. There is one large-scale aluminum window with an irregular arrangement of colored-glass lights marking the transition from the original building to the contemporary wing.

A large (50 feet x 34 feet with a 15-foot ceiling) gymnasium occupies a substantial portion of the entrance pavilion. The gym is entered through wooden double doors. Access to the stage is by stairs from the gym and the main corridor. Girls' and Boys' locker rooms are located off the gym, adjacent to the stage, and the kitchen addition is located at the rear (south) side of the gym.

A partial basement under the stage accommodates a boiler, water heater, storage tank, and electrical panels. Access to the basement is from steps off the main corridor and from an exterior entrance at the east side of the gymnasium wing.

The interior walls are finished in plaster. Bathroom walls are faced in ceramic tiles and the gymnasium walls feature high wainscotting. Ceilings throughout are either painted gypsum board or acoustical tile glued to gypsum board. Floors in the original building are hardwood parquet in the classrooms, wood planking in the gym and vinyl tiles in the halls and bathrooms. In the addition, the floor is covered in vinyl tiles throughout.