Abandoned School in Pennsylvania

James Madison School - East Scranton Junior High, Scranton Pennsylvania

Date added: September 29, 2023 Categories: Pennsylvania School

Front facade showing central pavilion southeast (2008)

The development of the public education system in the United States began in the late eighteenth century as state and Federal legislators acknowledged the need for a government-supported system of instruction for all citizens. Organized efforts to establish a public school system in the Scranton vicinity began in the 1770s, but did not begin to bear fruit until the early nineteenth century. By 1857, the recently established Borough of Scranton (1856) already had 17 one-room elementary schools distributed among the town's four districts; the Scranton High School, containing four classrooms in a two-story, stone masonry building located at Vine Street and North Washington Avenue in downtown Scranton, was constructed in that year and opened on January 1, 1858.

The rapid growth of the public school system in the mid- and late-nineteenth centuries mirrored that of the city. The influx of people in search of employment necessitated larger and better schools to accommodate the rising number of school children, and new legislation continuously called for improved school buildings. By 1880, the school system had grown to include 29 schools with 158 teachers and over 7,000 students. As of the early 1920s, there would be approximately 50 public schools in Scranton, with about 800 teachers instructing nearly 30,000 pupils.

Due to the demand for more classroom space and apparently for school buildings of Progressive design with spacious rooms and corridors, tall ceilings, and high windows to admit maximum light and ventilation, the City of Scranton carried out a comprehensive program of improvement for its educational buildings during the years between 1884 and 1910. Forty-three elementary schools and two high schools were constructed during this period, hence the city's public school buildings were almost completely replaced: The years from 1889 to 1902 were particularly active, with at least 24 schools constructed (and perhaps as many as ten more, based on the stylistic characteristics of buildings for which an exact date could not be attributed). Most of the 1884-1910 buildings were quite large structures, many were impressive renditions of monumental styles of the time such as Richardsonian Romanesque, Late Gothic Revival, and Classical Revival, and virtually all appear to have embodied Progressive precepts in pedagogy and educational architecture. In 1914, following the close of this program of improvement, the school district endowed all of the elementary schools with inspirational names evoking the memory of famous Americans, including Revolutionary patriots, presidents, authors, scientists, and inventors.

The Scranton School District carried out a later campaign of major school construction to improve its facilities with designs embodying Progressive educational principles during the years 1924-1937. In this phase of building activity, the school district established its first three junior high schools and built four new elementary schools to replace older structures, including one (School No. 4) that appears to have dated to ca. 1870 and had earlier escaped replacement, and three (Nos. 32, 33, and 34) that had been built in the opening years of the earlier great campaign of Progressive construction and were manifesting structural problems. All seven of the 1924-1937 buildings were relatively large-scale brick buildings, larger in general than the earlier Progressive buildings, and all expressed the influence of the Late Gothic Revival and/or Classical Revival styles. The most impressive in architectural terms was Scranton's first junior high, North Scranton Junior High School, an outstanding example of the Late Gothic Revival style. The construction of North Scranton in 1924 inaugurated the later Progressive construction campaign. Three of the buildings, elementary schools Nos. 32, 33, and 34 were completed during 1928. Nos. 32 and 33 were strikingly similar in their designs blending Late Gothic Revival and Classical Revival, although Scranton architect Arthur P. Coon has only been documented as the designer for No. 33, the James Madison School. The three remaining schools were built in the 1930s.

The first Public School No. 33 (named James Madison School in 1914) was built in 1886, located at Madison Avenue and Pine Street. It was an ornate and imposing two-and-a-half-story stone structure showing Richardsonian Romanesque influence. The 1886 building was slated for replacement after a health inspection in 1921 found unsanitary conditions.

The second James Madison School opened on September 12, 1928. The building was designed by Arthur P. Coon and constructed by the Alaimo Brothers firm, contractors of Pittston, at a cost of $352,594. Madison was for many years the city's largest elementary school. Its relatively large scale for a primary school, coupled with its distinctive Late Gothic Revival and Classical Revival architectural qualities, suggests that Madison was intended to be what might be termed a "flagship school" displaying Scranton's renewed commitment to Progressive precepts for the education of its younger children. One local newspaper account of the 1928 formal opening ceremony described the new school as "modern in every detail." Another asserted that "The school is one of the best in the state, it is steel girdered, of brick and reinforced concrete and is equipped with all the most modern of educational devices." The principal address at the opening exercises was made by Dr. John A. Keith, then Pennsylvania's state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dr. Keith spoke of the Commonwealth's determination to provide "education offered under the best conditions ... The life of our nation depends upon the education which our people can absorb. Science and knowledge are every day becoming more important to obtaining good living conditions."

The school contained a gymnasium room which may have doubled as auditorium space. The building lacks a kitchen and no evidence has been found that one was formerly present, hence it is apparent that the schoolchildren either ate lunches at their desks that they had brought from home, or returned home for the lunch period. Scranton's elementary schools were intended to function as neighborhood schools, at least before the era of busing began in the 1960s. The asphalted lot located behind the school and to either side was used as playground area.

Changes in Scranton's demographics and the decline of its economic base during the mid-twentieth century precipitated the consolidation, closing, and limited reorganization of the city's public school system. The James Madison School was converted to a junior high school (grades 7-9) with 595 children in 1973, and then to an intermediate level school (grades 6-8), designated East Scranton Intermediate School, in 1978. Enrollment had declined to 425 students as of 1993, and in 2001 the city closed the school.

A newspaper article in the 1960s noted that Madison had yet to receive "modernizing attention." Another article, written in 2004 when the school district briefly considered reopening the facility, reported that the school retained its original architectural character in strong measure. Some classrooms had received renovations in the 1970s for newly instituted pedagogical functions in line with the change in the age range of students, such as Industrial Arts and Home Economics courses, but the original classroom partition walls had been retained intact. The reporter in 2004 also referred to the library at Madison as being larger than those in the Scranton School District's other schools.

The James Madison School, completed in 1928, was constructed toward the end of the Progressive Era in the history of education in America, the period defined in the statewide context Historic Educational Resources of Pennsylvania as extending from 1867 to 1930. As a late and relatively large-scale example of a Progressive elementary school building, the Madison School represents the type as it had come to full fruition. Within a few years following the construction of this school in 1928, the straitened economic circumstances of the Great Depression essentially brought a close to this era in American educational history and to the building of large urban edifices designed along the lines envisioned by John Dewey and other Progressive educational theorists. The Progressive school reformers prescribed that school buildings should incorporate large libraries or "book laboratories" and well-designed sanitary facilities; "scientifically constructed classrooms" with movable desks, blackboards, ample ventilation, and precise color schemes intended to maximize the advantages of natural light; and modern fireproofing construction techniques. All these elements are present in the Madison School. The expansive library at Madison, occupying the space of two classrooms, the school's solid construction and fine decorative aspect as evinced in the hallway woodwork of wainscot and molded chair rail, and the building's many tall windows, designed to provide maximum light and ventilation for the interior, all exemplified the proper Progressive school. As attested in local newspaper articles, the James Madison School was considered one of Scranton's best designed and built schools throughout its service as an elementary school (up to 1973).

Building Description

The James Madison School, little altered since it was built as an elementary school in 1927-1928, is a three-story school building located in a residential urban neighborhood of the city of Scranton. A narrow lawn area intervenes between the front of the building and the street. The relatively constricted rectangular lot, 0.9 acre in extent and consisting of asphalted yard to the sides and rear, is enclosed by iron-railed fence along the front and by chain link fence on the other three sides. The school is constructed of steel frame, brick masonry, and reinforced concrete on a C-shaped plan. The foundation is built of poured concrete; the roof is covered with built-up bituminous roofing. The surface of the flat roof is not visible from street level, hence the roof surface material is not known. The school measures approximately 165 feet in length by 105 feet in depth. With reference to architectural stylistic influence, the Madison School is an eclectic building exhibiting relatively subdued expression of the Late Gothic Revival (or Collegiate Gothic) and Classical Revival styles. The building has never received an addition, and, having been subjected to but limited exterior alteration, demonstrates integrity to its historic character and appearance on both exterior and interior.

The Madison School is located within the residential neighborhood on the eastern edge of downtown Scranton known as the Hill Section. It stands on its 0.9-acre lot on the southeast side of Quincy Avenue at approximately the center of the block. The school faces northwest to the street, set back about 20 feet from the public sidewalk. The interval from sidewalk to building is occupied mainly by an embanked strip of lawn lined in front with a rubble stone retaining wall with concrete coping, surmounted by an iron-railed fence. The property is enclosed on the northeast, southeast, and southwest with a metal chain link fence. The area of the school lot within this fence, to the sides and rear of the building, consists of asphalted yard that was used as playground area. There are no trees on the property apart from a pair of relatively small flowering specimens in front, one toward either end of the building, nor are there any outbuildings or other ancillary structures. The surrounding neighborhood is visually harmonious with the school building, as it is composed of historic dwellings dating to the period ca. 1900-1930, the era during which the school was built.

The retaining wall and iron fence lining the front of the lot are interrupted by four stairways, with two of these situated at the center, flanking the principal entry, and the others positioned at either end of the building and facilitating access to the school's side entries from Quincy Avenue. Three of these stairways are original construction elements, consisting of concrete treads, risers comprising two courses of brickwork, and side retaining walls of poured concrete. The original stairways are those in the center and to the southwest. Each of the original sets of steps has an iron double-leaf gate at the bottom that also forms a piece of the front fence. In addition, each of the two central sets of steps has an iron lamppost located on the inner side at the top of the steps. The southwesterly lamppost has its globe light intact; that for the northeast lamppost is missing. At the top of the steps is a small concrete terrace in front of the central pavilion of the school's front facade. The front of this terrace and both sides of each of the three original stairways are lined with iron pipe railings. The stairways, the retaining wall, the terrace, and the lampposts were present when the just-completed building was photographed in August 1928. The architect's rendering of ca. 1927 depicted an iron-railed fence with double-leaf gates, suggesting that these features were also planned for early construction. The front fence and gates were probably put in place soon after August 1928. Neither 1920s view showed the iron pipe railings, hence the school administration probably had these fixtures added at some date from ca. 1930 onward. The original front stairway structure at the northeast end of the building, including its railings, has been replaced in recent years with a wooden structure composed of dimensional lumber and board. In addition to the front terrace and stairways, there are two stoops for side entries at the first story and three entry bulkheads, all of these exterior structures built of poured concrete.

The C-shaped three-story building is designed with the long seven-bay principal facade of the main block oriented toward the northwest. The principal facade is of symmetrical design, with a central pavilion of three bays projecting forward by about 1 foot and rising 1-2 feet above the rest of the front wall. Two rear wings, also of three stories, extend toward the southeast from either end of the building. Also on the rear of the building, a one-story extension, about 80 feet wide and 15 feet deep, projects from the center of the main block. This section was evidently an element of the original construction, as indicated by its symmetrical relationship to the main block, its exterior construction and finish of identical character to that of the other sections, and its interior function in accommodating the multipurpose room-cafeteria space. A rectangular penthouse built of brick masonry and coated with stucco, about 28 feet long by 14 feet wide, is positioned exactly on the center of the roof. The penthouse, which is not visible from the ground or street below, has a single central entry oriented toward the rear of the building. A brick chimney rises from an interior position located about 25 feet to the southwest of the penthouse.

The wails on the principal facade and on the outer facades of the rear wings are divided into apron walls of reinforced concrete, scored so as to approximate the appearance of ashlar stonework, and upper-level walling composed of brick masonry. On the central pavilion, the concrete lower wall extends to a full story in height. The brick masonry is laid up for the majority of the building's wall surface as running bond. On all facades, a concrete belt course extends across the wall immediately above the third-story windows. Above the belt course the brickwork is laid up as Flemish bond, comprising approximately 25 courses of brick. The masonry of the walls is crowned with a single course of bricks that are laid on end, i.e., in vertical orientation, surmounted by a plain cornice band of concrete. On the outer facades of the rear wings, whose walls are approximately 105 feet in length, the frontmost 25 feet or so of the wall are set back about 2 feet from the alignment of the majority of the wall. On each outer side wali, this front section is devoid of openings, but is elaborated below the belt course with a vertically oriented, rectangular brickwork panel design extending from the first story to the third. This large-scale box motif is composed of bricks laid as double courses of headers, with small, square concrete plates set at each corner to further set off the rectangular design. The building's decorative trimwork, such as the window and entry surrounds, belt course, and cornice band, and the name plaque and decorative frieze on the central front pavilion, is composed of concrete.

The central front pavilion is embellished with gently rounded arches over the first story openings, a multi-light transom (configured as five lights vertically by seven lights horizontally) and sidelights for the double leaf principal entry, a frieze between the second and third stories bearing a Gothic motif of shields and swords, and an inscribed, inset name plaque just below the molded cornice. The main entry has been altered via the installation of modern doors, as has also been done in the two side and five rear entries on the first story and the one basement entry.

The recessed, double-leaf side entries, located on the northeast and southwest end walls in the frontmost bays of the respective facades, have concrete stoops to the front. A large, concrete plaque bearing Gothic-style relief detail surmounts each side entry aperture on the facade, while within the recess a large three-light transom tops the door frame. The decoration on the plaque is similar to Gothic tracery but with flat concrete taking the place of the open spaces that would be present in true tracery. Two of the rear entries are located on the inner sides of the rear wing blocks, in the bays next to the main block. These double leaf entries have twelve light transoms (three lights vertically by four lights horizontally). Two more rear entries are located at either end of the one-story central rear extension, these doorways accessed from the exterior grade via concrete bulkheads because the large single room within has its floor positioned a half-story lower than the remaining first-floor area. These entries are also of double leaf form, but with large, vertically aligned six light transoms (three vertical by two horizontal). The remaining rear entry, located on the otherwise blank end wall of the southwest rear wing at the northeast end of the wall, is a relatively narrow single-leaf doorway with a plain surround. The school has a single basement entry, situated within a concrete bulkhead located on the southwest end of the building just to the southeast of the side entry for that facade.

All of the doors are metal doors of plain utilitarian design, manufactured in about the final third of the twentieth century. Those in the principal entry each hold two window lights arranged vertically. Those in the side entries as well as that in the end of the southwest rear wing have single, small vertically aligned window lights, although the light in the southwest rear door has been boarded over. The remaining doors are plain single-piece units without lights.

The original rhythm of the fenestration in its varying configuration of one to five units has been preserved throughout the building. The building's original window sash was wooden double-hung sash of 9/9 form, as known from the 1928 photograph. The original windows were replaced in the late twentieth century with three-piece single-hung aluminum sash set in aluminum frames. On the principal or northwest facade, on the three-bay central front pavilion, the windows are arranged in groups of three for each bay on each story. The main entry is in the center first-story bay of the pavilion. For the remainder of the front facade, with two bays to each side of the pavilion, the windows are in bands of five.

On the other facades, the disposition of windows varies between singles, pairs, triples and bands of four, although in general an appearance of symmetry is maintained via balanced placement of these forms. The end walls of the building to the southwest and northeast (which are the outer walls of the rear wings) are designed with five bays. Both of these facades present the same configuration of the two frontmost bays holding paired windows, with the side entry in the first bay on the first story, the third and fourth bays holding triple windows, and the fifth or rearmost bay holding paired windows. The rear end or southeast facade of each wing is blank except for the first-story entry on the southwesterly wing. The inner facade of each wing, being shorter than the outer facade, is designed with two bays, one at either end of the wall, with an entry located on the first story in the bay next to the main block, and the other openings all consisting of single windows.

The rear or southeast facade of the main block is arranged as five bays for the first story and as six bays for the second and third stories. This variation between levels is due to the presence of the one-story rear extension, which has a three-bay design for its long southeast wall. The rear extension has triple windows in each of its three bays on the latter wall, with these windows extending downward almost to the level of the exterior grade due to the low level of the interior floor. The openings on the southwest and northeast end walls of the one-story extension are limited to the bulkhead entries with their transoms. At either end of the southeast facade of the main block, on all three stories, there are single bays holding paired windows. The central areas on the second and third stories, situated above the extension, have two bays each with paired windows at the center. The flanking bays on these upper stories each have four-unit windows.

The interior plan includes rooms in the basement as well as on the three upper-floor levels. The functional basement space is limited to the southwestern third of the building, where a stairway and passage give access to five rooms of widely varying size. The basement is an area of utilitarian finish that was apparently devoted mainly to custodial and storage facilities, although the room adjoining the exterior bulkhead entry was used as the band room after the school was converted to use as a junior high school in 1973. The three upper floors share a circulation pattern in which a stairway is located at either end of the building and a single, broad C-shaped corridor communicates with all rooms. The building's 26 original classrooms are fairly uniform in size, measuring approximately 32 feet by 28 feet. In the main block of the building on each floor, there are rooms to either side of the main corridor, with five classroom cells extending along the front or northwest wall. Along the southeast or rear side of the main block, there is a pair of classrooms at the center, flanked on each side by a lavatory room and a corridor, narrower than the main corridor, that extends into a rear wing. Two additional classrooms, also situated within the main block and with their entries on the rear wing corridors, are located to either end of the southeast side. The rear wings are relatively short in relation to the main block, each containing a single classroom and a segment of corridor situated against the inner side of the wing. The school building lacks a kitchen room or any evidence of one.

Exceptions to the building's general pattern occur on the first floor and on the second floor, where the library area comprises two rooms occupying the center-front cell and positioned adjoining to the northeast. A partition holding a large opening, evidently originally fitted with folding or other movable doors, divides the library into its two constituent rooms. The doors are no longer present, but the door frame and its molded trim, which faces both rooms, are intact.

The first floor has the front rank of rooms divided in the center by the main entry hall containing stairs rising from grade level with a foyer at the top of the steps. The same five-room cells in the front rank as those on the floors above are present, although two of the cells are subdivided into smaller spaces. The first-floor plan remains in its original configuration, with all partition walls original. The three full-size rooms occupy the two cells at the southwest end and the one at the northeast end. The room at the immediate southwest end, fitted with a fireplace in the end wall and lined with paneled wainscot, was originally the faculty lounge, although used in late years as a classroom. Its neighbor has apparently always been a classroom. The room at the immediate northeast end of front rank of rooms was also evidently an original classroom, although employed in the school's last years as an office. The center room cell of the five consists of the entry hall flanked by office spaces, with the office on the northeast side divided into outer and inner rooms. These two rooms are partitioned by a wall holding an entry framed between 24-light sidelights (6 lights vertically by 4 lights horizontally) with a 9-light transom above. The second classroom-sized cell from the northeast end is divided into two administrative rooms.

In addition to the foyer space on the first-floor level for the front entry, there are similar foyers at the landings for the end stairways on the first through third floors. Each foyer is set off from its main floor area by an entry consisting of a double-leaf doorway fitted with doors incorporating window lights, sidelights flanking the doorway, and a large multi-light transom above. Both the framework for each foyer partition and the doors themselves are made of bronze, evidently as part of the building's fireproof construction. The end stairways are steel structures with steps, railings, stringers, and newels all made of that material, each stairway is designed with two flights of stairs and an intermediate landing for each story. The front stairway rises from grade to the first floor via a single flight of concrete steps.

The area on the first floor on the inner side of the C-shaped corridor, instead of containing classrooms, is given almost entirely to a gymnasium room that extends to occupy the projecting first-story rear block. The gymnasium has its floor positioned at a level about a half-story below that of the main first floor, enabling a ceiling higher than those found elsewhere in the building. There are three double-leaf entries into the gym, located on the main corridor on the northwest side of the room, one in the center and one toward either end of the wall. Stairways descend from the end entries to the main floor of the gym. The center entrance opens onto a narrow raised observation platform with a simple pipe railing, extending along the northwest wall between the stairways, with no access from the main floor of the room. Each entry is fitted with a double leaf doorway with solid two-panel rail and stile doors, surmounted by a 15-light transom (3 lights vertically by 5 lights horizontally). At the outer ends of the building's northeast and southwest end walls, the double-leaf exterior entries lead to the bulkhead steps and the schoolyard beyond. The gymnasium is finished in a utilitarian manner with walls of glazed yellow brick and a floor surface of painted wood typical of school gyms during the period. The radiators remain in their original configuration, hung on the wall, and there is evidence of the backboard mountings at either end of the room, features relating to the gymnasium function. It is possible that this room also functioned as an auditorium, although the presence of the railing along the edge of the raised platform would not have facilitated its use in this way. Lavatory rooms, accessed from the hallway, are located to either side of the gym.

The interior exhibits little alteration throughout the building. Classrooms and other rooms have intact original elements including hardwood floors, plaster upper walls and ceilings, long wood-framed blackboards, built-in wooden shelving, and wooden doors and frames with 9-light transoms. The classroom entry doors incorporate 9-light windows while the closet doors are solid two-panel rail and stile doors. The first-floor corridor has a paneled wooden wainscot lining the wall to about five-foot height. On the second and third floors, the decorative woodwork in the hallway consists of molded chair rail at waist height with vertical molded strips of wood at the wall corners. The faculty lounge, one of the rooms in the administrative group at the northeast end of the front rank of rooms on the first floor, has intact paneled wooden wainscot as well as a stone fireplace with a Gothic-style mantel and a paneled wooden overmantel, and multiple wooden closets. The school's lavatories have the original tile floors, wainscot consisting of tile and polished stone panel, and toilet stalls constructed of polished stone panels with wooden doors. The building's original radiators are in place. Suspended fluorescent lighting represents the sole alteration in many rooms, apart from the aluminum window sash. The rows of metal lockers lining the sides of the corridors were probably installed with or soon after the conversion of the school to a junior high school facility in 1973. These lockers were positioned against the walls by simply setting them in place, they were not fastened into the wall fabric, hence they do not represent an alteration to the building. Newspaper accounts following the school's closing noted that limited alteration of certain rooms for pedagogical purposes had left all the original partition walls intact, so that the complete original plan survives.