Large School Building in PA has been abandoned since 1987

North Scranton Junior High School, Scranton Pennsylvania

Date added: November 01, 2023 Categories:

The North Scranton Junior High School was built in 1922-24 and is located at the intersection of North Main Avenue and Green Ridge Street in the Scranton, Pennsylvania neighborhood is locally known as North Scranton.

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 Scranton began in the 1770s, but the practice was not recognized until the early nineteenth century. By 1857, the borough had a one-room schoolhouses strategically located in each of Scranton's five neighborhoods; by 1858, the public school system expanded to include the Central High School in downtown Scranton. (Scranton was chartered as a city in 1866.)

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 twenty-nine schools with one hundred and fifty-eight teachers and over seven thousand students.

In 1921, the Pennsylvania Department of Education called for the incorporation of the junior high school into the secondary school system, an action that changed the face of education in many communities. The general philosophy behind the junior high school was that it:

will not only afford the children of the 7^th and 8^th grades...instruction along these more practical lines [domestic science, art, and manual training], but, including the first year of regular school work in addition to 7^th and 8^th grade work, will bring to those who would otherwise leave school at the end of the grammar school period the opportunity to spend at least another year in school. In many cases, it would be the means of leading a larger number into the other years of the high school than have been accustomed to take advantage of a high school education.

Educators believed that the traditional 6:6 system (six years in elementary school, 6 years in high school) or the 8:4 system found in many small and rural communities was inadequate to serve the psychological and academic needs of young adults. As a result, beginning in the early 1900s, students were re-directed through a revised system of six years of elementary education, three years in a junior high, and three years in the senior high school. With this program, educators placed an emphasis on helping the students "explore their own aptitudes and to make at least the provisional choice of the kinds of work to which he will devote himself". The senior high grades were then spent in training specific to those fields that the student identified while in junior high school. Additionally, the incorporation of another building into the school system alleviated the growing problem of overcrowding in both the elementary and secondary schools.

Before the State's 1921 decision, the typical educational hierarchy consisted of kindergarten, neighborhood grade school for the first through eighth grades, and then to high school for grades nine through twelve; there was no intermediate step such as the junior high and students were sent either to grade or high schools. In Scranton, the methodology was no different with its seventy-six graded public schools (including kindergarten) which filtered to two high schools and one manual (vocational) training center. In the early 1920s, the total of 27,730 students, the bulk of which were found in the 76 public schools, were taught by approximately 794 teachers. Neighborhood schools, the 76 public schools, had children from kindergarten to eighth grade; upon graduation from their local school, they progressed to either the Central or Technical high schools, depending on their geography, or to the Manual Training Center. Students then graduated after the completion of twelfth grade.

As a result of this new statewide legislation, the Scranton school board voted to build the first junior high school in Scranton. North Scranton Junior High School was the first of three junior high schools to be built in the city, with the West and South Scranton Junior High Schools slated for construction in the early 1930s. They hired local architect Gilbert Edson to design the school and Philadelphia contractors Sinclair & Grigg to build it. Construction started in 1922 on a large plot of land overlooking the river and city and was completed in the summer of 1924. The cost of the school in 1922, $700,000, included the property, construction, furniture, supplies, and coal beneath the ground.

On September 2^nd, 1924, the North Scranton Junior High School welcomed its first class of students. Designed for 1,200 students and fifty-seven teachers, the school had a five-room apartment for domestic science instruction, two large gymnasiums, community rooms, a telephone exchange, and an auditorium large enough to seat 1,206 people, in addition to more than forty classrooms, a music room, and fully-equipped science laboratories. The school was built to allow for the latest in school building requirements for lighting, heating, and ventilation. The formula for what was expected in independent junior high school buildings was well established by 1920; the layout and function of North Scranton's rooms facilities follows this pattern.

The school curriculum was standardized to follow the general State guidelines regarding courses of study for junior high school. The following general philosophy for secondary education, established at the Pennsylvania State Educational Association annual meeting in 1919, embodies the spirit of educational theory in the early part of the twentieth century:

The general or ordinary High School, as well as the, coming Junior School, or Junior High School, should have as its primary aims physical, cultural, and civic education, these schools should make no attempt to prepare for specific vocations. But vocational guidance and various of the practical arts may legitimately be introduced when it is evident that these contribute better than anything else to the realization of some of the legitimate and defined ends of physical and liberal (cultural and social) education.

North Scranton Junior High reflected these curricular principles in the classes they offered and with their extracurricular activities. When the school opened in 1924, it offered a combination of both general and vocational training with classes in math, art, domestic science, sociology, science, English, journalism, Latin, penmanship, Spanish, mechanical drawing, carpentry, home mechanics, and machine shop. Extracurricular activities included a radio club (later, in conjunction with the other junior highs and the high schools), a wide range of athletics for both men and women, a school newspaper and yearbook, pigeon-raising, photography, and other traditional after-school activities.

Because of the successful physical and philosophical transition to North Scranton and the general acceptance of the school by students, parents, and education professionals, the school district was authorized to float a $5,000,000 bond issue in 1926 to build two more, albeit on a smaller scale, junior high schools to serve the city: the Art Deco West Scranton Junior High in 1932 and the Art Moderne South Scranton Junior High in 1937. The new construction came just in time to accommodate the growing enrollment in the school district, which peaked in 1939. In North Scranton Junior High alone, there were 1,992 students enrolled at the close of January 1939. With three junior high schools now serving the city, students were funneled from the dozens of neighborhood grammar (kindergarten through sixth grade) schools through three junior highs and then, if they choose to continue, onto one of two high schools or a manual (vocational) training school.

Through the mid-twentieth century, the Scranton public school system continued to adapt to changes in the state and Federal educational philosophies and local educational needs. As the curriculum changed to reflect changes in mid- and late-twentieth-century thought, the system responded to those needs by adding library facilities, eliminating some courses (such as penmanship), and substituting civic and social studies. These changes affected North Scranton as well as the district as a whole. Local needs for additional intermediate and high schools directed the physical and curricular changes to both West and South Scranton Junior High Schools in the mid-century. For example, both buildings were either expanded or "modernized" starting in the mid-1940s as their local demographics began to shift and the buildings had to accommodate different functions and an increasing number of students. North Scranton, having been built to accommodate a large number of students and to fulfill a varied list of criteria as a junior high school facility, continued to be able to serve its local, more demographically stable community, with only minor cosmetic changes to its physical building.

Changes in Scranton's demographics and the decline of its economic base in the mid-twentieth century precipitated the consolidation, closing, and limited re-organization of the city school system. At the end of the 1986-87 school year, the school board closed the North Scranton Junior High School, citing extensive structural and stabilization problems with the building. In the years since its closure, the vacant building has been the target of vandalism and theft, with some of the original architectural features stolen, broken, or destroyed.

Building Description

Constructed in 1922-24, the North Scranton Junior High School is a large, three-story brick and stone educational building designed in the Late Gothic Revival style. This imposing masonry and steel frame building is situated on a 4.4-acre parcel on the crest of a steep hill that overlooks the Lackawanna River and forms the western boundary of the North Scranton residential district. The school follows an open rectangular plan and has a banked two-story section built into the rear facade. The main (east) facade faces the intersection of Main Avenue and Green Ridge Street, and the north and south facades are both visible from Main Avenue. In 1987, the school was decommissioned and vacated; as a result, much of the interior has been vandalized through theft and graffiti.

The North Scranton Junior High School is situated in the eastern two-thirds of its 4.4-acre terraced parcel, which is defined by Main Avenue to the east, Theodore Street to the north, undeveloped Scranton School District property to the west, and residential properties to the south. The building is surrounded by grass and sparse, overgrown landscaping on the east, south, and west facades and a small poorly maintained parking lot to the east. On the main (east) facade, a brick and concrete walk leads from the city sidewalk through an entrance gate and up the gently sloping lawn to the large entrance tower. A stone retaining wall with a decorative iron fence marks the property's intersection with the sidewalk. To the west of the property, beyond the rear of the building, a grass-covered baseball field occupies the remainder of the parcel. Separated from the building by a steep uphill slope and a narrow concrete roadway, the small baseball field is overgrown and in poor condition. Two ca. 1950 concrete sidewalks which originate at the field, continue around the school building, and terminate at the Main Avenue sidewalk. A retaining wall, the baseball field, and sidewalks are considered to be small-scale features not included in the resource count. Currently, most of the property is surrounded by a tall, modern chainlink fence.

Rising from a pink granite base, the main (east) facade features seven broad window bays evenly spaced between slightly protruding wings at the northern and southern ends. The window bays are trimmed with stone, and contain six six-over-six wood sash with a six-light hopper transom on each floor. Stone stringcourses and diagonal brick bond designs on the wing walls provide decoration on this facade.

The focus of the main (east) facade is the four-story central clock tower that frames the main entrance. Thin turrets, each capped with elaborately decorated octagonal-shaped roofs, delineate the corners of the massive tower. At the first story, the main entry is framed by a tall Gothic arch that surrounds two sets of paired glass doors and the seven-light transom above. The intricate stone carvings around the entrance include well-executed examples of traditional Gothic tracery and medieval floral designs.

On the second and third floors, another tall arch frames the two sets of windows in this middle bay. These floors are separated by a square stone panel and diagonal brick bond similar to that seen on the eastern walls of the north and south wings. In the fourth story, a large clock is positioned in the center of the wall directly above a wide stone band that marks the position of the cornice line on the main building. The north, west, and south sides of the tower have windows identical to those found on the rest of the building. A stepped parapet wall, also decorated with gothic tracery, spans the distance between the turrets. Gothic crosses and carved scales complete the dome roofs of the turrets.

At the north and south corners of the main (east) facade, eight-bay wings extend west into the rear bank. Five sets of the same sash used on the main facade line the walls, which are trimmed with the same stone stringcourses found on the front of the building. Two sets of doors are located on each facade in the slightly projecting stair towers. A small portion of the wings extend east beyond the plane of the main facade, and each is dressed with diagonal brick bond and stone Gothic features such as quatrefoils, gargoyles, and other projecting elements. The phrase "Education is Growth" is carved into a stone panel on the south wing, and "Education is Guidance" is carved on the north wing.

The rear facade consists primarily of the banked section at the first and second floors, with the third story of the main section visible over the gymnasium's roof. This area houses the boys' and girls' gymnasiums and the manual training classrooms. As with the north and south facades, the only trim along all planes of the rear facade are the stringcourses continued from the rest of the building. Paired sets of the six-over-six sash with transoms line the north, south, and west facades of the two-story section; the windows on the third story of the main section are typical to the rest of the building.

The school's interior configuration follows that specified by its open rectangular plan. All of the rooms are arranged along the four sides of the school, with the two-story auditorium located in the center of the internal courtyard. The auditorium entrance, administrative offices, and the former library are located immediately inside of the main entrance on the east facade. Corridors and six internal stairs connect the classrooms and offices on every floor. These rooms vary in size, shape, and function, ranging from traditional square classroom spaces to areas specifically designated for home economics, industrial shops, and science labs. Some classrooms still retain their original features such as blackboards, built-in bookcases, and storage closets. A large kitchen, formal dining room, and cafeteria occupy most of the main section of the third floor.

The Late Gothic Revival style of the building is complemented by some of the school's interior features. Tall Gothic arches, quatrefoil balusters, and floral moldings are found throughout the building, particularly in the important public spaces such as the main lobby and the 1,206-seat auditorium.

Paneled wood wainscoting and exposed ceiling beams in portions of the main floor corridor contribute to the Gothic atmosphere.

The North Scranton Junior High School retains its integrity as an excellent example of a Late Gothic Revival academic building. Since the Scranton School District abandoned the building in 1987, the school's interior has fallen into disrepair from lack of maintenance and, in some cases, substantial vandalism. Stained and leaded glass windows from the auditorium, doors, cabinets, and other features have been stolen from the building; to date only a few pieces have been located.