Abandoned school building in PA
George W. Guthrie School, Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania
When the George W. Guthrie School first opened in September 1915, it was an innovation in the educational and architectural history of Wilkes-Barre, and a product of the prosperity the anthracite industry brought to the region. Being an extraordinarily elaborate building, it represented a major investment in education. It is located on a hill in the northern portion of the City, where it is a prominent landmark, clearly intended to be a highly visible monument to the community's commitment to public education.
The building was intended to accommodate 1,225 pupils. Eighteen classrooms were expected to hold 900 students. The building's plan was not for creating classes of 50 students each, but for the planned inclusion of facilities for pupils with special needs. In addition to the eighteen regular classrooms, the building included one room for 25 "backward children", one manual training room for 150, and a cooking and dressing department for another 150. The school was the first in Wilkes-Barre to have such Special facilities included in its design. At the time, manual training and home economics were only beginning to be widely included in elementary curricula across the nation, and the measurement of intelligence to identify "backward children" with special educational needs was in its infancy.
Americans were first introduced to manual training as an integrated part of school curricula by an exhibit of the Moscow Imperial Technical School at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. In the 1870's and 1880 educators hotly debated the wisdom of including manual training in school programs. By 1890 only 36 cities in 15 states had schools with manual training and home economics programs. While the National Association of Manufacturers advocated manual training in the schools as a way to circumvent union regulations of apprenticeships, trade unions often opposed the programs as training grounds for strike breakers. The National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, founded by liberal educators in 1906, began to modify resistance from the American Federation Labor in 1907 and 1908. Finally, in 1910, an A.F. of L. committee headed by former United Mine Workers president John Mitchell, recommended that the labor movement press for public trade schools to give a balanced combination of general education and shop instruction.
The Wilkes-Barre School Board passed 2 resolutions to introduce domestic art, domestic science, and manual training in the grades on September 15th, 1913. A similar resolution had been narrowly defeated in September 1896, although private manual training classes had been held in the basement of the Wilkes-Barre Central High School since 1889. The 1913 resolution is significant because it followed fairly soon after the labor movement adopted its new stance, and because it introduced the new curriculum in the grades at a time when large numbers of students did not go to high school. Inclusion of industrial and domestic arts facilities in the new Guthrie School was tangible evidence of a willingness to adopt what was an innovation in education.
Similarly, the provision of facilities for "backward children" was early evidence of a progressive approach to education. Alfred Binet's idea of measuring learning ability with e series of graded problems was only developed between 1905 and 1908. The fascination with testing ability and achievement in specific areas was brand new when Guthrie School was built.
The school was built with the latest educational innovations in mind. It was itself architecturally innovative. Advances in technology which made steel frame and reinforced concrete construction possible also made it possible to incorporate large areas of glass to provide natural interior lighting. Even in an era of extremely inexpensive fuel, the building used double glass and weather stripping to conserve heat. Classroom space was flexible. Sliding doors allowed two smaller rooms to be joined and used as one large space. Maintenance was made easier by minimizing the use of dust-trapping moulding and projections in the interior finish. Amenities such as a teacher's restroom and kitchenette were included.
The building incorporated a variety of safety features. Wood floors were used only in rooms. Halls, toilets, handrails, wainscoting, and baseboards were all of fireproof materials. Enclosed staircases to the ground, and exits from the third and fourth floors to the roof provided additional fire safety.
The school's architect, Robert Ireland, was an important local figure. He designed many school buildings in Wyoming Valley, as well as a number of coal breakers. In 1912, two years earlier, Robert Ireland designed another school for Wilkes-Barre, named the Weaver School. This structure is much smaller, having only three floors and twelve classrooms, but bears certain strong resemblances to the later Guthrie project. It featured very similar staircases at both ends, enclosed by glass curtain walls. Architecturally, it would appear that the Weaver building was a small "experiment", with principles that were subsequently refined and enlarged in the Guthrie School.
George W. Guthrie, incidentally, was the Superintendent of Schools in Wilkes-Barre until his death in 1912.
The Guthrie School is the embodiment of a host of the most up-to-date advances in American education and architecture. Just before World War I, progressive attitudes and the opulence of design and construction were the products of an economic boom period before the war. With the exception of the war years of 1917 and 1918, when over 42,500,000 tons and 42,700,000 tons of anthracite respectively shipped from the Wyoming District, peak exports of over 41,000,000 tons were reached in 1911, 1913, and 1914. Although the rate of population growth had slowed somewhat since the last decades of the nineteenth century, Wilkes-Barre still experienced a 42% increase in population between 1900 and 1920, most of it occurring between 1900 and 1910.
The prosperity created by coal inspired a building boom which gave Wilkes-Barre some of its grandest buildings, the Spring Water Supply Company and James M. Coughlin High School in 1911, the Penn Tobacco Company in 1912, and the Miner's Bank Building by D.H. Burnham and Company nearing completion in 1912. In 1911 the Board of Trade became the Chamber of Commerce and moved into more elegant quarters. In 1913 the Chamber sponsored the Greater Wilkes-Barre Industrial exposition in the Penn Tobacco building which made $6,000 that became the nucleus of a Chamber of Commerce building fund.
Another sign of prosperity was the fact that many firms such as Hazard Wire, Rope Works, Sheldon Axle Company, end Miner-Hillar Milling Company cut working hours and increased worker's pay in 1915. Guthrie School was part of the building boom made possible by economic developments.
Prosperity made the school possible, and population growth made it necessary. The need to cope with a substantial foreign-born population contributed to the appeal offered by new educational strategies.
Building Description
The building is a four-story High School with a single block-like mass (no wings) and a hip roof. Overall dimensions are 136 feet across the front by 109 feet deep, and 56 feet high to the top of the cornice. The top of the hip roof is 70 feet above the ground, and above that there is a small, centrally located penthouse, bringing the overall height to 83 feet.
Classrooms are organized along a single double-loaded corridor on each floor, with windows facing Northwest (front), and Southeast (rear). There are nine bays along each facade. These bays are both the structural fenestration bays.
Windows cover approximately sixty percent of the area of the front and rear facades, the remainder being finished in brick, stone, and terracotta. The sidewalls (Southwest and Northeast) have fewer windows. There is a continuous band of windows on the fourth floor, and a four-floor glass "curtain wall" for the stairwells which are located at either end of the central corridors. The roof features six large skylights.
The building's structural system is a steel frame, completely fire-proofed, with reinforced concrete and tile-arch floor and roof decks.
The exterior is brick, with stone and terracotta ornament and trim.
The sloping roof is slate. The penthouse is reinforced concrete with no other finish. Windows are double-hung wood sash and were originally double-glazed (i.e. two sheets of glass set 1/2" apart in each sash.
the exterior has experienced no alteration other than deterioration and minor vandalism. All major materials appear to be original and in relatively good condition. Windows on the front and sides are original, windows on the rear have had their sash removed, and are boarded up. Interior modifications are also limited.
When new, the Guthrie School represented the state-of-art in school building design. The use of structural steel and reinforced concrete made possible design. The use of structural steel and reinforced concrete made possible fire-proof construction, large spaces for general and vocational instruction, and permitted large glazed areas to maximize classroom lighting. The windows were double-glazed to conserve heat, and also reduce condensation and comfort problems that such large areas can cause. The heating system was outfitted with humidifiers, and separately controlled heating coils for each room. A large air shaft drew fresh air for ventilation from the top of the building. Original artificial lighting included both gas and electric systems. In addition to avoiding combustible materials, the building contains an elaborate fire exit system. The steel frame, large window areas, and massive scale were relatively innovative features of the building, and the response is a similarly innovative architectural style. traditional materials and detailing were used on these new forms, in a manner perhaps reminiscent of the Chicago School's approach to skyscrapers around the turn of the century.
The original school included two open "pavilions," extending on either side end in the rear. These pavilions had iron columns, steel trusses, concrete floors, and no sides. They were presumably for recreational purposes. In 1922, both were enclosed to accommodate industrial and domestic arts classrooms. The southern pavilion no longer exists, having been demolished. Only the concrete floor remains. The northern pavilion stands in ruin, the victim of a fire.
1915 photograph of the then-new Guthrie School, from North Washington Street, looking East (1915)
1915 Interior view of the fourth floor, showing the sloping ceilings and sky-lights. The fourth floor was originally used for manual training and domestic arts. Subsequently it was divided into smaller classrooms. This may have occurred after 1922, when the open pavilions were enclosed for use in the manual training and domestic arts programs. (1915)
Rear Elevation (Southeast side) (1980)
1915 photograph of the triple-size divisible Classroom, first floor front (1915)
1915 photograph of the then-new Guthrie School, from North Washington Street, looking South. (1915)
View of the building from Scott Street, looking Northwest. Note the school's prominence in the cityscape (1980)
View of the building from the southwest, showing its prominent hilltop location (1980)
Entrance at North corner. South corner entrance is similar, but windows are boarded up (1980)
View of the top of the stairwell window on the Southwest side. The North-west side is virtually identical (1980)
View of the cornice at the South corner; Single terra-cotta brackets are typical. Double brackets occurring at corners only (1980)
View of the roof, looking North. On the left is the boiler stack, and the top of the ash lift (1980)
View of top of airshaft at East corner, showing the quarter-round link to the building. Windows at the top of the shaft admitted ventilation air. The quarter-round link served to give access to open and adjust the windows (1980)
Remaining Pavilion on the Northeast side of the main building, view looking North (1980)
Northeast (side) Elevation showing the remaining pavilion (1980)
Southwest (side) Elevation (1980)
