patching...
Welcome back, Patch Blogger!

Pasadena History: Hard Life in Pasadena Schools

If you were an older student in a Pasadena school during the 1920s you would have been responsible for pumping the school's water.

 

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham.

PTA moms in the 1920s were responsible for landscaping and student's dental care.

"At the consolidated Jacobsville school in 1926, Madeline Gibson (principal), Mildred Johnson, Alice Armiger, and Agnes Howie taught 130 children in four rooms, each heated by a large stove," Cunningham wrote.

"Older pupils pumped water from a well with a hand pump. The Jacobsville Parents and Teachers Association cleared the stumps and bushes from the playground and sponsored a series of dental clinics for the schoolchildren.

"Initially the school had no electric lights. but the community bought an electric generator driven by a gasoline engine in 1927. In 1930 four rooms were added to the school, as well as indoor toilets.

"The five pupils in the first graduating class were Kate Dreyer, Elizabeth Slater, Ellen Corey, Rose Corey, and Roland Calvert."

Check back next Wednesday for more Pasadena history. For a complete listing of all Tidbits of History columns, please click here.

About this column: Patch uses the book Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham to shed some light on the area's history. Pasadena Peninsula can be purchased at Sandy Spring Bank, the Bank of Glen Burnie or the USCG Community Credit Union, all on Fort Smallwood Road; or Ace Hardware in Lake Shore Plaza. The book was published by the Pasadena Business Association. Related Topics: Isabel Shipley Cunningham, Pasadena History, and The Pasadena Peninsula

Leave a comment