Old Junior High Gym... Gone

May 25, 2012

 

The gym last fall (photo taken November 5, 2011)

Frederick's Junior High Gym Razed

The old Frederick Junior High Gym, built in 1922 as Frederick High School’s gym, has been torn down.

Site of the old Frederick Junior High Gym on South 13th Street (photo taken at noon, May 25, 2011)

 The old school’s auditorium and classroom wings were removed several months ago, leaving the attached gym as a free-standing, doomed relic of the past. Removal of this last part of the school took place this week. Today (May 25, 2012) workers are clearing the last part of the debris and hauling the stately building’s brick and concrete to a landfill.

When the gym was constructed as part of the Frederick High School and Convention Center in 1922, it was an impressive facility. The city of Frederick was only 20 years old at the time, the area that is western Tillman County had been opened to settlement for only 21 years, and this grand brick gym was a modern showplace.

Although small by today’s standards, the gym hosted the Tillman County Basketball Tournament for decades. Schools from across the county (and in those days there WERE many schools in the county!) sent teams to Frederick for the annual tournament, and thousands of supporters attended.

My dad, D.B. Wynn, who graduated at Weaver Consolidated #13 in 1936, told stories about the big county tournament in those days. Everybody came. Fans packed the gym’s second floor balcony, and the best seats in the house were had by those who sat with legs dangling from the balcony.

In January 2012, the gym remained after the school was removed.

In the 1960s, dressing rooms and showers were built at the east front of the gym. The modern addition did not match the building’s 1922 architecture and always seemed aesthetically inappropriate.

When Frederick High School moved to its new campus in 1950, the former high school became Central Elementary School and the gym was used by Frederick Junior High.

Generations of Frederick’s young people remember the junior high gym as the site of P.E. classes, volleyball, basketball, climbing rope, and running laps around the scary oval balcony track.

Photo taken during the February 26, 2011 Oyster Fry Craft Show pictures the old gym's balcony area.

Rubble from the razed building is being hauled away (photo taken May 25, 2012)

1922 FHS Cornerstone

Early photo of the 1922 Frederick High School.

1922 Corner Stone Rededicated

     Masons from Oklahoma's Grand Lodge will rededicate the original cornerstone from the recently razed 1922 Frederick High School (later Central Grade School) in ceremonies at the Pioneer Townsite Museum on Sunday afternoon, April 22, 2012. The ceremony will begin at 2:00 p.m. and will be part of the Tillman County Historical Society's 2012 annual meeting.

Preserved cornerstone from 1922 school

     The public is invited to attend.

     The cornerstone will be on permanent display at the museum and will eventually be part of a monument that will be constructed using brick from the 1922 school.

     The school stood for almost 90 years at South 12th and Dahlia in Frederick.

     Masons first dedicated the cornerstone when the building was under construction in a ceremony that was held on Tuesday afternoon, June 13, 1922.


     Articles about the original dedication from The Frederick Free Press follow:

From The Frederick Free Press, June 8, 1922

CORNERSTONE IS TO BE LAID TUESDAY

Past Grand Master Joe W. Morris, of Snyder, will act as master of ceremonies in the laying of the $150.00 corner stone for the high school auditorium and gymnasium, which will take place at 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon (June 13, 1922) at the new high school building, in charge of Frederick lodge No. 249, A.F. & A.M. The Masons will meet at the lodge room at 2 o’clock and march to the high school building in a body.

Stone as it sat at northwest corner of the school.

A.M. Dennis, master of the lodge, has named the following officers for the event.

J.H. Zumwalt, grand marshal; L.C. Harris, grand tyler; R.H. Sims, grand persuivant; E.A. Hall, grand steward; R. N. Dennis, junior steward.

F.W. Hurst, grand lecturer; S.J. Mathies, grand orator; Rev. G.A. Caatfield, grand chaplain; R.F. Steward, brand bible bearer; Dr. J.A. Gillis, grand secretary; H.V. Worthington, grand treasurer; J.B. Wilson, grand senior warden; W.G. Roe, junior warden; Geo. McLellan, grand deputy master; J.W. Morris, grand master; A.M. Dennis, grand senior deacon; I. Ferguson, grand junior deacon; R.J. Harris, grand architect.

From The Frederick Free Press, June 15, 1922

CORNER STONE FOR THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL LAID TUESDAY

With a large crowd present at the new high school building and auditorium site on Twelfth Street the Frederick Masons laid the cornerstone for the structure Tuesday afternoon shortly after 2 o’clock. The Masons met at their hall and marched to the building headed by the Frederick Commercial Band. After a few numbers by the band the service was held. The ceremonies consisted of addresses, prayers and an ode, after which under the direction of acting Grand Master J.W. Morris the spread on the stone.

Splendid prospects for a bumper plenty, peace and gladness were corn, oil and wine, symbols of peace and gladness, were spread on the stone.

In a brief speech by Rev. Robert Hogson, pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Altus, he told of the work and origin of the Masons, of what they had done and were doing for the civilization.

 Mr. Morris was assisted in the laying of the stone by the officers of the Frederick Lodge No. 249.

The ceremonies were most impressive and a great many of the citizens were present for the occasion. Most of the downtown stores closed from 2:30 to 3:30.

School served Frederick community

Sent to The Frederick Press and The Frederick Leader, October 18, 2011

An enhanced postcard image from the 1920s shows the new Frederick High School and Convention Center on South 12th Street. Notice size of the young trees and style of automobiles.

 
Central Building Part of Fading History

In coming months, the building that most Frederick residents know as the old Central Grade School will be torn down, and that’s a good thing.

The years have not been kind, and the building as it stands today has long outlasted its structural integrity and its usefulness. It has become an eyesore and a target for vandals.

In its waning days, though, it is appropriate to remember that throughout much of Frederick’s history the old building at South 12^th and Dahlia was an important part of life in the town.

The old Central Elementary School today (October 18, 2011)

The building was constructed in 1922 when the citizens of Frederick approved a bond issue for a building that would serve as Frederick High School, as well as a “convention hall and community house” (the auditorium and gymnasium).

A community auditorium had previously stood at the new school site. It had been a large wooden building with a dirt floor, and was removed to make way for the new school. 

Construction of the new building was completed by January 1923, in time for Frederick High School classes to start the 1922-23 school year’s second semester there. The Class of 1923 was the first to graduate in the new school.

In the ensuing decades, the auditorium was the site of many community programs, school assemblies and graduations, and the gymnasium was often packed for basketball games, particularly the annual Tillman County Tournament during which teams from all area schools competed.

When a new high school was constructed in 1950, the 1922 building became Central Grade School, consolidating upper elementary grades from the ward schools to one “central” location.

The front 12^th Street side of the building was extensively damaged in the June 1973 tornado that swept through Frederick. Architects presented the Frederick Board of Education with several design options for repair, with restoration of the building to its previous design being the most expensive. The board chose a less-costly “modern” design for the repair.

The modern look probably seemed a good idea in 1973, but the new look never seemed right for the stately old building.

In the late 1980s, Central Grade School made state and national news for several days when a gasoline leak was discovered in the sewer line underneath the school. When the school was constructed in 1922, it had been placed directly atop one of the city’s main sewer lines – a practice that would never be allowed today. Gasoline from a gas station’s fuel tanks leaked into the sewer line and an old tap into the line below the school auditorium allowed gas fumes directly into the school, creating a dangerous situation.

Central students’ classes were moved to area churches for several days while community citizens and school personnel searched for the leak. They tore up part of the auditorium floor, dug a hole to the sewer line, and finally capped the leak.

A few years later, the old plaster ceiling in one of Central’s classrooms crashed to the floor. Not willing to take a chance with the safety of students or teachers, it was decided that all of the building’s plaster ceilings had to come out. Again, the old building made headlines when school officials and community volunteers spent several days tearing out plaster from ceilings, scooping the plaster pieces and 70 years of dust and dirt into wheelbarrows, and hauling it away. It was a huge job.

In April 1995 Frederick voters approved a bond for construction of a new Frederick Elementary School to be located on North 15^th Street. The new building was completed in April 1997, and the old school was largely vacated.

The Student Adjustment Center, serving just a few students at a time, operated in the building for a few years, but the building’s many classrooms were mainly used for storage.

The old gymnasium is still used by Frederick Middle School students.

When city fathers were planning and constructing their new high school and convention center in 1922, they surely could not have imagined that the building would stand for 90 years! It has served the community well.

In coming months, while the old building still stands, I encourage everyone to drive by for a last nostalgic look, with an awareness that the sad old hulk of a building that stands today was once something much more.

An expansive photo of Frederick High School, likely taken in the 1930s from the middle of Dahlia Street shows the size and scope of the building’s west front.

Cohea Studio took this photo of Frederick High School in the 1940s.

This photo of the school, now Central Elementary School, was probably taken in the 1960s.