A Brief History of Corning ,N.Y. Northside High School

                           

                                             For Sale in 2014

     The last blog posting shows the  postcard of a Northside High School.

A former Lindley resident was curious as to the date. Using the Internet,  he found a copy of the postcard dated 1905.  After a discussion about the  age of the  Northside  High School that has been in  recent  Corning Leader news articles, he located a September 14,1927 article  on the Fulton  Archival Newspaper website that said the new high school had opened .  Corresponding with him  about the date and other information regarding the school had  piqued my curiosity .

       Knowing that so many Lindley residents had attended  a Corning Northside High School or  had a connection with it,  I decided to research the history of the schools. As  Town Lindley Historian , I had provided Ian Mackenzie with information about the Lindley one room schools when he was writing his book  -"The Birth of Education In One Room Country Schools. The Story  of all the one room and other schools in the Corning-Painted Post Area School District, New York from 1793 to 1957 published  in 2005.  I decided to check his book for  information. 

      

The first schools on the Corning Northside were log cabins or wood buildings -starting in 1793 on Wallace Street-followed by others on Jennings, Sly and Flint Ave.

High Schools

     In 1888, Knoxville Village (  which is now known as Corning, N.Y.'s Northside) built a brick school for  $12,000 on the Northeast corner of Jennings and Sly Ave. (Now the Gregg Elementary  School paved School Ground). There were 120 students grade 1-8 and  classrooms for high school.

    In 1895, additional classrooms were added on the east end of the building for $6000

    In 1897, the first high school students graduated   -- 3 girls

    In 1898   6 more high school  students graduated

    In 1889-90,  a teacher training class was started above a local store.

   In 1903, an annex was added on the west end of the building and the  Teachers Training class moved into the building. 

                                 

                                                      1905  Postcard

                                  (1888 building with East and West Additions )

In 1910, another high school was approved . It cost  $50,000 plus $10,000  for the land . It was built on the opposite side of Jennings St. on the east side of Flint Ave.

  (Between what is now Jennings St. and the Patterson Inn .-the parking lot for the Hugh Gregg Elementary School)                                                                      

The Grammar School remained in the old building across the street. 

 

                          

                                                             1910

In 1925 ,still another high school was approved on Princeton and Kingsbury Ave.

This opened in 1927 and cost $450,000. The 1910 building became the Northside Grammar School grades for grades 5 -7 .                     

 1-4 remained in the 1888 building (with the early additions) -(-Primary  Grammar School                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

In 1932, 82 students graduated from the new high school.                                       

In 1952, $210,000  was approved for a  new Elementary School (Hugh                            Gregg ) on Jennings and Flint Ave  -west of the old school buildings. 

In 1953,  Kindergarten to 3rd grade began attending this-while 4th to 6th graders went across the street to (Northside Grammar School ) until 1971 . 

In 1954 , Corning /Painted Post schools became a consolidated district           

In 1957, the old Primary School was razed for an addition to the Hugh Gregg Elementary .     

  New elementary schools were opened throughout the district.                                   One room schools  were  closed .

In 1963,  East and West High Schools opened and Northside High School became Northside Middle School for grades 7-9. Later called Northside Blodgett Middle School.

In 1971, the 1910 building was demolished -area now a parking lot.

In September 2014,   One Corning/Painted Post High School opened on East High School site. West High School became a Middle School.

Northside Blodgett Middle School had a For Sale Sign on it.

September 19,2016,  Corning /Painted Post  School District voters approved the sale of Northside  Middle  School for $200,000. Arbor Housing and Development had made a purchase offer. ( The school would be demolished and one family homes built on the site.)

January 26, 2017,  City of Corning  and Arbor announced that $480,150 had been received to demolish the school and new homes will occupy the 5 acres. Project expect to start in Spring 2017

                      

                         

                   The bell is from the first  Northside High School-1888

 

Northside Blodgett Middle School

A  personal note  

My husband lived on Corning Northside when he started school . He remembers the   Grammar School  having a stairway and a bell. In 5th grade he remembered going across the street to the 1910 High School and seeing the date 1928. ( I am guessing this is the year the 1910 High School became the Grammar School.  In 1943, his family moved to Lindley where he attended the 6th grade in the one room Station School on River Road  . He likes to tell his Grandchildren that he was the smartest and dumbest in that grade.      He was the only student in that grade.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         II I found Ian's book very helpful  and informative.  I would like to thank him for all his   time, effort and research that it took  to document the local  Corning-Painted Post Schools' history. Rather than try to duplicate his work, I have tried  to summarize his documentation  with enough dates and brief descriptions that Blog Readers will be able to recognize  the various schools mentioned. The colored photos can be found by googling the various school names .The wonders oft the internet..!!!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Thanks Ian and Larry for sparking my curiosity about  the school that  will soon be a thing of the past. If readers would like to know more details from  Ian's book -I am sure there are copies in local Libraries, the Historical Societies , Museums or book stores.   Of course, the Internet is also a great resource as is the Fulton newspaper website

Enjoy the history of one of Corning's popular high schools. 
 Kitty
Please excuse the format at the end. Looks great on my computer but blog and the computer had a different version when I post it and all my efforts to change aren't working.. Sigh  Kitty 

1888 with Addi                                       Jennings  St.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         .                                                            

   In 1932, there were 82 graduating  students                                                                                                                                  .