The Mysterious Case of the Girls' Changing Room

March 20, 2025

THIS CASE REPORT HAS HAD TO BE RADICALLY ALTERED from what was said a few days ago. A penny has dropped. The alteration in thinking has been based on the discovery of a new aerial photo made about 1937. (See Photo 8.)

We have been trying to understand how part of the exterior of the building that we "oldies" knew in the 1950's and early 1960's got changed. We thought at first that the cubic brick structure, shown in Photo 1 and slightly in Photo 2, appeared in the girls' playground between 1964 and 1970. It extended (as seen in Photo 1 from the mid 1970's) into two of the six bays of windows of the gym and library. It can be seen on that same photo to be attached to the gym and what had been the girls' changing room.

I now think we were wrong -- dead wrong. Our reasoning had been this: (1) First and foremost, we oldies couldn't remember it; (2) the Roll Photos from 1958, 1961, and 1964 (Photos 3, 4, and 5) seemed to confirm that a building wasn't there -- the six bays of windows of the library are clearly seen. The wall front that is behind the boys in tha 1970 Photo 6 clearly isn't the one that is in Photos 3, 4, and 5.

Our (my!) mistake was revealed after finding a new aerial photo (Photo 8) from about 1937 -- just after building of the 1936 extension of the building. This photo shows the whole new extension to the old building, which included gym and library. This extension is indicated by a yellow perimeter line. What is STRIKING AND CRUCIAL on the photo, though, is the showing of the 1-story building which contained the girls' changing room and the little office of Miss Bryan, the girls' gym teacher. A ONE-STORY BUILDING WAS THERE ALL ALONG FROM 1936 ONWARD !! (There was one on the opposite side of the building, too for the boys' changing room.)

Though it is now clear that the changing room was always there, the level above was NOT. In the Roll photos of '58. '61, and '64, the fact that people were sitting or standing on raised, tiered rows BLOCKED OUT the little one-story building behind. In the 1970 photo, on the other hand, the lower level is still blocked out, but we see the the second story BUILT ABOVE THE GIRLS' CHANGING ROOM. The bricks do have a newish look about them too, don't they ?

One mystery remains. What was this second story room (... presuming it was a single room) used for ? Even if it had been built in 1965 (at the earliest), it didn't get even ten years of use because the school essentially closed down in the early seventies. Is there anyone that remembers it ?

You see that in photos 3, 4, and 5 (1958, 1961, 1964) that the second story wasn't there, but it appears there in Photo 6, the 1970 photo. Note that the gym and the library had 6 bays of windows in the three earlier photos.

Photo 7 below shows an aerial view of the school in 1933 -- before the gym/library extension was ever built (it opened 1936). There was some kind of temporary shed between the two playgrounds. It is thought that this served as the gym before the school extension was made.

Photo 8 was the game changer. It shows an aerial view of the school in about 1937-- AFTER the gym/library extension was built (it opened 1936). The little one-story brick structure was there from that time, and remained as the girl's changing room. Later, in the mid-late 60's, a new story was added above it. Elementary my dear Watson.