NNHS - The Backward School

by Fred W. Field

NNHS Class of June 1945, June 19, 2005

       Our Newport News High School building sat on the east side of Huntington Avenue between 30th and 32nd Streets.  The front of the building faced west.  As we went in and out of the front doors during those four long years, we never realized that our school building was sitting backwards!  The reason for the school's 180 degree disorientation was revealed in a long-forgotten article published in the April 28, 1944 issue of The Beacon, our weekly school newspaper of the era. 

        To understand how NNHS came to face the wrong way we have to go back to the closing years of the 19th century.  It was then that the leaders of the steadily growing city realized that schools needed to be quickly built.  And many of the new families wanted their sons and daughters to get a full schooling.  Or as was often put, "to have an education that we never had a chance to get."  High school classes were hurriedly established in 1896 using temporary quarters in the newly-built First National Bank building.  Then in September 1899 the students moved into the brand-new Central School located in the 200-block on 32nd Street.  By 1908 this building was renamed John W. Daniel.  The school was badly damaged in a 1913 fire but was rapidly rebuilt and opened again the following year.  However the steady growth of the city had already brought more students than the building could accommodate.  So by 1918 the City had a new school ready exclusively for high school students.  This was the Walter Reed School, built on Wickham Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets.  But the School Board could not possibly have anticipated the explosion in population that World War I would bring.  By 1921 the visionary new Superintendent, Dr. Joseph Saunders had inspired the School Board to consider even newer and more ambitious plans.

        A tentative decision was reached to build a new super-size high school on the Casino grounds.  This was then an open recreational area between West Avenue and the James River, just north of 26th Street.  On the basis of this plan, a formal building design was rendered which would have the front facing east (toward West Avenue).  But after further consideration, the Board became concerned about instability of the shoreline, which seemed to be receding at the rate of about 3 feet a year.  Somehow, a seawall did not seem like a practical solution.  And someone complained that there was inadequate space for an athletic field.  Then the Board's attention focused on an alternative site on the east side of Huntington Avenue between 30th and 32nd Streets.  The new location was on swampy ground occupied by only a few scattered shacks.  And behind the school would be a huge space (all the way to Virginia Avenue) which would be ideal for a large athletic field.  In all the enthusiasm, no one gave any thought to the fact that the building had been designed to face the other way around!

        Work began in 1922 with the filling in of the marshes.  In early 1923 the foundations were laid and in April the cornerstone was placed.  By June, 1924 the auditorium was completed and was used in graduation ceremonies for the Walter Reed seniors.  Two members of that class later joined the NNHS faculty: Jeanette Ward in the English Department, and Elizabeth Saunders as Librarian. 

        A great surprise was that the whole town seemed to want to attend that first graduation.  The auditorium quickly filled but outside a large restless group milled around, unable to gain entrance.  When the excluded mob became unruly, Superintendent Saunders made a speech from a second floor window to try to convince them to go home.  His plea was followed by another from the Board president, and then one from the building contractor - all to no avail.  Police finally had to use force to disperse the crowd and in the melee that followed, two participants ended up in the hospital.  All this was recalled in 1944 by Lamar R. Stanley who had been one of the early high school teachers.

        In the 1944 interview, Principal Stanley blamed the reversed position of the building as the reason that the north end of the building was notoriously difficult to heat.  He said that the building's designer had placed the furnace room north of the cafeteria, so that the steam pipes to the naturally colder north rooms would be as short as possible.  But when the building was constructed in the reversed position the south end rooms got the short steam pipe run, and the folks in the north rooms were left to shiver.

        Oh well, somehow we all managed to get a superior education - even if we did go to a definitely backward high school!

Many thanks to Helen Holland Blanton, NNHS Class of June 1944 for supplying the April 28, 1944 Beacon interview.  Also to Betty Savage Palmer, Class of June 1945  (d. 22 Aug 2009)  for recalling observations of her father who was NNHS custodian for some of our high school years.