September 10, 2021

South Windsor School Buildings

Over the Years

This Musing features the town of South Windsor's School Buildings that have seen extensive changes over the towns 175 years. There are schools that are no longer in use and sit idle with plans to be re-purposed, including Union School on historic Main Street, there are schools in which this has already taken place such as Ellsworth also on Main Street, and there are also the current elementary schools that are being entirely rebuilt to fit the needs of today's children and overall society. 

Ellsworth School 

Over the years that Ellsworth School was in use the age group of its students changed based on the other surrounding schools in the town and what was needed for the students that were in South Windsor.

Doris (Pelton) Burgdorf grew up on Main Street, went to school in South Windsor, and has witnessed changes to the school system in the years following. Doris recalls the period in which Ellsworth School, prominently a high school, was solely being used for sixth graders in town. This change took place once the new high school on Nevers Road, South Windsor High School, was built. Teachers and students were both very fond of Ellsworth School and found that separating the 6th grade was perfect because the students were out of grade school but didn't have to compete with the older eighth graders.

The History of Ellsworth Through the Stories of its Students 

Pauline Johnson and the peers in her grade were the first class to enter Ellsworth in 1935.

Doris Burgdorf attended school at Ellsworth only five years after it was built. She recalls the graduations that took place in the gym and the beautiful stage that was part of the space. The stage was not only used for graduations, it was also used for plays and performances by the glee club, both of which Doris shared she took part in. Behind the stage there was a back room for props and dressing rooms which were quite modern aspects of the building considering the time in which it was constructed. The inclusion of these areas behind the stage were also incorporated into the current South Windsor High School, likely because of the positive reaction to it in the Ellsworth building. 

Richard Nicholson shared that by the time 1962 rolled around Union School had closed, leading Ellsworth School to begin to be used as an elementary school.

Ellsworth is one of the towns former schools that has already been restored and is now being utilized as South Windsor's Board of Education building. 

Union School 

Union School opened its doors as an elementary school following its construction in 1905. Once the school opened, it brought in students from three other schools that were once in use on Main Street. 

Union School was an elementary school which closed after its last graduating class in 1962. Richard Nicholson was among the members of this last graduating class after attending the school for eight years.

There were a lot of changes made to the building and its use as a school over its time being opened. In 2002 it was purchased by the South Windsor Historical Society from the town of South Windsor for $1. There are plans in place to revamp and repurpose the space and we can't wait to see the result!

One development to the inside of Union School that took place during its use was the addition of a little library. Sally Goodwin worked on establishing one by utilizing a large storage closet and filling it with books from the library bookhouse in Springfield. The library may not have been extensive in size, but the students at the time were very happy to have a library in any capacity. 

New Elementary Schools

Within the past few years South Windsor has moved to modernize and meet the needs of students as the population of students increases. As of a few years ago there were five elementary schools in town that were all nearing if not already 50 years old. Production of the new elementary schools began in 2017 and is set to be completed before the 2023-2024 school year begins.

The original Pleasant Valley Elementary School is the only one among the ten-year plan that is still set to be rebuilt . Construction for the new PV building is now set to begin in 2022 and should be done by August of 2023. The above right picture shows one of the plans for the new PV. The current building (left picture) had eight portable classrooms onsite during the 2019-2020 school year to accommodate the increasing number of students since the ten-year plan was put in place.

Orchard Hill Elementary School was the first to be re-built in 2017. (The new building is pictured above) The old school is now being used as the "swing space" for students while the elementary school in their district is being rebuilt. 

Eli Terry Elementary School was the first school within the second phase to be rebuilt and opened in August of 2020. The old Eli Terry was then demolished. 

Philip R. Smith Elementary School was also part of the second phase of the plan to be rebuilt and opened in August of 2020. The old PRS was demolished along with Eli Terry. 

Other Current and Past South Windsor Schools

Timothy Edwards Middle School has not changed in many drastic visual ways. Although it has seen changes to the way in which the inside is utilized based on the needs of the town and its students, just as all other schools have done. TEMS spreads out students by giving each grade their own "team" and hallway - sixth grade teams are given a shade of green, seventh grade: shades of red, and eight grade: shades of blue.  More recently, there have been new teams added to the grades as the number of students have increased. 

Since South Windsor High School was built in 1961 it has seen its own changes. Parents of todays students walk in the building and point out its differences since they were students. Once the students that are currently attending the towns middle school and elementary schools enter SWHS there will likely need to be developments to the school in order to accommodate the numbers. In the past few years teachers have begun sharing rooms as the numbers were determined to have grown at that time.

Wapping Elementary School was in use until 2017. When the ten-year elementary school plan was established it did not include the re-build of Wapping. Instead, its students were disbursed through the other four elementary schools and the building itself was returned to the town and has been used for various purposes over the last few years. SWHS used the building for some classes during 2018 and over the past couple summers it has been used by South Windsor Parks and Recreation for their summer camp. 

Links to the Oral History Interviews mentioned in this article are listed below.

• Doris Pelton Burgdorf
  • First Interview
  • Second Interview
  • Third Interview 
  • Fourth Interview
  • Fifth Interview
• Sally Goodwin
• Pauline Johnson
• Richard Nicholson

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