CHAPTER 7
Table of Contents

    There was a greater difference between Berlin's school and Brunswick's three impressive learning institutions than between the woodcutter's cabin and the prince's palace. The difference between "then" and "now" was more than physical.

     Then, students walked to school. Students who could not walk to school rode horses or drove buggies to high school. Students from Knoxville commuted by train. Until fairly modern times, Washington County paid tuition for their high school youngsters, who also used the trains until they were later bussed to Brunswick High. Now buses transport all those living beyond walking distance.

     Standardized testing has developed into an all school affair, with results determining placement in classes, who receives remedial work or scholarships, and which college one goes to.

     Classes have decreased in size from 50 student, one room schools to classes held by law to 25 or 30 students each. Then, one teacher was responsible for as many as seven grade levels of teaching all basic subjects; now special subjects, such as art, physical education, and music are expected even at elementary level.

     A great deal of memorizing of poetry and other items has decreased in deference to reasoning and problem solving. Elementary children are now exposed to a week of outdoor camping experience at the sixth grade level. New schools are constructed with air conditioning and central heating, where pot-belly stoves were once the only concession to climate control.

     Where each classroom was fortunate to have a shelf of assorted books, today every school in Frederick County has a library and a librarian. No one has to carry a cold lunch today, as all schools either have cafeterias or have food satellited to them.

     The forties saw room mothers organized with specialized responsibilities as they volunteered their services on a regular basis. The sixties saw them offering important services in the classroom, or apart with small groups of children. Teacher aides  have been hired the past two decades, and volunteers are still present to assist the classroom teacher. Today, with about half of the mothers of school age children in the work force, there is less dependence on great numbers of them on a scheduled basis.

     The early requirements of seven years elementary school and four years of high school changed in 1949, and one year was added. Grades seven, eight, and nine were Junior High, and ten, eleven, and twelve were Senior, although credits for high school were counted from the ninth grade through twelfth, still four years. Subjects taught at the earlier school were enhanced, improved, enriched and frequently changed. Busses became available for inter-school athletics and for field trips.

     Opening exercises started school with a Bible reading, prayer, and Pledge to the Flag; today the law of the country prohibits prayer and religious teaching in school.

     Then, if a child lived EAST of Maple Avenue, he went to East Brunswick School; if he or she lived WEST of Maple Avenue, he or she went to West Brunswick School. Overcrowding sometimes brought exceptions to this rule.

     The severe discipline of yesteryear moderated by mid-century, but today teachers lament the lack of support of many families in the matter of discipline; and the public went through a period of not wanting values taught— a complaint that is causing second thoughts today.

     A century and a half has intervened between some of the foregoing "thens" and "nows;" many factors have been at work in framing the setting for what has developed: officials, builders, parents, economics, industry. Every reader of this chapter will find a slot where he can identify, if only for a fleeting moment.

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     By 1838 Berlin was District #16 of 81 districts. (Remember all those one room schools that served until consolidation and buses closed them down?) Some new districting appeared in records of May 21, 1839.

     The November 16,1840, records devoted a page to the trustees of Berlin District. From that date to May 18, 1847, the district's school allocation was $634.84. Those dates represented seven school years; therefore, the schools averaged $90.69 per year. What this paid for end where the "collections" came from were not readily apparent. "Collections" for 81 students in 1841 amounted to $72.90. Allocation per pupil amounted to sixty cents in November 1843; eighty cents per pupil in May 1845. November, February, and May appear to be collection months. Enrollment at that period of time (1840's) hovered between 99 and 102.

     Where were classes held? Berlin's plat in Titus' ATLAS shows no schools. Evidence is needed to answer that question.

    The first identifiable public school was a log structure on the corner of Maple Avenue and West "B" Street, then called First Street. It was titled to the Frederick County Board of Commissioners, who replaced it in 1869 with a one room frame structure which served as a school until 1890. It then became a residence. Today it is the Education Annex for the Baptist Church.

     (At that time Brunswick was still in the Petersville election district 12; not until 1892 did Brunswick become election district No.25, separate from Petersville.)

     When Clarence J. D. and Ella B. Shewbridge conveyed the property to Bessie Wigington in 1920, it was still referred to as the "School Lot."

     This quote from a handwritten account by Lula B. Darr McMurry clearly refers to the annex: "These hills became aglow with wheat and corn fields. A school house was built on the lot of what is now the corner of Maple Avenue and "B" Street. My mother waded through wheat fields from what is now

     Three East Potomac Street up the hill to the little school. This was in the early (eighteen) seventies. A wonderful little Irish Lady was her teacher. Her name was Ellen Theresa Brady, born in County Donegal Ireland in 1846. Miss Brady later became Mrs. Wm. W. Wenner of Berlin."

     Today's generation knows her grandchildren as Evelyn W. McLane and George W. Wenner, Jr.

    In 1890 W. W. Wenner donated an acre of land on Brunswick Street for a one room brick school. This was on the site of the present Masonic Hall and post office. When more space was needed, the one room brick building was moved to f" Street as a school for the less numerous black population. Later a frame house was rented for the 41 black students.

     The county built a few rooms and a corridor on the Wenner (Brunswick Street) property. According to minutes of February 8,1911, a decision to add two rooms to West Brunswick was made. On July 5 a contract for a $3997 addition was awarded to C. B. Karn.

     Meanwhile, in 1892 at Sixth Avenue and ,An Street, the B&O RR donated two acres of land upon which a four room school was erected, to become known as East Brunswick School. By 1901 it served 374 students. Its addition of four more rooms, occupied in January 1902, was to accommodate the growing Brunswick High School. When that level moved into its new building atop Fourth Avenue in 1913, East Brunswick Elementary assumed use of the total eight rooms.

     Recollections of the 1890 East End School bring visions of students carrying water from the old Gum Spring to the classroom. Later, central heating and inside plumbing accounted for fewer interruptions in the classroom. The early 1920's summons a picture of mothers, working with crepe paper and ribbons, making costumes for competition in the annual Apple Blossom parade in Winchester, Va.; of mothers making costumes for Maypole dancing and for characters in school plays; and of mothers bringing refreshments to PTA meetings and field days.

    When a modern elementary was finally built in 1952, children from the antiquated East and West End Schools attained a common loyalty to Brunswick Elementary School. Since then growth of the community has required three additions to Brunswick Elementary School.

 W-MMM

(Elementary Schools)

    In October of 1916, the Board was requested to place electric lights in the East End building and to place a "sewerage system" there; no action was taken, but a committee was appointed to investigate the feasibility of such a move. The next month, the committee reported that to implement the request was not feasible, but they were to get an estimate on installing more windows in badly lighted rooms. By May 1917, the Board took favorable action regarding lighting and repainting.

    Scale for elementary offered an initial salary of $400 annually for the first grade, $350 for second year, and $300 for third. There were incitements of $8 per year for each additional year taught

     In May of 1921, a petition from the local colored school requested an additional room. A portable was ordered for Brunswick.

     In March 1922, the State Board of Health considered a septic tank for West End School. The   Board would pay one third of cost up to $1000, and an agreement was approved.

     A month later, Mr. William L. Gross was appointed a school commissioner with a five-year term beginning April 24, 1922. He represented Brunswick, Petersville, Jefferson, and Burkittsville.

     In 1923 Petersville and St. Marks schools were consolidated with the West End School, with the Board of Education paying for the bus transportation.

     West End School was scheduled in November 1923 for sewerage, after the necessary consent of the State Board of Health was secured.

     At April 2, 1930 meeting, L. E. McBride and D. D. Kidwell requested the privilege of connecting sewerage lines to the West Brunswick School sewerage pipes, which emptied into the Potomac River. At a May meeting, Commissioner Harrison was arranging for this to be expedited.

    The following excerpted memorial statement  honored William L. Gross, who had been appointed school commissioner April 22, 1922. He died April 10,1930: "William L. Gross, a zealous and energetic supporter of public education, a faithful worker, and diligent keeper of public trust . . . served uninterruptedly from May 1, 1922, until his decease . . . regular in attendance, keen to the demands of the public; (he) understood and without reserve responded to duties and obligations of public education."

     The September 3,1930 minutes confirmed Miss Georgia Alexis Hood as successor to E. Virginia Wenner as principal at West Brunswick. At the same time, Lillian Fulmer and Nellie Hoar were appointed to East Brunswick School.

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    As was the case throughout Maryland and, in fact, most of the country, Brunswick's black students attended their own segregated school before the days of integration in 1954. George Hardy, a member of the Brunswick History Commission, attended the elementary school on "J" Street in the 1920s and has shared his recollections of those days.

     Indications are that the first classes were held in a corncrib on the Wenner farm and later in a house at 37 West "I" Street. There is a record that on May 7, 1901, a "frame house in tolerable condition" was rented there for this purpose, and that 41 students were enrolled. A one room brick schoolhouse at 40 West "J" Street followed. There was usually one teacher for grades 1 through 7. Mr. Robert McDaniel commuted daily by train from Harpers Ferry to do the teaching, and was at times assisted by his wife, also a teacher.

     Besides the usual three R's and general curriculum, wooden spools were used to help teach counting, and Friday afternoons were a time for special programs of recitation, poems, songs, and other activities such as making pulp maps and leatherwork. In addition to the McDaniels, names of other teachers recalled over the years were Emma Beard, Essie Thomas, Lucy Groom, Messrs. Chase, Johnson, Boyd, Gray, DeLauter, and Robbins.

     A second one room school building was built next door at 42 "J" Street. After grade school, students wishing to continue their education had to go to Lincoln High School in Frederick. Some used the B&O for daily travel. Mr. Hardy recalls the following family names among the students attending the school in the 1920s: Barber, Beard, Bell, Belt, Briggs, Campbell, Cooper, Giles, Hardy, Holland, Hopewell, Jackson, James, King, Lipscomb, Monroe, Onley, Palmer, Terell, Stanfield and Walker. One youngster by the name of Anderson rode a horse from Lovettsville to attend daily classes at the Brunswick school.

     The two school buildings are still standing today and are in use as residences.

 S - George A. Hardy W-BRH

     Brunswick Middle School was opened in November 1984, housing sixth, seventh, and eighth grades from feeder schools Brunswick and Valley Elementary. It is near Brunswick High School on the former B&O Farm property.

     Middle school differs from junior high schools, which were close to a high school with younger members. Middle school is designed to help make a smoother transition for youngsters. There is a continuation of skills teaching. In sixth grade three teachers often teach four different classes, so that a student does not have new faces for every change of class. There are double periods of language arts that help reduce the number of different teachers.

     An interdisciplinary team meets frequently so each knows what the other is doing and will be able to avoid confusing students with six different sets of rules, standards and other aspects of learning. The teams discuss the students so as to better understand them.

 W-MMM

    Pictures of Brunswick High of 1900,1902,1912, 1928, and 1965 would be of five different buildings.

     The growth of the schools reflected the remarkable growth of the town during its first two decades. A September 3, 1914, article in the Brunswick Times credited Mayor Eugene Harrison with an active interest in the school from the beginning, as a member of the Board of Trustees.

     Once the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began erecting the shops and extensive switching yards, the workers began moving their families here.

     By 1900 the lack of high school facilities forced some pupils to attend school in Frederick and Hagerstown. Miss Carolyn Compton wrote that  her sisters chose Frederick. The school train left a 7:25 A.M. and returned at 7:00 P.M.— twelve hour. with home work in each subject to be done.

     Prior to 1900, there had been agitation for a high school but no positive results. In 1900, Mr. Charles W. Wright, of Point of Rocks, as School Board member, set about establishing the High School His active interest for ten years gained him the title "The Friend of Brunswick."

     The first high school was in one room of c building that had a storeroom but was also a residence, the Westall house, located at the corner o Sixth Avenue and East Potomac Street. The school entrance was on Potomac Street where at present c window is located.

     Dr. Crum had built the building, then sold it to James Westall, whose daughter, Bessie W. Strickle lived there after his death until her own demise.

     The school was authorized in August of 1900 b, the School Board, and it opened in September with 31 pupils enrolled. Mr. Thomas W. Troxell, count, native and a Dickinson College graduate, was the first principal of BHS, at $150 per term.

     In June 1902, BHS produced its first commencement exercises. Mary Pearl Montgomery was the lone graduate in the assembly hall of the building.

     Meanwhile, an additional room for 200 pupil. was soon recommended. Mr. Shafer agitated for separate high school building. Such an interest had never before been taken in the public school. "N mere makeshift will satisfy our needs," said Shafer He continued pressing for action. Build of brick! h' cried. Four rooms are necessary, he wrote. In the minutes of Thursday, April 25, 1901, plans and specifications for a proposed addition to East Brunswick School submitted by Mr. Wesley Baltzellwer adopted. Brunswick's trustees urged the board" early start on the promised addition to the elementary school. At June's meeting the money we. appropriated for a four room addition. It we' occupied April 3, 1905.

     Mr. Troxell was appointed principal at $175 term. He served the community seven years.

     After a two-year attempt, in 1904 a law passed requiring children between ages eight and twelve to attend school.

     The entire school system at Brunswick we. crowded again by 1909 and a church and other buildings were again called into use.

     Students returned to school in 1909-10 to fin another year added to the high school course. There was no graduation in 1909. Brunswick had the first manual training department in the county, being started in September 1905. Mr. Oscar Fogle, of Frederick County, became principal in September 1907. Under him the school became accredited in September 1909. Next, a commercial course was instituted, with bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, and allied branches, under Mr. Roger G. Harley. Under Mr. Harley students in this course ranked high in county contests.

     In 1906, all schools in Brunswick were put under the high school principal until 1911, when again each school had its own principal.

     Again crowding required drastic steps. Rooms were rented throughout town and used for classes. Citizens repeated demands for a new building. The search for a site was time consuming, none was found on the lower level of town, so two acres were purchased on Sandy Hook Hill in 1911. On February 8 three representatives from Brunswick decided to erect an eight room building there; the town was required to grade the street. The school building was started in April 1912 and students were using the school on March 4, 1913. The building cost $40,000. Mr. Roger Harley became principal in the fall of 1912. The 1913-14 school year saw Domestic Science being added to the courses.

     The growth of the schools reflected the remarkable growth of the town during its first two decades. A September 3, 1914, article in the Brunswick Times credits Mayor Eugene Harrison with an active interest in the school from the beginning, as a member of the Board of Trustees.

     A decade later, the school was again bursting at the seams. An addition to Brunswick High     School had been discussed before the destructive fire rendered the building useless. On April 6, 1927, the Board of Education decided to confer with the architect regarding the earlier proposed addition for Brunswick. On December 7,1927, Messrs. Lloyd Culler and Harry Funk, a Frederick and a Brunswick contractor respectively, were to be interviewed regarding the proposed addition.

     Some citizens had been agitating for a relocation of the school, and three prominent businessmen offered three different locations at the February 8 meeting.

    Then came the fire of February 1928. Students continued their education in makeshift accommodations around town.

     After the fire the office was in the Methodist Church, and curtained off classrooms were there as well as at the Eagles building. At the lumber yard, manual training classes were held. Classes were held on the third floor of the Orrison building for shorthand and typing. When time came to change classes, the students did so by walking the streets.

     A special meeting was called February 26. For economic reasons the old site was retained, and the addition previously planned was to proceed: an auditorium for 500 spectators, an 18 room building "with appointments, conveniences, and capacity greater than any other school in the county with the possible exception of Frederick High School." The cost would be at least $25,000.

     On March 7, the inspector found BHS sound, well built, and reusable. Since the corridor was concrete, the building and walls could be tied together, so failure was almost impossible. By June 20, the buildings and additions were recommended and the cost was to be $102,700. A new full-service facility opened in September of the year of the fire.

     The destroyed school had been a two story structure with four rooms on each floor of the west side of the building with halls and cloak rooms on the front or east side; there was also a student lounge, and a teachers' room. Folding doors allowed two classrooms to be converted into an assembly room. Rest Rooms, locker rooms, and a science room occupied the basement. A shed at the north end of the building accommodated horses ridden to school by students.

     By contrast, the new school had eight rooms on each floor, an office, and a teachers' lounge on the top floor; eight classrooms and two cloakrooms on the main floor. In the basement were locker rooms and rest rooms, boys' shop and physical education rooms, home economics room, kitchen with numerous stoves, cooking and storage areas, a cafeteria. There was an auditorium with stage and gymnasium.

     This facility served from September 1928 to June 1965, when it was demolished. Demolition was not easy. The wrecking ball bounced off the side of the building as it struck. This was a strongly built building. No longer could one see old Brunswick High School standing strong and mighty as one crosses the bridge into Brunswick, wrote Bill Cauley in the July 1, 1976, Frederick Post.

     For a while the hope prevailed that the 1928 structure would be used as an apartment house, a community center, a factory for light industry, a senior citizens home. The town watched sadly as the former noble hall of learning succumbed to vandalism, which caused its windows and doors to disappear and its interior to be gutted.

     The uninhibited verdant growth surrounding the edifice choked the very life from it as the elements seeped, then poured, through the weakening roof and unprotected openings, causing the plaster to crumble. BHS— 1913-1928 became a memory.
 

    At the time of planning for a new school, the town of Brunswick held rights to Scheer Stadium, where the adjacent farm provided adequate acreage for a school and necessary grounds. After years of requesting and planning, the citizens of Brunswick had a state-of-the-art school that their children entered in the fall of 1965.

     Twenty years later, visitors are struck by a plant that retains its fresh appearance, a tribute to the care, devotion, and sense of responsibility of the staff, the custodians, and the students.

     If past is prologue, half a century from now another local editor will stir the citizenry, as Mr. Shafer did, to seek the best for its children, and that first tenacious editor and Mr. Wright, the "Father of BHS" will continue to rest in the knowledge that the school's patrons place their students' welfare high on their list of priorities.

 W - M M M
 

    In addition to the public schools, educational opportunities were offered by some private schools.

     Emma Jordan operated a private school in the Pumphrey House on South Maple Avenue     according to the Maryland State Gazetteer of 1909-10-11. This was a kindergarten in the latter 1920's.

     In 1901, the Catholic parish opened a parochial school on East "B" Street, behind the present St. Francis' Church, which school, operated by Ursuline nuns, offered grades one through eight.

     Mr. William Schnauffer, with his wife, Mary West, opened a private school at Grace Episcopal Church on "A" Street in 1905 to relieve the crowded condition of the local public school.

     Shenk's Seminary was another local private school. It is the subject of a separate article in this chapter.

 W - W H H

    Shenk's Seminary on "Brick Yard Hill" was a private school founded and operated by Professor and Mrs. John J. Shenk in 1890. Today this is known  as the Greenfield house just off Second Avenue. It is easily recognized by its square shape and "A" -gabled roof, with four chimneys at the center of the roof. The professor owned much property during his lifetime, most of it being in the Frederick area near Possumtown Pike. He and his wife were both killed in the "twister" of 1929. In recent times the seminary building was entirely gutted and rebuilt into a duplex house.

     On the 1896 Directory of Brunswick, Professor J. J. Shenk is described as "the popular, talented, and cultured Principal— Brunswick Seminary." His picture projects a slender, serious looking, heavily mustached man with high forehead and wavy hair.

     The advertisement on the same directory, a 22" by 26" single sheet flier, states that the school was established in 1890 and accepts both male and female. A house width banner on the building proclaims BRUNSWICK SEMINARY, yet all references heard around town refer to "Shenk's Seminary."

     The principal's name is followed by A.M. (Master of Arts), while his wife's name, "Mrs. J. J. Shenk," has no attribution of academic degree. She is listed as music teacher. They are "assisted by an able Faculty."

     "TUITION AND BOARD AT REASONABLE RATES" is also proclaimed. The facility is described as "A progressive Preparatory School for college and the active affairs of life. The Session consists of Nine calendar months, beginning September 1 and closing May 31. The courses of study include Primary, Intermediate, and Academic Departments. Vocal and Instrumental Music a Specialty."

     In June 1901 (Editor Ed) Shafer praised Professor J. J. Shenk for the "good work in the cause of higher education in this town."

     Professor Shenk had decided to move farther down town. During the next two months a new "Brunswick Seminary" was to be erected by Shenk in the heart of town at First Street and First Avenue where St. Francis Catholic Church now stands. A September 27 article showed the Shenk's Seminary opening with the greatest attendance in history; maybe the closer in location was responsible. Within two weeks more room was necessary, and he planned to build another addition. (The late L. B. Darr, who attended Shenk's Seminary, stated that no more rooms were added.)

     Carolyn Compton moved to Brunswick in 1894 and studied a term at Shenk's Seminary, then transferred to East End School.

     One person recalled when the Shenk's building was empty during 1913-14. Children of the neighborhood used to explore it and play around it.

     The Shenk's were driving to their home in Frederick during the tornado of 1929. They both died in an accident that resulted from this storm.

     Their bodies rest in Burkittsville Union Cemetery marked by stones that read

     "Shenk, John Jacob 1860 - 1929 W. Shenk, Julia Pearl 1865 - 1929"

    A picture of the original building is quite different from the updated dwelling at 112 East "G" Street a century later. It is a weather board house with hip roof that contains an A -gabled dormer in each of its four sides.

     A roof cresting with low balustrades topped the standing seam metal roof. The balustrades have been removed; that portion of the roof remains flat with a chimney at each corner. However, the chimneys are about half the height of the original ones.

     Once set in a spacious half acre lawn, Shenk's Seminary is now surrounded by new development.

     White siding covered the green shingles that protected the building for years. Now a duplex, the house seems quite at peace in its present setting.

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    Brunswick's first kindergarten was started in 1962 when Lee Smith, the Brunswick Elementary School Principal, realized there was a need for preschool training and preparation.

     Mr. Smith asked Eva Albert to start a kindergarten; after some thought, she decided to do it. Mrs. Albert and Mr. Smith visited other areas that had organized kindergartens and observed their techniques and routines.

     In October of 1962 the Brunswick Kindergarten was started in the First Methodist Church with an enrollment of 10 pupils. The hours were 9 to 12 three days a week; the tuition was $100 a month. Marlene Gordon and Gertrude Phillips were Eva Albert's assistants.

     Eva continued until 1965; after her retirement June Utterback took over Eva's duties.

     By 1966 the enrollment had increased to 30 students and there were also classes for three and four-year olds. Marie Huffer, Dorothy Decker, Ella Mae Dawson, and Joyce Webber Utterback had been added to the list of assistants. When public Kindergarten was introduced into the school system, the Brunswick Kindergarten changed its name to "Learn-N-Play."

     The program taught by Brunswick Kindergarten/Learn-N-Play included numbers, letters, seasons, holidays, poems, songs, and health habits. The Kindergarten/Learn-N-Play always had a Christmas program, a graduation, and a diploma for every child.

     The little kindergarten was a success in Brunswick, and the success was due to the efforts and devotion of the teachers who worked with the children.

     June Utterback recalls that it was gratifying to see the children grow and learn as they grew. She also introduced visual aids to her classes by the creation of their own scrapbooks.

     The final tabulation of some of the teachers and assistants: Eva Albert - 3 years; June Utterback - 18 years; Dorothy Decker - 16 years; Joyce Webber Utterback - 15 years.

     The self-supporting Brunswick Kindergarten/ Learn-N-Play closed its doors in 1983.

S - Eva Albert
   - June Utterback

W -BLC

    I can look back 20 years and see about 15 black women gathered in a small room in a small trailer in Burkittsville along with Carla Brahe, the VISTA worker sent to our area. She was meeting with us to see what we needed in our area. The mothers wanted to work to help supplement their income, but there were no babysitters available. This is where the Learning Tree got its beginnings.

     After deciding that day care was needed, the ladies got busy with fund raising projects. Carla remained with us one year, then Neil and Ellen MacNeale were sent to our area. In 1970, the name was chosen and we became incorporated as a nonprofit organization. The name Learning Tree was taken from a book and movie written by Gordon Parks.

     After a two year search for a suitable building, we found many owners not very receptive to our idea. For months we met with various groups and organizations about their available or unused building. We were not going to let racial obstacles stand in our way. So, we decided to purchase some land for $2,000, located at 6th and "D" Street, Brunswick, which the MacNeales had purchased for a self-help housing project; and we decided to build. With only ten members and no federal money available, we still had hope.

     The women became busier than ever before.

    Most of them still had preschool children at home. Not only did we travel to various places to find and collect data on the procedures needed in starting a day care center and its daily operation, but we had to find a way to place a building on this land that we had purchased.

     We applied for grants and received them from Frederick County Action and The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, as well as the City of Brunswick. We had many, many, many -a bake sale and we sought professional help on a voluntary basis from Rick Ekstrom, an architect from the University of Maryland, and legal services of Richard Burgee and Tom Dorsey of Frederick, Md.

     It was about the third year that some of us started to lose interest in what we were trying to accomplish, simply because what we thought we would have in two years seemed to be taking an eternity. But by giving each other moral support, we soon found our old enthusiastic selves again.

     A few ladies traveled to Upperville, Va., to look at a prefabricated building. An amount of $20,000 was needed to purchase the building that we saw. Our thoughts were— how in the world can we do this with only a few hundred dollars in our treasury? BUT— in 1973, the MacNeales had found volunteers to help clear off the land and a purchase agreement was made with Northern Counties Lumber, Inc., to bring our new building. We had a foundation awaiting a building. Amongst all of this development, bingos and bake sales and dances were still being held, along with donations from our mailing campaign coming in. And still the ladies were busy checking with organizations and government agencies about the operation of a day care center.

     In 1974, the building was paid for. Our VISTA worker, Joe McClintock, secured the Army Reserves to donate their weekends and they did most of the interior of the building, like installing the bathroom, hanging the panels, and insulation.

     In 1975, to meet fire regulation approval, we had to do some adjustments. One in particular that all of us will never forget was making the paneling heat retardant. The smell had to be endured and we had a hard time applying it. At last the upper floor was completed.

     I can't explain the feeling we had when we went shopping for furniture and seeing our driveway put in. All of those days of not knowing whether we had stretched out too far in trying to establish a day care were in the past. We had finally finished something in the Brunswick area that not even white women had ventured to do and we became even more proud. We had an establishment where local people  of low income status could apply for a job.

     We knew that that many a Brunswick resident had doubts about black women trying to build a day care center. But when President Lucille Gilbert gave the welcome address at our opening ceremony, I'm sure that whatever doubts they had vanished because there stood eight determined people who knew that their dream had actually come true and not one of them now had children young enough to attend The Learning Tree, Inc.!

     In closing I would like to take the time to recognize those who gave from eight to ten years of their time, energy, and efforts to this cause: Patricia Smothers, Cynthia Smothers, Thearl Dykes, Frances Henderson, as well as myself, Lillie Morris.

 W - Lillie Morris

    When there were both an East and a West Brunswick Elementary School, each had its own Parent-Teacher Association. From 1952 to 1954, two years before the new Consolidated Brunswick Elementary School opened, there was a joint elementary P.T.A. The present elementary group continued from that beginning until it became a Parent-Teacher Organization in 1980.

    Brunswick High School PTA officially started March 16, 1953, when Mr. Herman Hauver was principal. The 29 patrons and teachers who met on that date voted unanimously to form the organization.

     First year memberships totaled almost 200 (1953-54). Woodrow Souder was the first president, with Gladys Stine as vice president. Jean Brown was secretary, and Ruth Mohler, treasurer. Mrs. Nellie Lloyd was the first program chairman.

     By 1958, the PTA began placing emphasis on study groups, and fewer business meetings were held, since the all-time purpose of PTA is to educate its membership about the school and education in general.

     In the April 1960 meeting, Mr. Kussmaul announced that the long-hoped-for new school had been approved by the County Commissioners.

     In 1961-62 the PTA urged and received the appointment of Brunswick's Miss Lavenia Hood to the Board of Education. Membership during that period was the highest of its first decade with 512 members. The year also saw its peak budget to date, $1174.

    One of the earliest projects of the PTA was to request renovation of the high school during the summer and to remedy a textbook shortage. The first meeting after summer vacation welcomed School Superintendent Eugene Pruitt; local School Board member Claude Lutman discussed the Board's failure to carry through the renovation plans. Next month, November, the County Commissioners were present to explain why they could do nothing for Brunswick for another year!

     The PTA favored a course in driver education for BHS, but the upcoming State Legislature failed to pass the bill for this innovation.

     Money raising efforts varied from having luncheons to a 50-cent fund drive to selling fire extinguishers. Board member Mr. Joseph Rhoderick, in speaking on the PTA's role in raising funds for school purchases, cited the 50-cent per pupil allowance for supplies to eliminate magazine drives and other fund-raising activities. It was the Board's responsibility to provide anything needed for the building proper or ground, he emphasized.

     By 1955-56 PTA efforts resulted in surfacing the back road to school, and the PTA landscaped the school grounds.

     Attempts to require school buses to discharge students at the rear of the high school were unsuccessful because of the lack of a perfect bus turnaround without the vehicle having to back up.

     This year, a folding cot/ sick bed was purchased for emergency use at school.

     By 1956-57, Brunswick was finally being mentioned as needing a school, thanks to Mr. Richard Bowers, of the advisory committee, according to Principal Fred Brown. Under the next principal, Mr. Jack Kussmaul, the school heard that the Board of Education approved the acquisition of a site for a new Brunswick High School.

     The year 1961-62 saw a Band Booster Club formed. David Carey and James Short were each  awarded PTA scholarships of $150 each.

     By March of 1963, a group from PTA planned to attend the April 3rd Board of Education meeting to arouse some action toward Brunswick's new high school.

     PTA officers during the last year in the 1928 built high school on Fourth Avenue were Mrs. Zoe Kline, president; Mrs. Bertha Haller, vice president; Mrs. Todd Blessley, recording secretary; Mrs. Emma Axline, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. Connie Grams, treasurer.

     The patrons of PTA in the "new high school," which opened in September 1965 were led by Nelson Strathern, president; Mrs. Margie Sell, vice president; Mrs. Joanna Proudfoot, recording secretary; Mrs. Alton Putnam, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. Charles Smith, treasurer.

     As the new school was well supplied, well built, and well supported, the PTA continued to function but without the prior school supporters' urgency.

 W-MMM

    Brunswick High School Alumni Association was organized in 1915 by members of that and previous years' classes at a meeting in the basement of the Kaplon Building. After the meeting the group pined for a banquet at Levi Lucas' restaurant (where today is the Potomac Pub, but for years was Darr's,) at 5 East Potomac Street. After the meal they returned to Kaplons for a dance.

     Except for 1943, 1944, and 1945, there was an annual meeting and election.

     The Alumni Association dedicated the monument at the bridge entrance on Potomac Street to Frances New and Donald Darr, two who worked extensively for the association. This anniversary year of Brunswick, the association plans to seal a time capsule to be opened on Brunswick's 200th anniversary.

 W-MMM

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