Plans Realized

Accession Number P75-54-1300g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The caption associated with this glass plate negative of Clifton Park Junior High in the collection at UMBC includes the phrase "for school board."  I imagine the Hughes Company being given this assignment to provide proof of work completed and plans realized.  The architectural drawings featured earlier in Growing Baltimore look like they have come to life in photos like these.

Campus Concept

The Montebello School, which opened in 1923, overlooks Lake Montebello.  It was designed to include outdoor "play pavilions" and a separate building to house its auditorium/gymnasium.  Today, this site is known as Montebello Elementary Junior Academy, located at 2040 East 32nd Street.  

In the two views below, you can compare the remarkably unchanged facade of the building at the time of its construction and now.  The "street view" from Google Maps will allow you to click, zoom, and pan in order to interact with the environment around the building.  Can you find the outdoor play pavilions?

Image Number PP30.162 [now part of PP8] Hughes Studio Photograph Collection, 

Maryland Historical Society

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Architect's Rendering

Accession Number P75-54-1481g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

An architect's wash drawing shows plans for Forest Park School #69 in the West Arlington area of the city.  On January 18, 1922, the Baltimore Sun reported that 14.5 acres had been purchased between West Forest Park and Arlington for the new school, designed to accommodate 2,000 pupils and to relieve overcrowding at nearby school #64.  This  location actually straddled the boundary between the old city and newly annexed areas.  The building's cornerstone was laid by Mayor Broening at a ceremony on May 7, 1923.

Education by Design

Accession Number P75-54-0005g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This architect's drawing of a school building designed by Clyde S. Adams in 1923 illustrates some of the distinctive changes that took place in new school construction in the 1920s and 1930s.  The buildings themselves were larger and more spacious than previous structures.  Elementary schools were designed to hold 850 students; junior and senior high schools were made for up to 2,500 students.  In her book, Baltimore: The Building of an American City, Sherry Olson describes some of the new features added to schools: park-like campuses, playgrounds, lawns, landscaping, and flagpoles.  Inside, the buildings were equipped with modernized electricity, natural light, central steam heating, and multiple staircases for emergency exit.

Multi-Purpose Schools

Accession Number P75-54-0249g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Public schools in poor and working class areas of the city performed multiple functions in the lives of the students.  As historical geographer Sherry Olson points out, these schools were designed with "the strategy of processing the great unwashed and Americanizing the foreign-born worker." (Baltimore, 306)

Accession Number P75-54-1513g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The boys in the image above were photographed by the Hughes Company on July 12, 1922 in showers at School #108, located on Caroline Street near Bank Street in Southeast Baltimore.  An excerpt from the Strayer Report describes #108 in the following way:

The playground is totally inadequate for the children housed in this building, since only 7.6 square   feet are available per child. The complete lack of corridors, the unsatisfactory nature of the fire-escapes and the poor toilet provisions are such as to require that this building be given immediate attention. There are structural faults in this building which should be remedied at once if this building is to remain in use. (Strayer, 182)

Strayer Report

The Strayer School Survey, commissioned by the city in 1921, was an important planning document that led to significant improvements in the Baltimore's schools.  Public shock produced by the Strayer Survey led to three large loans, totaling 32 million dollars, for school construction in the 1930s. As a result of this funding, fifteen new schools were built and increases were seen in teacher salaries and schools' operating budgets.

Included below is an online version of the Strayer Report, which has been digitized by the Google Book project.  See for yourself the kinds of detailed information this survey provided about the physical conditions at the city's public schools.