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White Plains' Post Road School Looks Back As It Turns 100

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – White Plains’ Post Road School is celebrating 100 years in 2014 by looking back on its first building, which opened with eight rooms in 1914.

The old Post Road School stood for 95 years until a new structure was erected in 2009.

The old Post Road School stood for 95 years until a new structure was erected in 2009.

Photo Credit: White Plains School District
A merry-go-round at the old Post Road School.

A merry-go-round at the old Post Road School.

Photo Credit: Brian Donnelly
The old Post Road School gymnasium gets built.

The old Post Road School gymnasium gets built.

Photo Credit: Brian Donnelly

The new Post Road School opened in 2009 after 95 years took its toll on the original building.

“As we begin our sixth year in our new space, we remember the building that once sat below us, a three story brick school that served the community well for 95 years,” according to a statement on the school district website.

From eight classrooms in the original building, the school grew with three extensions. By 1925 it housed an elementary department with 15 classrooms and a junior high department with fourteen homerooms, a shop, science lab and rooms for sewing, cooking, music and two for art. Each elementary department room held a library and reading room.

Up until 1958 the auditorium was also used as a gym. Then a gym was added with a connecting walkway across the school driveway.

“This would give the students access to a gymnasium while allowing for assemblies and music performances to exist in the auditorium space at the same time,” according to the school district.

As other schools were built in White Plains, Post Road School evolved into a kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school. A tiered media center and mini theater then replaced the auditorium as student populations and curriculum changes required larger spaces.

In the late 1990s the school district decided to build a new school on the site of the upper fields. Taxpayers approved a bond and construction began as school continued in the existing buildings.

“For the next few years we would have the opportunity to watch our new ‘green’ school being erected as we walked to the gymnasium or looked out the classrooms in the back of the school,” according to the school district.

The new school was attached to the existing gym, which required only renovations and outdoor refacing because it was built later in the school’s history. The school today houses state of the art classrooms, an auditorium, cafeteria, courtyard, music rooms, media center, computer lab, nurse's suite, science room and more. 

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