The newly constructed Wellesley High School of 1938 was a masterpiece in its day, recognized nationwide as a school that was well-thought out and well planned, said WHS graduate Tory DeFazio.
Nearly 70 years later, DeFazio and a small group of like-minded citizens have banded together to form the Wellesley High School Preservation Committee. They are hoping to see the original building restored, not razed.

Five of the seven current committee members – Tory DeFazio, Beth Hinchliffe, Gig Kerivan and Paul Esposito and Rosemary Richardson – are Wellesley High School graduates. Esposito teaches Latin at the school and a sixth member, Gerry Murphy, was a long-time teacher there. The remaining member, Jane Neilson, did not attend Wellesley High, but currently has a son at the high school.
The school had an auditorium wing on the left and a classroom wing and gym on the right and “in the crux, the architect put the tower that holds the whole thing together,” he said. Since then, there have been several additions to the school, one in 1956 that was planned when the 1938 structure was built. But “everything else after that was for immediate needs and not well planned.” He said.

After the town decided that the current high school would not be equipped to handle increased enrollment and other future concerns, the Facilities Advisory Committee was formed in January 2005 to determine all of the potential options for updating the school. In September 2005, five options were presented to the public, ranging from a very limited renovation and addition ($29.3 million) to a new school on a new site ($145.6 million). The FAC recommended a hybrid of two of the options, which would encompass a major renovation and addition on the current site.

In April, Town Meeting approved $175,000 for a consultant to study the high school’s future programming needs. The Wellesley High School Programming Committee has been working since June to develop a vision of the high school renovation that meets those needs. In the next month or so, if all goes as planned, the architects will begin to develop several concepts of how the school might look. The School Committee will make a final selection and present it at next spring’s Town Meeting for approval.
“What we’re interested in is preserving and restoring the 1938 building” as part of the overall high school renovation, DeFazio said. “I think there needs to be more town input on this, and we’re a group that’s trying to open up the process.” To that end the committee has written a number of columns that are already appearing in the Townsman, and a tour of the high school is planned for later this month.

DeFazio hopes the residents who live near the high school will also participate in the tour, since the high school is “right in their back yard.”

The group will keep meeting as long as necessary to raise awareness of the historical importance of the 1938 building and its value as a town asset. “We just don’t want to destroy all that and then be footing a bill for a new school that nobody wants,” he said.
“Look at what Newton North is going through – that was done without the town’s blessing. We need to start with the 1938 building and go from there.”