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	SAVE OUR ART-DECO MASTERPIECE by Paul W. Shackford, Guest Columnist, The Wellesley Townsman, December 15, 2005 If I may quote what Wellesley’s Centennial Story says about our 1938 Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School, “Its contemporary design, spacious auditorium, large gym and cafeteria, art studios and wood and metal-working shops were considered the latest and best of their time.” Seven decades later, I wonder how many young people have passed through it, realizing or appreciating what the original school building is all about. Our 1938 Wellesley High School is an eclectic blend of traditional colonial: multipaned and round windows and tower; the exciting modern school of design in the first half of the 20th century known as Art-Deco: the letter “W: incorporated in the outside staircases and again in the tower; the vertical design of the windows giving the building a sense of height; and symmetrical designs in the doors and window panels. Our 1938 Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School is one of a kind. It was designed by Wellesley’s own architect, the late Robert Dean, in a national competition. It was built for the ages. It is a monumental building. It should be an inspiring place for a teenage youngster to go to school. I know. I went there as a teenage boy in the early 1960s. Returning there on a tour, as I did this past month, I am appalled to find what 40 years of alterations have done to it. I am not questioning the need for work to be done on the Wellesley High School. The building’s current condition speaks for itself. I am simply questioning the way in which it should be done. And I am very deeply disturbed that, from the School Committee on down, there is talk of tearing down our 1938-Art-Deco schoolhouse and replacing it with an entirely new structure. As a child, I remember the original 1938 high school very well. And I saw the south wing being added-sensitively styled, mind you- to blend the original Art-Deco design with post-World War II modernism. Then, while I was going there, I saw the Larsson Gymnasium being added. Since that time, more additions and alterations have been made, and like Topsy in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the high school has just “growed.” It is my opinion that our high school’s problem is not founded at all in its original, built-to-last 1938 building, but in the numerous alterations that haven’t worked out very well. The space above the auditorium was first the cafeteria and later the library. Why did they carve it up into classrooms and offices? As Principal Rena Mirkin correctly pointed out, the columns that were necessary in 1938 to support the roof over a large space are now obstructing people’s views. And I think those tiny, windowless offices are ludicrous. I am horrified that the present-day Choral Room has no windows either and worse, that both its doors open inward from a narrow side-corridor. Did people forget the Coconut Grove fire in 1942? We were painfully reminded of it with another such fire in Rhode Island three winters ago. As for that carpeting in the corridors, that was a silly notion originating in the 1970s as a cheap way to cover old flooring, deaden sound and teach our young people respect for property. Now they’re complaining that the odors from the artificial carpeting material are making the building “sick.” People are saying that our 1938 high school building should be torn down because it’s 70 years old. So what? In Europe, some kids are going to school in buildings that are 700 years old! If we need to tear down our school because it’s 70 years old and all dark and cramped inside, then let’s tear town our Town Hall! It’s now 120 years old, and it’s dark and cramped inside, too! Hey, Babson College! Did you hear that? Some of your buildings are now 80 years old! Time to tear them down! Excuse me. Wellesley College, did you hear that, also? Your Tower Court is now 90 years old! Down it comes! We, the people of Wellesley, swallowed hard while our 1950 Colonial Police Station was torn down and our exciting, contemporary 1959 main library was torn down, because we were convinced, sort of, that they were too small and could not be improved upon. But now, with this notion of tearing down our high school, this has gone too far. This business of tearing everything down whether it’s solid or crumbling, has become a fad, like the sack dress and the Hula Hoop were back in 1958. And it’s going out of control. We need to tear down our Wellesley High School and build an entirely new one, do we? A new building is going to solve all our problems, is it? That’s what people in Newton said when they built their North High School in the early 1970s. Today they don’t know whether to tear it down or what, because they’ve had so much trouble with it. Thirty years ago, Boston’s South Station was pigeon-infested rathole, which the Boston Redevelopment Authority was proceeding to tear down. What a priceless, irreplaceable treasure we would have lost if the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority had not rescued South Station from the BRA and restored it into the inviting transportation center that it is today! People say that we should build an entirely new high school in Wellesley because other towns have been doing it. What’s that – “keeping up with the Joneses”? They say that modern school buildings in other towns are so beautiful. If you ask me, the typical modern school building of the past half-century is uninspiring and insipid. The School Committee is telling us that constructing an entirely new building, before they tear down the present one will cause the least disruption. Don’t buy it! That is not an excuse for demolishing an architectural masterpiece. And don’t encourage them to build in the parking lot, either – it’s on a flood plain! Right from my childhood I have observed some people in Wellesley to be awfully restless, Indeed our town has a history of overly ambitious people making a lot of trouble for themselves, and for the rest of us as well. To remove our 1938 Art-Deco school building would be, at the very least, a wasteful extravagance. Not only could it plunge us into unfathomable debt, people in neighboring communities might scratch their collective heads and ask us what the heck we tore down such a distinguished-looking building for. At its worst, the demolition of our 1938 high school would be an affront to our forefathers, who carefully and lovingly created the best school building they could, at a time when our country was in serious economic and social trouble. As a side note, my tour group was entertained in that ghastly Choral Room by the Rice Street Singers singing “Blue Skies.” Irving Berlin wrote that song in 1936 for “White Christmas.” It’s an upbeat song, meant to raise people’s spirits during that difficult time in question. At its worst, the demolition of our 1938 high school would take away from our descendants a living piece of their American cultural heritage. At its worst, it would destroy a part of our town’s soul. On the other hand, I am convinced that some carefully planned and thought out renovations can make our historic Art-Deco high school a proud and inspiring place for our youngsters to learn in once again. Won’t you give it some thought? Paul W. Shackford lives on Fells Road.

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