School Under Construction

These photos of what appears to be an elementary school under construction were shot June 24, 1966, if I can believe the negative sleeve. Unfortunately, that’s all I know about them. I looked at the Google Archives around that date and didn’t see anything that looked like these pictures.

There’s some printing on the pickup truck on the right, but I couldn’t get it clear enough to read. It looks like a gym or stage has been pressed into classroom use in one of the photos. For some reason, the location has the feel of Advance to it, but I can’t tell you why I think that.

UPDATE – School Identified

I ran across a September 23, 1966, Missourian clip that clears up the mystery. It WAS the Advance Elementary School. The photo caption read, “Pupils at the Advance Elementary School are anxiously awaiting the completion of a two-room addition to the present building. Particularly interested are the kindergarten children who are now holding classes on the school stage. Only a curtain separates the make-shift kindergarten room from the multi-purpose room which is used as a cafeteria, band and music room. Mrs. Grace Williams, kindergarten teacher, has 30 children in her morning class and 26 in the afternoon. Mitchell Wills, principal, said no tax was needed to build the addition.”

Mystery school photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

13 Replies to “School Under Construction”

  1. Looks like the Advance elementary school. Their website says it was built in 1957 though. They were just adding on. I’d also bet that the truck in the picture says Dudley, MO.

  2. I can absolutely confirm that it was not Hawthorne School. Hawthorne not quite finished at the beginning of the 1965 school year; I started fifth grade in ’65 and we were temporarily put up at Louis J Schultz school until Christmas break. All construction at Hawthorne was done by Christmas 1965.

    Doing a little searching revealed that it must be Advance; check out the second picture in this group: http://www.advance.k12.mo.us/photoset.aspx?Set=8

  3. I, like Carol, thought Alma Schrader at first. I grew up down the hill from there on Marvin Street, and the pictures show an area that is too flat to be that neighborhood.

  4. Yep, looks like Advance–especially that temporary classroom on the old stage. To the left of the stage, behind the curtain, is the much-used multi-purpose room.
    The school was indeed built in 1957. It was a “Florida style,” with wings for the classrooms and heavy metal outside doors to each classroom. (Most impractical for our cold, wet climate!) Since then, they’ve remodeled the building to enclose the classrooms.
    I wasn’t acquainted with Advance during the sixties, so I’m not aware if they built onto the school then.
    The flat, treeless terrain is right for it to be Advance.

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