The History of Marmora H路Ikt# Continuation School Jov(r IYj95/ (Editor's note: The following story was written for the Marrnora Fair on Sept. 26 & 27,1921. It was found in a cardboard box on WilliamStreet by Bob Darby who was clearing brush at the time. Unfortunately the first prize winningessaydoesnotcontainaname and therefore no credit can be given to the writer. The Marmora Herald would like to thank Mr. Darby for bringing this to our attention, as it makes for an interesting piece of Marmora's history). A little over a year ago saw the birth of a Continuation School in the minds of the council, school board, and citizens of Marrnora. It had been a sort of far away ., wish of every man interested in education but the real possibilities had never been given any consideration. Before this, the Public school principal had taught forms one and two but it was very hard for him to give them the attention that they would receive in a high school. On Madoc Street there was a large brick residence which was going to wrack (sic) very quickly from want of repairs and from careless tenants. The owner determined to sell it away below value to get rid of it. This was the way the Continuation School board obtained such a cheap building. As soon as this offer was heard .of a delegate was sent from the school board and the council to the owner of the building. He purchased it and gave a cash payment for it to hold it. All this was done in so short a time that the councillors and mem-
bers of the school board had hardly time to think of the great venture they were making; but they had the building on their hands in a place where it was practically worthless value, so they could hardly back out. Therefore, work was immediately started on re-modelling the building and tearing down the many buildings attached to it. The first year was started amid
great hardships. The teachers and pupils were continually bothered with the sounds of hammering or some other annoyance caused by the unsettled school building. The attendance was just about right for the size of the school and everything went well for some time. Then came another great trouble -- the fire. The pupils had hardly got away from school at noon-hour when the alarmof fire was given. Smoke poured out from all the doors and windows in great puffs .
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Marmora Herald, Tuesday, J~
The History of Marmora 'Continuation School .
Continued from page 1 For two hours or more nearly ev~ry able-bodied citizen fought furiously to save what was worked so hard for. At last the smoke died out but it left -- not the lovely decorated interior but rooms brown with smoke and with the
woodwork and decorations chopped with firemen's axes and flooded with water. The school was insured enough to cover the loss hopefully but it meant loss of time for pupils and worry for school board and teachers. It was soonre-decoratedhowever and looked even better than before. The end of the year soon came and the results were very good considering the trouble and loss of time. This year though promises to be better because of the most of the pupils being in the
school a year and because the teachers will not have to work under .such difficulties as before. One would think that this school had had enough worry and trouble but this was not the case. This year the school board were confronted with the fact that they had a school which should hold about fifty pupils while they had applications for seventy-five or eighty. A meeting was held and two remedies were suggested. One was to put form I in the Masonic Hall for the year and the other was to tear away the partition between
the two cloakrooms thereby making another room. The last one was carried out and was a great mistake. Even then it would not seat all the pupils with comfort. The first mentioned remedy was then used and the first form are now in the Masonic Hall. If the following year and a half are as full of trouble as the past year and a half the school board will begin to think their efforts in vain, but it is to be-hoped that things will go more smoothly from now on.
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