Being semi laid up for the moment, I’ve
been digging around for blogging materials.
As I browsed through our photos it occurred to me that, from the 9th
through the 12th grade, I’d attended an historic old-fashioned
college preparatory school that had been around for more than 100 years. There aren’t very many of these ‘prep’
schools remaining in business in the USA…and that’s too bad.
Yes…This is my senior year prep school
graduation photo from DeVeaux! Laurie thinks that I looked like a young Clark Kent…aka
Superman. I do know that I was about 6’
1”, weighed in at around 205, (in decent shape from football, wrestling and
track), and I still had a full head of hair! Man 'o man, those days are gone for sure!
The picture above is from about 1961 and I copied it from my Senior Yearbook. It shows the three interconnected primary buildings
at DeVeaux School, a Diocesan School of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New
York.
The campus was deeded by Judge Samuel
DeVeaux in the mid 1850’s and it was originally operated by the Episcopal Church
as “The DeVeaux College for Orphans and Destitute Children”. From the 1870’s until 1950, course work
included mandatory military training with cadets dressed in uniform in the
tradition of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
This photo was taken from about the same
angle as the previous picture. Laurie
took this photo when she and I visited the then deserted campus back in
1980. At this point, the property was
under the ownership of Niagara University and it was already in a sad state of
neglect.
More on Judge Samuel DeVeaux… He was born
in New York City in 1789. When he was
15, he went to work for a Land Office in Canandaigua NY and he also clerked in
a local store. At 19 he moved to the
Niagara Frontier and was appointed Commissary at Fort Niagara and later on he
was the Postmaster for Leroy NY. He
married a Canadian woman right in the middle of the War of 1812. After his first wife died, the judge married
her sister, ran a store near the Niagara River and he acquired several large
parcels of land. He went on to serve as
school commissioner, Justice of the Peace, as a member of the Board of
Directors for the International Suspension Bridge and as a key investor in the
Lockport and Niagara Railroad.
When Judge DeVeaux died in 1852, he left
a portion of his estate to the benefit of Niagara Falls and to the Episcopal
Church to establish “DeVeaux College”.
This is the first of the primary
buildings shown in the preceding photos.
Van Rensselaer Hall was dedicated in 1857…and as you can see, it was an
impressive structure for the time! I
attended classes in this building and the school’s offices were centered
here. The infirmary was also located on
the third floor. This classic building
has been torn down. Laurie and I took
this photo in 1980.
The infirmary…ahhh…memories! At one point, I got sick and whatever it was
settled in my shoulders. Between the
pain and a very high fever, the school administration decided that I might have
polio. They called an ambulance and 2
poor EMT’s had to carry me down from the 3rd floor! Prior to my current stay in the hospital for
hip surgery, this was the only time that I ever spend a night in a
hospital. The ambulance ride with sirens
blaring was such an adrenaline ‘kick’ that I felt much better on arrival at the
hospital…
This photo, also from our 1980 trip,
shows Ambrose Chapel and Monro Hall, (1894) and Patterson Hall…the latter
really an 1866 extension of Van Rensselaer Hall. All of these structures have also sadly
fallen to the wrecking ball!
Dining at the school was an interesting
experience… I think that the dining room was in Patterson Hall. In any case, the rule was that the first to
finish his meal was the first to get seconds!
There was never enough food on the table, (family style), for everyone
to have a second helping… I became a very fast eater! We couldn’t pick up fried chicken to eat it. I got
so I could strip all of the meat from a chicken breast with a knife and fork and then consume it in just a couple of minutes…
This view of the campus is from my 1961
Yearbook. The building on the left is
one end of Schoellkopf Hall, the dormitory for the boys boarding at
DeVeaux. You can see Van Rensselaer Hall
across the square to the right… Shoellkopf Hall is still standing.
This is our photo of Schoellkopf Hall
from 1980. During my senior year I was a
dormitory Prefect, responsible for the students on half of a floor. My room was the first window on the extended
portion of the building on the third floor.
Prefects had rooms to themselves but most of the boarding students
doubled up. The building housed 48
rooms. There was a student lounge in the
basement with a TV. As you might imagine
in the late 50’s and early 60’s, our favorite TV show was American Bandstand…as
girls were a bit hard to come by at school!
I don’t know when this very depressing
photo of Schoellkopf Hall was taken… The building is one of the few still
standing on the DeVeaux Campus. It was
built in 1926.
My graduating class consisted of 27
boarding and day students. I’ve lost
touch with the entire group…with my last contact being in the early
2000’s. There never was an alumni
association of any significance…
The members of my graduating class were
as follows: Donald Phillip Alderman (Lewiston NY); Douglas Beale (Orchard NY);
John Jeffery Bingenheimer (Lewiston Heights NY); Thomas Hewitt Combs (Batavia
NY); William Edward Dunn Jr. (Lewiston NY); Edward Harold Fairchild (Bradford
PA); Bruce Addison Penner (Oneida NY); Paul Henry Gross (Sanborn NY); Thomas
Curry Kirkpatrick (Lewiston, NY); Jere Alan Krieg (Grosse Pointe MI); Robert
Charles Kulak (Sanborn NY); Allan Chauncey Lyhford, Jr. (Mayville NY); Stanley
Barron Mattison (Arlington VA); Robert John McGovern (Lewiston NY); John Clarke
Newman (Lewiston NY); Richard Wilson Orser (Bay Village OH); Thomas Frederick
Palmer (Ogdensburg NY); Eric Theodore Popp (Niagara Falls NY); Robert Wolfe
Quine (Akron OH); Thomas Edward Reid (Niagara Falls NY); Walter Brayton Rogers,
Jr. (Pittsburgh PA); Gary Howard Scott (Niagara Falls NY); Timothy Noel
Southwick (Jackson MI); John Kay Strickland, Jr. (Lewiston NY); John Frederick
Wildanger (Flint MI); Jonathon Jarvis Woolverton (Niagara Falls NY). I graduated under the name of David Jeffrey M.
Thomson, as I was using my stepfather’s last name.
I lifted this photo from the
Internet. It’s the old gym or
auditorium. We held various events in
this building, including the rather rare co-ed dances. You can see the old power plant just to the
left of the auditorium.
We could go off campus on the weekends…
There was one year when I went to the movies as many as 4 times per
weekend! Friday night, Saturday matinee,
Saturday night and then a Sunday matinee… I fell ‘in love with Doris Day,
Sandra Dee, Annette Funicello, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Margaret and a bevy of
others. We watched some TV, visited
Niagara Falls itself, played sports, etc…and we studied too!
This photo was taken from my
yearbook. It shows the new gym and pool
as well as one of the faculty homes. The car in the photo looks like a Hillman…could have been Alec Pudwell’s. He was the school Chaplin.
Sports… Yes, we had lots to choose from.
(Soccer, Football, Wrestling, Swimming, Basketball, Tennis, Track, Cross
Country, Baseball and Golf) I lettered in Track and Football. Due to the size of the school, we played 6-man
Football. Primary opponents were
generally other private or small public schools in upper New York State such as Park, Pebble Hill, Harley, Nichols,
Ridley, Allendale and Hillfield.
This photo shows the large expanse of
land around the school. The property
butted up to the Niagara escarpment and the Whirlpool Park to the right of this
picture. Originally the school
controlled over 300 acres but the campus was eventually whittled down to 51
acres.
As with many college preparatory schools,
DeVeaux fell on hard times as public schools improved. I graduated in 1961, the Episcopal Diocese
ceased operations at the school and in 1971, it sought another organization to
accept the task of taking care of the historic structures. At one time or another, Niagara County,
Niagara Falls, Niagara University, the Board of Cooperative Educational
Services and the Niagara County Community College have owned or leased the
property.
This is the oldest structure still
standing in the DeVeaux School Historic District. This brick barn or carriage house was built
in 1863 and there are stories that it may have served as part of the
underground railway for runaway slaves.
Recent pressure has forced the state to cover the roof with a plastic
covering to prevent further deterioration.
In 2000, the state of New York purchased
the campus and vowed to transform the 51 acre property into “DeVeaux Woods
State Park”. The property includes 5
acres of rare old growth forest…with some trees over 255 years old. Unfortunately, most of the old historic
buildings have been torn down and very little is left to mark what was once a
vibrant institution for young men. I
learned to study here, to win here, to accept responsibility and take
accountability here. The school is gone,
but the memories hold strong. This was the
start I needed to be able to succeed in life, the business world and eventually to be able to retire
comfortably here in East Tennessee.
Just click on any of the photos to
enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by for this little
historical venture down my memory lane!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
