"This Fortunate District": Green School History

Welcome to Green School History, a site devoted entirely to the Green School in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Located on East Main Street in the Green section of Middleborough, the school was built in 1871 and was in continual use until June, 1941, when it was closed. Reopened for a short period of time in the 1990s, the Green School was recently threatened with demolition. A group of concerned residents have banded together to save this one-room schoolhouse, and a new use for the structure is currently under consideration. This site hopes to convey the immense historical and educational value which the Green School still retains, particularly its ability to speak to the educational history of the community of Middleborough.

The easiest way to navigate through the site is by using the left-hand sidebar. Click on the icons to read about some of the unique aspects of the Green School's history, to view pictures of the school and documents related to its history, or to make a contribution towards its preservation. Also, for a quick reference, you can also click on the chapters underneath each icon to go directly to a topic of interest.

The site is still under construction and I plan to add additional photos and material to help illustrate the history of the school and education in Middleborough. Let me know your thoughts.

Green School Preservation

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Efforts are under way to preserve the historic Green School on East Main Street in Middleborough. Recently threatened with demolition and situated upon soil contaminated by a leaky oil tank, the 1871 schoolhouse has been structurally stabilized and the contaminated soil removed. Spearheading the effort is the Green School Preservation Group headed by former Selectman Lincoln Andrews.

While the building remains in relatively sound structural condition, one corner required rebuilding at a cost of $3,500 and will need further structural work at an additional cost of $3,500. The work will be funded through donations towards the preservation effort. Further structural work is planned at cost of $6,000. Mr. Andrews plans on making a presentation before the Board of Selectmen on August 10 to provide an update on the progress thus far. No future use has been determined for the school, though suggestions have included a polling place and a museum on Middleborough's educational history.
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Tax-deductible donations are still needed and are being collected by the Middleborough Rotary Club. To contribute, please mail a check in any amount made payable to: "Middleboro Rotary". Please notate "Green School Preservation" on the memo line in order to direct your contribution to the preservation of the school. Checks may be mailed directly to Lincoln Andrews, 28 Sachem Street, Middleborough, MA, 02346. For more information, please call 508-947-7071 or email Lincoln at lincolnandrews@hotmail.com.

Green School Items Wanted

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Part of the goal of this website is to collect copies of items related to the Green School in order to create an archive of material related to the school and its history which can be posted on-line for everyone to enjoy. Copies or scans of photographs of the school and the children who attended it, class pictures, report cards, school work, and any other item with a Green School connection is sought. Also, recollections by parents and grandparents who may have attended the school are equally welcome. If you think you have an item or a recollection which you feel is appropriate, please
e-mail me.

Flag

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The Green School, like others, was marked by the American flag which floated from the building. However, a flag may not have been an original feature of the Green School. The Fifth Street School in New Bedford is believed to have been the first school in America to fly the flag daily beginning May 11, 1861, and only gradually thereafter did other schools begin to adopt the practice. In the late 1880s, The Youth's Companion, a national children's magazine published in Boston, inaugurated the schoolhouse flag movement, encouraging all public schools to fly the American flag. Renewed impetus was provided the movement in October, 1892, with the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus, an event The Youth's Companion urged schools to recognize by flying a flag. The Green School certainly had a flag by 1894, the year in which all Middleborough schools which lacked one were finally outfitted.

In 1902, the Middleborough School Committee and Superintendent drafted a list of 28 so-called “flag days” for the use of the local schools. “On these days it is expected that the flag will be displayed and lessons appropriate to the occasion given”, with the first half hour of each day designated for these lessons. “A deeper impression, it is believed, will be made upon the pupil and more significance be given to the occasion than if the flag is displayed every day.” Accompanying these exercises was the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, written in 1892, and probably introduced into Middleborough Schools shortly afterwards.

Though Massachusetts state law in 1935 required the display of the American flag in all schoolrooms and weekly conduct of the Pledge of Allegiance, Middleborough schools were unaffected as for many years prior they had fulfilled these guidelines and performed the Pledge on a daily basis.

Middleborough School Curriculum, 1885

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Source: Annual Report of the Officers of Middleborough. 1885. (Middleborough, MA: Town of Middleborough, 1886).