Silver Lake Elementary School

TURN ON YOUR SOUND FOR MUSIC!

The first phase of the school was started about 1925. The Silver Lake School Board graded and seeded the front yard of the school. Shown here after the grading was completed. circa-1927-1928

First Big Project of the Silver Lake Garden Club undertook was the buying and planting of the shrubs. The cost of the shrubbery amounted to $150.00 with $100.00 paid in 1928 with the balance completed in 1929.

SILVER LAKE SCHOOL CLASS:

The following information "COURTESY OF JEAN POWELL BEEBE WINTERS, October 25, 2007"

Teacher is Miss Ruth Culler who taught at Silver Lake School for 34 years, she lived on Lee Road. Pictured here are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. Catherine Hayes taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. Ruth Ferry taught 7th and 8th grade.

In 1934-35 school year there were two students in the 1st grade, Don Kiddey and Gertrude Guthrie; eight in the 5rh grade, Mary Cox, Marjorie Elizabeth Semon, Cherie Willis (Mumma), Patricia Thomas and Jean Beebe as well as Gilbert Lane, Don Loomis, Louis Alvin (Junior) Smith, and in the 6th grade , twins Bob and Betty Lyle, Mary Lou Hutchison, Jane Libal, Frank Lee and the others eludes Jean at this time (2007). Catherine Hayes later married and was Catherine Lutz.

Bird's-eye View of Silver Lake and Crystal Lake as it was......Silver Lake School is in the lower right corner. Click "Back" to Return to Silver Lake School Page.

MORE SCHOOL MEMORIES FROM: Jean Powell Beebe Winters 1930's

The following memories of Jean are in her own words. They are as accurate as she can remember at this time, November, 2007, of her school days growing up in Silver Lake.

"At the main entrance to the Silver Lake Estates there is a parkway down the middle of the road. At the end of that parkway farthest from Route 59 formerly Route 5, a tree was planted in a very chilly day with blustery winds and I think a few snow flurries. All I remember is that I was cold. There was a tree planted there at the end in honor of a Mr. Lee who was apparently a good friend of all the children in Silver Lake. I am almost positive he was not the Lee that lived in the red brick house that was the first house past the swim area park. All the children attending the school signed a paper that was placed in a bottle and planted under the tree. At the same time, another tree was planted just outside the entrance to the boathouse but on the other side of the walk to the boathouse from the parking lot. It, too, had a bottle with all our signatures buried beneath it."

NOTE:
The Tree planted on the Island at the entrance to the Blvd. was planted in memory of Henry Haglebarger on Arbor Day, 1935 by the Silver Lake School Children and the Silver Lake Garden Club. They then planted the tree by the entrance to the Boathouse. Click for photo Tree Planting by Boathouse. The bottles were never found through the years.

Go to "Silver Lake Photos" for photo of Henry Haglebarger Tree that was replanted.

CHRISTMAS PAGEANTS

"Every year, the Silver alke Elementary School had two pageants in which all the students participated. I don't remember what we did for Christmas in 1934, but in the Spring we had some sort of Spring Rite and I remember the teachers teaching us how to do the Maypole dance so the streamers were braided around the center pole. I had a costume made out of pink net trimmed with Christmas tinsel. Boy did that itch. I think it was the next Christmas when we did a children's version of the Nutcracker Suite. Again some of us had costumes made of green net and trimmed around the neck with different colored crepe paper to represent the flowers. Again they itched like crazy. We did a very childish dance to the Waltz of the Flowers. I remember being taught how to do a "tour-jete" and "arabesque". One of my friends, either Pat Thomas or Mary Lou Hutchison played the Sugar Plum Fairy and danced while singing how her poor toe hurt, because the mice had nibbled. There was even a mock battle between the Chocolate Soldiers and the mice, played by the boys.

One Spring the school did a Southwestern theme of some sort. They braided something similar to panty-hose dyed black to look like Indian braids. I remember because I had the chicken pox and couldn't participate much to my annoyance. Our teachers really dedicated their lives and time to us children. I am sure we didn't understand or appreciate fully. I remember when Catherine Hayes (later Lutz) taught us how to ballroom dance, waltz and fox trot.

By the time I was in the seventh grade, we had a full time music teacher. Her name was Garnetta Griffith Hibbard. If our parents would hold still for a small music fee (50 cents, I think), we could be called out of a regular class and given about fifteen minutes or so of piano lessons. She certainly taught me to read and appreciate classical music. Her mother, Mrs Griffith, did some of the instructing as well. They lived on the last road in the upper part of the Village. A family named Hasbrouck had lived there before they moved into a new house that Mr. Hasbrouck, an architect, had built on Hastings Road. The house was quite small, and the front door entered into a small living room with a catherdral ceiling. The room was almost completely filled with two Grand Pianos. We had piano lessons there in the Summer. My recollection is that the house had a slightly Spanish architecture and was built of yellow brick but can't be sure."

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