History of Middletown Elementary

Reunion Photos

Education had been provided by a private day school located in the renovated building of the old Jefferson Female Academy which was at the site of what is now the Middletown First Baptist Church on Main Street. In 1909 Middletown’s first public school opened in a building on South Harrison Avenue. For nine years this two-room (at the time) frame building provided Middletown children with their grade-school education. The renovated building is now a private residence.

From 1916 to 1920, Middletown had a one-teacher high school. Classes were held in the Masonic Lodge until the high school on Anchorage-Middletown Road (now Madison Avenue) was completed in 1918. High school classes met in the new high school for two years until 1920 when Middletown’s High school was discontinued. High school students were then sent to Anchorage High School which was a public school in Anchorage’s school district.

In 1918, the Middletown High School and Grade School opened in a two story red brick building on North Madison Avenue. It was a two-story building with eight classrooms, four on each floor. Each inner wall of the classrooms had three-foot-high slate blackboards. The principal’s office was in the front-center of the building at the stairway landing between the two floors. Office windows faced Madison Avenue over the school’s entrance doors. Over the entrance door and under the principal’s office windows was a stone inscription “High School”. After the high school was discontinued at Middletown in 1920, grades one through four were on the first floor and grades five through eight were on the second floor.

In 1934, an auditorium was added to the rear, west, side of the school. In later years, a cafeteria-style lunch room was added to the rear of the auditorium. Long-time teachers included Miss Maud Hagan and Miss Jane Hite.

In 1971, the old two-story brick building was razed and replaced with the modern one-floor building which remains on the Madison site now.
 

Middletown Reunion, February 26, 2009

Courtesy of Courier Journal;
Sam Tucker, Joyce Burger and Connie Guthrie

Courtesy of Courier Journal
 

Click here for a link to the Courier Journal article "Middletown Elementary Looks Back 100 Years"