History of Walter Reed School

Saturday, August 19, 2000

TO: Fred Carroll

Newport News Daily Press

A Newport News High School Classmate (June 1945) sent me a clipping of your 5-17-2000 article about the planned rejuvenation of the old Walter Reed School building. That it could be a candidate for something so modern amazes me.

Someone went a bit adrift on the age of the building (stated as 70 years). Actually built in 1917 as a high school for white children. It was urgently needed to replace the old John W. Daniel School (222 Thirty Second St.), part of which had been used for high school classes. During the early part of the century, the rapidly growing population presented an ever-increasing demand for school expansion. The need then virtually exploded with the beginning of World War I in Europe and the resulting influx of workers to the shipyard.

My mother was in an early class at Walter Reed High School. She remembered the soldiers marching by on their way to Camp Stuart; the hastily built Army base a half-mile south on Wickham Ave. In the 1918 influenza epidemic the demand at Camp Stuart's hospital exceeded capacity and Walter Reed was temporarily converted into a military hospital. The high school kids enjoyed an off-season holiday.

My Aunt Catherine Phillips lived in Warwick County, but attended Walter Reed High School under a little known arrangement between the County and Newport News. This actually came about as a result of a 1921 annexation of County land by the City. The terms of the arrangement called for the City to pay a substantial sum to the County. But the City was in tight financial circumstances and sought to find some kind of arrangement to use in lieu of cash. At the same time, Warwick County was having difficulty completing a new high school, and their old facility was already bulging. A deal was finally struck which allowed Warwick County to send some high school students to Walter Reed High School. So my aunt, a County girl from near Cedar Lane, graduated from high school in the big city. She and other local students rode in a horse-drawn wagon from Phillips farm to the streetcar line in Hilton.

By the mid-1920s Walter Reed could no longer keep up with the demand for high school space. The visionary Dr. Joseph H. Saunders, superintendent of schools, was able to convince the City fathers to begin construction of a huge new Newport News High School on Huntington Ave. The replacement high school was completed in 1927 and Walter Reed then became (in today's terms) a middle school. The smaller primary feeder schools in the East End were Jefferson, Washington and Magruder. The rest of us came from little Woodrow Wilson School across the footbridge in the Boulevard section.

I entered Walter reed in September of 1938 and attended the fifth, sixth and seventh grades there. In those days we only had seven years of grammar school and then went off to high school for a final four. I "graduated" (there was no ceremony) from Walter Reed in June 1941, a few days before my thirteenth birthday.

I found life at Walter Reed to be quite different from that of little Woodrow Wilson. For one thing, there were some pretty tough and competitive kids coming in from Thomas Jefferson. Many of those boys were destined to become football stars at Newport News High School. Some wise person once observed that most of the "really good" football players came from a one-square mile area in the East End. And Thomas Jefferson was right smack in the middle of that square.

Like most Newport News school buildings there were two distinct sides to the building -- and identified by the gender on the rest rooms there. The boys' side (at 24^th St.0 faced a broad sidewalk which was without question, absolutely reserved for serious jump-roping. We boys would have gladly avoided the girl's side except that Walter, the push cart bakery vendor always parked at the adjacent curb. One had to suffer the embarrassment of being very much out of place while negotiating the purchase of a penny cookie from Walter. It always seemed that when we boys were there, the chanting increased in volume just to taunt us. Sometimes I can still hear the kalop of a two girl rope along with the sing-song background: "Cinderella dressed in yella, kissed a fella in the cella -- kalop, kalop -- made a mistake and kissed a snake. How many doctors will it take?"

Warn the new tenants. There are ghosts at Walter Reed!

1516 Avenida Selva, Fullerton, CA 92833-1531

714/871-5767

Newport News High School Class of 1945