Schools
What do these photos tell you about how their schools looked like?
Byers Junior High School (1921)
This is Byers Junior High School in Denver. The school was built in 1921.
Photo: Colorado Historical Society
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This junior high school has three floors. In Denver and other big cities, land was scarce and cost a great deal of money. That was one reason why city schools were built upward rather than outward.
Their Own Words
"The Cameron School of 1926 was quite different from the school of the '90s. We had no resident school nurse, no school library, no gym, and neither a kitchen nor a hot lunch program. No students were bused, and since we had an hour off at noon we walked home for lunch. We ate fast and got back to school in time for some playground time before afternoon classes started."
Source: Robert Esterday, A Kid's-Eye View of Early Greeley (Greeley, CO: The Author, 1993): 78.
Garfield Elementary School (1959)
This is Garfield Elementary School in Loveland. This photo was taken in 1959, shortly after the school was built.
Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
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Loveland in 1959 was a small city with many new suburbs. Land was cheaper in these outlying neighborhoods than in the inner part of cities. That is one reason why suburban schools of the 1950s covered a large area and were only one-story high.
St. Louis Catholic School
This photo of St. Louis Catholic School's first school bus was taken about 1950.
Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
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School buses like this one made it possible for children to live several miles from the nearest school.
The Bookmobile Visits A School
This truck is the "Bookmobile" for the Pueblo school district.
Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
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Bookmobiles are libraries on wheels. The truck in this photo brought books from the Pueblo Public Library to schools in nearby small towns. Here it is delivering books to students in the town of Rye, Colorado. The Denver Public Library still provides bookmobiles.
Their Own Words
"'Here comes the Bookmobile!' was first heard throughout Pueblo County in 1948.... Pueblo's McClelland Public Library furnished the books for the [bookmobile] which visited the rural schools throughout the county.... The first truck had a metal floor and when the weather was really cold, ice would form on the floor and service was much speedier.... The youngsters didn't linger while choosing their books, as they loved to do on more pleasant days."
Source: Clair K. Knox and Jane C. Cotner, "Here Comes the Bookmobile," in Margaret J. Lehrer, ed., Up The Hemline (Colorado Springs, 1975): 166-167.
