The west exit is similar, except that a person going down would have to turn to the left, go forward, then turn right to get out. This second partition is set about three feet back from the brick archway, to give the doors room to swing. That person would then have to turn 90° to the left to go out.Īfter making this second turn, three feet farther on, a second partition, and a second set of double doors, create a sort of air-lock against winter cold. Someone going down the east stairs would have to turn 90° to the right, then walk three feet, before reaching the double doors. The first partition is about three feet from the bottom step.
The bottoms of the partitions are wood to about two feet above the floor, then glass windows above. The eastern and western exits have this form: Down the stairs, directly ahead and filling the archway, are two wooden partitions. From the first floor down to the basement, on the east, is again a set of stairs with a landing mid-way, but this landing has the exit. From the first floor to the second takes a set of stairs in two flights, with a landing against the outer wall. The first floor is about level with the head of the basement windows. There are no fire doors.Ĭheck the photo of the school above. The stairs are made of yellow pine, and are open at every floor. The floors are wooden tongue-and-groove, polished with oil. The interior is wooden construction with four load-bearing walls. The exterior walls are load-bearing brick. As I sit here this morning there are two schools, dating from the same period (indeed, one has 1908 on its cornerstone) within thirty miles of me built on the same plan. The school design was a common one for small towns. The railroad maintained a roundhouse, engine sheds, warehouses, storerooms, and machine shops. The single biggest employer was the Lake Shore and Southern Michigan Railroad. The population was about 8,000, many of the residents immigrant Germans, Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes. More people will die here today than at either the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire or the Hartford Circus Fire.Ĭollinwood in 1908 was a small town on the north-east outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio. Look! It’s nine thirty in the morning.Īnd in an hour nearly half of the students will be dead, because we’re at the scene of the worst school fire in American history. Today, around 350 students are in the nine rooms. They’re in the southwest corner on the first floor (the lower right on the floor plan). I beg your indulgence why I am showing you this will be clear in a moment. What is a teachers’ room on the left (the north) on the first floor is the library on the second.Īnd here is the floor plan for the basement. East, the front of the building, is to the top of the plan. Here is the floor plan for first floor (the second floor is similar). This year the third-floor auditorium/gymnasium has been converted to a classroom. In 1906 the school was expanded from four rooms to eight. The population of Collinwood has been growing rapidly. Nine teachers, all unmarried ladies, are on hand. That’s the front of the building, the east face.Īlthough the school is just kindergarten through sixth grade, some of the students are teenagers up to fifteen years old. The imposing brick edifice we’re looking at across Collamer Avenue in Collinwood, Ohio, is the Lake View School.
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