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In 1925, the new Shillington High School was constructed on East Lancaster Avenue on land that was part of the Berks County Alms House complex. An addition of twelve rooms was completed in 1930 and four more rooms were completed in 1936. The last senior class of the Shillington High School graduated in 1953, after which time the building served the newly organized Governor Mifflin School District. It served as Governor Mifflin High School until 1957 when it became Governor Mifflin Junior High School. In 1962, extensive renovations and a sizable addition were completed. The remodeled building served the community for 30 more years before it was demolished during the summer of 1992, to make way for the new Governor Mifflin Middle School. This building proudly displayed the motto, Learn To Live … Live To Learn for 67 years. The very same letters were saved and are proudly displayed today on the Governor Mifflin Middle School on the same site and nearly the same place. Source
As Shillington High School, it was notably attended by famed American author John Updike.
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Not only did John Updike attend this school, his father taught there as well. The Updike family home, located at 117 Philadelphia Ave., backed up to the school property, separated by S. Brobst St.
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Yes, Math. Wesley appears in a number of Updike’s works in a thinly disguised form (e.g., The Centaur). But then again, so does his mother.
BTW, there is a memoir Updike wrote called Self-Consciousness and the chapter entitled “A Soft Spring Night in Shillington” recounts an evening later in his life when Updike was visiting the town and, in his own words, walked the sidewalks of Shillington “searching for the meaning of my existence as once I had scanned those same sidewalks for lost pennies.”
He revisits some of the places which were significant to him in his early days and, on one of my returns to the area, I had fun retracing his steps around the town and trying to imagine what Shillington looked like from the time Updike was born (1932) up to 1950 when he left the area for Harvard after graduation from Shillington High School.
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My father, Clinton C. Ebert was a 1944 graduate of Shillington High School. He passed away in 2019 and I came across his high school year book Hi-LIFE 1944, including including a copy of the commencement program from graduation on 05.29.1944 and class night program. Also a 40th reunion program from 1984. All are in great condition and I was wondering if there was any program in Reading that was taking items like this.
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