Sinking Spring High School / Elementary

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    • #2540
      Alexa Freyman
      Keymaster

      From 1894 through 1954, public school students in the Sinking Spring Borough attended the Sinking Spring School, located on the 600 block of Vester Place. On December 26, 1921, a fire crumbled the Sinking Spring School, which resulted in the rebuilding of the school during 1922–1923. Until the building was completed in 1923, students attended classes in local churches and on the upper floor of the Orioles building on Woodrow Avenue. In 1954, when Sinking Spring joined with Wilson High School, Sinking Spring students began attending Wilson High School in West Lawn. Source Sinking Spring was then utilized as an Elementary school for the Wilson School District until the early 2000s. It was then renovated into apartments and has been a residential building since.

      sinking spring school

    • #2637
      Alexa Freyman
      Keymaster

      I attended Sinking Spring Elementary for Kindergarten & 1st grade in the mid-late 90s. I would love to see pictures of the inside as my memories are hazy at best at this point. Kindergarten was with Mrs. Ellis. The Kindergarten room was on the ground/basement floor, we would walk in the left side door from Vester place and the room was all the way back on the left. I remember the gym door being right there across the hall. First Grade Mrs. Schoenhour (sic?). Right inside the main entrance to the left. I remember a little coat room off the classroom, to the left when you walked in the door. The office was directly across the hall from this classroom I believe.

      One time at recess me and two boys were throwing rocks at a passing train and I guess one of us accidentally hit a car that was waiting for it to pass at the crossing on Columbia Ave. The man driving the car stopped at our school and told the teacher on us. I thought I was going to be in so much trouble! I also attended the after-school daycare program that was in the gym.

      I remember the music room being fairly small but having wooden bleacher-type seating. I wish I could have walked through one more time before they renovated into apartments.

    • #2653
      Twotrainsrunning
      Participant

      I attended Sinking Spring Elementary for six years, from 1956 through 1962. I walked the mile from my house on Crest Road down Mull Avenue and onto Penn Avenue, trying to avoid stepping on the stinking ginkgo fruit that fell in the autumn near Seidel’s Funeral Home, and then onto Columbia Avenue before heading up Woodrow Avenue to the school. Of course, then I got to reverse the walk after school on my way back home. I never saw the inside of a bus in six years.
      During the time I was there, a Mr. Stocker was the principal.
      I have managed to preserve a few school group photos from those days. See if you recognize any of your contemporaries or, more likely, your parents or grandparents.

    • #2656
      Twotrainsrunning
      Participant

      I believe the teacher in this photo on the right was a Mrs. LeVan.

    • #2657
      Twotrainsrunning
      Participant

      And this teacher was Mrs. Kershner.

    • #2658
      Twotrainsrunning
      Participant

    • #2666
      Alexa Freyman
      Keymaster

      Awesome pics!!! You were between my grandparents and parents. Grandmother went to Sinky but graduated from Wilson in ’60. So I don’t know any of those kids but they’re all adorable 😊

    • #2670
      Alexa Freyman
      Keymaster

      Actually now that I think of it my great-aunt was Wilson ’69. She may have been within a year of you, I don’t see her in these photos

      • #2675
        Twotrainsrunning
        Participant

        Glad you liked the photos, Alexa. I graduated from Wilson in ’68, so it’s possible that I could have known your great aunt. Since I realize that you’re trying to be discreet here, if you’d like to e-mail me her name in private I’ll let you know if I recognize her.

    • #5389
      Alexa Freyman
      Keymaster

      Finally published an article on Sinky! https://berksnostalgia.com/sinking-spring-high-school-elementary/

      I wish I could go back inside that place one more time.

      The “old” smell. You can’t really describe it but its deep in the part of your brain that senses.

      The willow tree (and garden) that sat along Vester Place to the right of the front of the school. They would take us out there on nice spring days for story time.

      The music room…the wooden bleachers and wooden walls. It was small. I have a flashback to being in music class and fiddling with a thimble. I have no idea why I had a thimble but the memory is etched in my mind.

      The gym… the balcony was closed off and I always wanted to get up there but never did.

      Orchestra instruments, particularly Chellos lining the basement corridor on the way to the lunch line.

      The little coat room off of my 1st grade classroom. Leaving our jackets, lunches and bags in there for the day.

      These things are still so fresh in my mind, but they were over 20 years ago now.

      • This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Alexa Freyman.
    • #7224
      MrMDN
      Participant

      I attended Sinking Spring K-6th grade during the 90s. The posts about the music room and gym in particular brought memories flooding back. I think we did have access to the balcony during assemblies and the rare occasion they would show a movie in the gym. When they were turning the school into apartments a friend and I tried to walk in, but were chased off. It would be interesting to see how much of the school charms survived the transformation into apartments. I wish they’d open it up for a tour.

      • #7435
        Alexa Freyman
        Keymaster

        I walked through over a year ago and unfortunately…not much. The halls are the same layout but all of the classrooms and the gym were chopped up to make apartments. The stage in the gym was actually the same and a workout room, but a wall was built between the stage and what would have been the rest of the gym. Really bizarre. Here’s an old picture you might enjoy though…

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