The new Helen E. James School formally opened in the fall of 1914 to receive its first students. The building was the gift of beloved town resident Helen E. James nee Field, who came to be known as “The Benevolent Angel of Williamsburgh” for her kind disposition and her generosity in funding civic improvements to the town.
Construction of the school bearing Mrs. James’s name began in 1913, following the design and plans of the father and son architects E. C. & G. C. Gardner of Springfield. It was one of the last works of the father E.C. Gardner, who died in 1915. In his 1915 town report, Superintendent E. W. Goodhue noted: “The completion and occupation of the Helen E. James School building was a noteworthy event in the educational history of our town… We have greater cause than ever for pride in our High School, it is doing thorough work and helping to make a reputation for the town which must add to its attractiveness and prosperity.”
From 1914 to 1915, the high school was in session for 40 weeks. But even before the classes entered the building for that first school year, there was a graduation! The 5 women in the old Williamsburg High School Class of 1914, by special request, held their graduation exercises in the auditorium of the new James School, thus making them the first to use the building for such a ceremony. Massachusetts State Senate President, the Honorable Calvin Coolidge gave the ceremonial address when the school was officially “presented” to the town on September 4, 1914.
The James School was the high school for Haydenville and Williamsburg students as well as students from Westhampton, Chesterfield, and Goshen. The late town historian Ralmon Black noted that before it closed its doors as a high school in 1971, more than 2,000 students had received an exceptional education in the halls of the James School. Many former students will always have vivid memories of their years as students in Burgy High.
Renovated and expanded several times, the building itself continued to serve the community as a school until 2014. It was razed in 2022 to make way for the town’s new Public Safety Complex. Daria D’Arienzo, Meekins Archivist and photographer. #throwbackthursday; #tbt.
Posted to Facebook 8/8/2024
