16 Century of Education Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Reflections on 230 N. Lincoln Avenue's wondrous small and large spaces

By JIM McNEAL
Imagine the stories any school building
generates via teachers, students, secretaries,
custodians, administrators, parents, and sup-
port personnel.
Among those possibilities my perspec-
tives come from being a freshman at 230
North Lincoln Avenue during the 1957-
1958 school year, a career teacher of geogra-
phy in Room 203 from 1966 to 1999, as
well as audio-visual director and auditorium
coordinator.
As in my teaching, the problem of decid-
ing what to write is not what to present but
what to leave out. Blessed with "deep files"
for class content, likewise the highlight mem-
ories of my time in the building abound.
Thus focus on the audio-visual office and the
auditorium is paramount and will suffice.
Across from Room 305 is a very small
room. It is smaller than a classroom; larger
than a closet. It housed a rich variety of
audio-visual equipment, most of which could
probably qualify now for the Smithsonian.
Black bold letters formed two words—Quak-
er Office—on the glass panel on the door.
Marveling then that this cramped hole-in-
the-wall was the nerve center, command post,
and headquarters of the Quaker annuals until
1958, Quaker newspapers, and possibly oth-
er publications pales now in my wonderment
having seen and touched them as a curator at
the Salem High School Alumni Association.
If you tour the building on October 14, look
for a TV camera with a yellow bird on top on
that same door.
“Impossible” best describes any attempt
to encompass the full, deep, rich history of
the auditorium at 230 North Lincoln. Rather
than a chapter, that heritage would warrant a
full book. Between 1917 and the construc-
tion of the Sixth Street High School auditori-
um, an array of usual school activities took
place, and a far wider spectrum of civic func-
tions. Sad to think that after the McKinley
School fire there was briefly a plan to cut the
auditorium and use it for storage and mainte-
nance. Fortunately, better heads prevailed.
Whether I was setting up a microphone,
climbing on an A-frame ladder, threading a
projector, rolling out the Steinway piano,
changing color gels in the spotlights, storing
scenery, painting windows black, sweeping
up, or sitting alone in a center seat, the mys-
tique of that space never failed to envelop
me. It's charm is undiminished to now a 73-
year-old retiree.
Apologies to the library, music room,
cafeteria, teachers' lounge, stage dressing
rooms, outside "play pen," gym, locker
rooms, study halls, display cases, boiler
room, wood shop, art room, offices, closets,
and other nooks and crannies.
Stop by the Kent State City Center on Sat-
urday, October 14, and look for the folks in
red Quaker Sam shirts. They will be glad to
show you around.
Jim McNeal attended ninth grade at 230
North Lincoln Avenue in 1957-58. A 1961
graduate of Salem High School, McNeal
returned to the building as a teacher in
1966. For the next 33 years he taught geog-
raphy, then a state-required junior high
school course, in Room 203. In recent years
he has volunteered as a curator at the Salem
High School Alumni Association.

Familiar surroundings will change but Quaker spirit abides with us ...
Take a good look at t his place—with all the chinks and cracks that give it character. Forty-one classes have scuffed the halls, leaving the building a little worse for the wear, but vulnera-
ble in its own wrinkled way. It's filled with reminders of incidents that made high school years a wonderful time for many Salemites. We'll be leaving this school next year, but the really
significant things about SHS are intangible—perhaps tradition, spirit, loyalty—which we'll keep for a lifetime. So, having made our own marks, we bid this place "So long," for a building's
just a building and we're going to move along. — Opening article of 1958 Quaker yearbook

Burchfield Homestead Museum

“Visit the boyhood home of World Famous Artist Charles E. Burchfield
Burchfield
100 Years
Homestead Museum
867 East 4th Street
Salem, OH 44460
Strong in Salem
Open Sat. & Sun.
April - October HHM and attorneys Shawna L’Italien,
or by appointment
Neil Maxwell, Kellie Rogers and Vito Abruzzino
Janis Yereb are pleased to recognize the past, present and
Curator - Director future of the Kent State City Center.
330 482-2305
330 717-0092
YOUNGSTOWN / 330.744.1111
WARREN / 330.392.1541
SALEM / 330.337.6586

Autumnal Fantasy , 1917-1944

HHMLAW.COM