EARLY SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN CHELSEA
1861 to 1900

The first class of the Boys Grammar School {Williams School} graduated on May 23, 1861. It was a very somber affair, minus the cheerfulness and gaiety that usually prevailed at such events. Two days before, on Sunday July 21, the first major battle of the Civil War, {the first Battle of Bull Run} occurred. It was a disastrous defeat for the Union Army, casualties were heavy. Company H, of the First Massachusetts Regiment was composed of the first Chelsea volunteers, comprised of sons, brothers, husbands, friends and neighbors. The Chelsea Company was fully involved in the fighting, receiving heavy casualties. Reports were incomplete documenting the killed and wounded, when the students gathered for the graduation exercise. There was great concern and dread for the next report, a feeling that permeated both audience and graduates alike. It was remembered as the graduation of circumstance minus the pomp. In the final report six Chelsea boys were killed and many wounded.   A brick four story building was constructed on Vogel Street {Forsyth Street}, in 1868. This building had fourteen schoolrooms plus a large assembly hall on the top floor. It was opened as the Carter School in September 1868 with 490 grammar co-ed students, and ten teachers. The primary grade students were taken from the old firehouse on Carmel Street, Cary Hall in Cary Square, and from spare rooms at the Williams and Shurtleff Grammar School, and placed in the four remaining rooms of the Carter School. In 1868 a supervisor of schools was appointed from the school board. Reverend Charles H. Leonard was appointed the first supervisor; it being his duty "to secure unity and improvement in the instruction, discipline and general management of the school."   In January 1873, sessions began in the new high school on Bellingham Street. The old high school building on Second Street was rebuilt and enlarged to three stories and converted to a primary school. This became the Cary School, existing as a primary school until the eariy 1940's, when it was torn down.     In the late 1800's a two story wood building was built on Bloomingdale Street near Carmel Street. Called the Bloomingdale School, a primary school, it was demolished in 1919.   In 1881, a two story wooden building was erected on Spencer Avenue corner of Stockton Street. The two rooms on the first floor were made for immediate use. The second floor was finished at a later date. Called the Spencer Avenue School the building was rebuilt and enlarged to a three story brick in 1907. It was renamed the Mary C. Burke School in a Memorial Day ceremony in 1937, honoring the name of a local U.S. Army nurse, who died in France during World War 1. The school building on Spencer Avenue was closed in 1996. A new complex comprising four schools was constructed on the site of Merritt Park retaining the name of Mary C. Burke.   A two story wood school buliding was constructed in 1883, on what was then called Library Street. Called the Broadway School, it was located at the site of the Chelsea Senior Center on Riley Way. The Broadway School was destroyed in the fire of 1908.   In 1896, a three story brick building consisting of twelve school rooms, was erected on Highland Street corner of Cottage Street. This was the Highland School destroyed in the fire of 1908, never to be rebuilt.   A three story brick building was built on Washington Avenue between Murray Street and Ingleside Avenue in 1897 by tbe same architects that built the Highland School. The two schools were almost identical. The Prattville School building was closed down in 1996. The Students were transferred to the Mary C. Burke School Complex operating under tbe name of the Berkowitz School.

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