The Night the School Burned

On the evening of Tuesday, February 13, 1917 the sky over York was partly cloudy, a light breeze blew from the north and the temperature was forecast to grow colder. Shortly after 7:00 a group of boys was walking on 7th Street. As they passed Central High School, located at the intersection with Grant Avenue, they saw "some sort of an explosion." Their attention was drawn to flames that illuminated the basement windows to the left of the front entrance.

Shortly after the alarm was sounded, School Superintendent Walter Stoner arrived. He entered the burning building and rescued most of the permanent records. However, the smoke was so dense that little else could be rescued. The struggle to knock down the fire was doomed from the beginning. A lack of water pressure caused the stream of water to barely reach the cornices of the building. There was also an abundance of flammable material in the building, including coal stored in the furnace room and lumber stored in the manual training department.

At 8:00 it appeared that the firemen were "getting the best of the fire." But then to the shock of everyone present fire began pouring from a roof top ventilator. By 9:00 the 25 room building was fully engulfed. A room on the first floor was the last to catch fire. Pictures on the wall of the room were described as visible to spectators "as they complacently awaited their doom." At the same time the sound of radiators falling into the basement could be heard. 

The attention of the firefighters soon turned to preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings in the area. There was only a slight breeze, but the heat of the fire was sending embers high into the air. The sparks then floated south endangering nearby buildings.

By 9:30 the fire receded leaving behind only a skeleton of chimneys and exterior walls.

The school served students from kindergarten through high school. Some of the younger students were in a celebratory mood. A third grader danced around shouting "let her go!" Another young student shouted "I hope she burns clear down." The children were gleefully anticipating a long vacation.

The building was not a source of pride for the community. Among the hundreds of spectators who gathered to watch the fire there were few who mourned the demise of the building. What did pain them was the loss of gifts made by graduating classes; the "pictures, statuary, books and furniture bearing inscriptions from the donors." Several "fine pianos" were also lost to the flames. Those items and years of shared experiences were the heart of York High School. The next day only the memories would remain.

Pigeons that had been dislodged from their roosts on the school house circled above the scene. Their disorientation reflected that of the citizens who watched the fire from the surrounding streets below.

The building was originally built in 1888. In 1906 a new addition was added including a new front entrance which moved the building closer to 7th Street. The older section had been remodeled. But by 1917 every "nook and corner of the building" was being used to educate about 900 students. The school board had already begun discussions on the building of three new elementary buildings. They were making plans to replace two existing elementary buildings, and build a third, to open up space in the overcrowded Central School. Now the problem of overcrowding had become a crisis.

The night the school burned a sequence of events unfolded that would reach into 1930. The following day as some met to make arrangements to reopen classes, others worked to assess blame.

The school board met the next day in an office in the First National Bank building. They formed two committees; one was tasked with the acquisition of school supplies and the other with securing classroom space. Board members also agreed to submit a bond issue of $225,000 to the voters.

Churches and others contacted board members offering the use of buildings for the interim. The superintendent told the Daily News-Times that he believed the school would reopen in a week or ten days.

 At the same time Mayor William Colton gave a statement to the York Daily News-Times saying that "he was in no way to blame for the lack of water pressure" during the fire. The mayor said he had "expostulated with the water company time and time again...to get them to provide adequate pressure in time of fire." The mayor also direct aquisitory comments toward the school board saying that the building "was a fire trap with no legal fire escapes in violation of state law." He extended his remarks saying that he thought "the authorities are not doing their duty, to neglect the safety of the students."

The fire department found that the center of the fire was in or near the furnace room. It was thought that spontaneous combustion of coal stored in bunkers in that area was the probable cause of the fire. The fire department also communicated their appreciation to the Bradshaw Fire Department who "came down with a line of hose ready to render any assistance." It was noted that the "boys" from Bradshaw "didn't wait to be asked."

By Thursday the Superintendent and School Board announced that classes would reopen on Monday, February 26. The High School would meet at Fraternal Hall, grammar department [probably 10 to 14 year olds] at the Congregational Church, fourth grade in rooms above the laundry, third grade at the Presbyterian Church, second grade at the Public Library and finally first grade and kindergarten at the Methodist Church.

The Mayor and the water company were still arguing about water pressure. The water company said the fault didn't fall on them. Rather they faulted the fire department for attaching five lines of hose to a six inch main. They said only one or two lines should have been used to maintain pressure. They also pointed a finger at citizens who used garden hoses to protect nearby buildings. The day of the fire the water pressure had been reported to be 75 pounds at its highest and 40 pounds at the lowest. It was said that pressure should have been 120 at the least. The Mayor called a meeting about water pressure for the following Monday.

The policy making process moved ahead very quickly. The school bond election was set for March 20th, just five weeks after the fire. The voters approved the bond with 78% voting in favor of passage. Two years before the passage of the 19th Amendment the electorate also included women. Of those going to the polls, 40% were women.

Within two weeks it was revealed that the fast moving process was not without its problems. The bond issue was passed without a reliable cost estimate for the three planned elementary buildings. It was originally thought that the buildings could be completed for $35,000 each, however the bids came in at over $45,000.

At a mass meeting of the community it was determined that  "unanimous sentiment" favored contracting for "first class" elementary buildings and holding another special election to approve an additional $30,000 in construction bonds.

While it wasn't an amount that would close the gap between the approved bond issue and the needed funds; the scrape iron pulled from the ruins of the High School was sold for $430. It was said that it would make "good shrapnel for shells fired at the Germans."

A site was purchased for the new East Ward, or Willard, School. In the spirit of reuse exhibited by the sale a scrape iron from the high school, a house on the newly purchased site was sold and moved.

By July 1 work was proceeding on the three elementary schools. Despite the fact that no regular high school space existed, these buildings were going up first because the younger children were determined to be less able to cope with the disruptions caused by the fire. It would soon be seen that a delayed start on the new high school allowed time to rethink the plans for that school.

In April of 1917 the City Council had acceded to a request by the School Board to vacate 8th Street between Grant and Nebraska Avenues. The Board planned to buy land north of 8th Street to enlarge the school yard. On September 10th men with teams of horses had begun excavation of the foundation and basement of the new High School at the existing downtown site.

Even though dirt work had begun an offer to donate land on the edge of the city to be used as the site of the new High School lay on the table. William A. Greene had offered to donate land on East Avenue near 13th Street for the purpose of building a new High School.

On September 4th the Board of Education had decided not to submit the question of moving the site of the school to the voters. None the less there were those who felt the site on East Avenue was preferable.

On September 7th the York Daily News-Times reported that public opinion was rapidly changing. Growing sentiment for the move was based on the small size of the existing campus, traffic in the downtown area, growth of the city towards the east and north and a preference for the hilltop site on East Avenue.

Former Mayor William Colton had lost reelection on a platform that promised "better fire protection from the water company." Though he was out of office he waded into the issue anyway. In a letter to the editor he wrote; "Mr. Greene seems to be very anxious to do something for the benefit of York, so I suggest that he donate a block of land for park purposes." Colton was on the wrong side of this issue also.

The school board reversed their previous position on the land donation and put the issue to a vote of the people. On Tuesday, September 17 the voters returned to the polls and voted by a percentage margin of 55 to 45 to accept the East Hill site referred to as the Greene Eighty. Ultimately the building was actually built on what was called the Carpenter property, placing "the building on a fine eminence."

When schools opened on September 8, 1919 the new High School building was complete. Along with the three elementary buildings which open the previous fall, it marked what the New Teller called "a new era in the history of the school system of York."

The new era would soon face a setback. In February of 1930 the landowners in four sections of land within the York School District posted notice of their intention to withdraw from the district and form their own. Farm prices had been falling since the end of WWI and with the beginning of the Great Depression farmers faced a hardscrabble existence.

The high taxes needed to pay off the bond issue made selling farm land problematic and low prices made it hard to continue operating. The day of the fire at the high school wheat was selling at York for $1.55, corn for .85, and oats for .43. On the same day 13 years later wheat was selling at York for .99, corn for .64, and oats for .38.

Almost one hundred years later the York Schools have entered yet another new era. From this vantage point it is interesting to look back on a couple of issues raised soon after the night the school burned.

The next day a writer for the New Teller commented on another fire that had destroyed the First Methodist Church. He said the church had been replaced with "a structure of stone that still ranks as one of the handsomest houses of worship in the state." He asked, "Will the new [high school] be as much of an improvement as the present Methodist Church over its predecessor?" He added, "One guess." We can only speculate what was meant by "One guess." However, almost one hundred years later his question has been answered.

During the debated about moving the high school a businessman suggested building a YMCA on the downtown site. His comment was prophetic. After a serving for a while as a park the site became the home of the York Community Center.