A difficulty confronted the management of the school. Little children should not mingle with older ones. They needed a special and can be best secured by them in a home by themselves where can be looked with a mother’s care. The Board of Trustees’ plan proceeded with the erection of a kindergarten large enough to accommodate 60 children and provide sleeping rooms, school rooms, playrooms, and sitting rooms except a dining room and kitchen. The thought was the new building near the old main building and connected them a corridor. The Primary Building was started to erect in 1899. But this catastrophe where our Deaf school was burned down, interrupted the work of this building but it was opened in March 1900.
Bedrooms were on the second floor; classrooms on the first floor; and playrooms and washrooms, in the basement. You can see a ramp from the door to the road. See the right side of the building, there is a porch.
Boys taking carpenter classes built the new porches at the north and south ends of the Primary Building in 1900.
The Primary Building was enlarged to include more classrooms, dormitories, and bathrooms. The porches were removed to give more room to build concrete stairs on both ends in 1907.
In 1914 the front of the Primary Building was installed with two sun parlors to add two classrooms. In the basement, the playrooms were enlarged. The bathroom and lavatories were moved from the second floor to the basement. The ramp was no longer there.
In 1955 face-lifting of the Primary Building took place with a donation of $100,000. An open central stairway was replaced by two fire-resistant stairways, one at each end of the building. A new extension was added to each end of the building to provide additional dressing rooms, classrooms, and bedrooms for dormitory counselors. New wiring and lighting, new plumbing, and new heating units were installed.
What do you see as something missing at the primary building? Look up the first image in the post here! Something missing was removed two chimneys and skylights in 1955.
Written by Stephen Rute, WPSD Class of 1974.
Architect: Harvey A. Schwab, 552 Century Building, Pittsburgh, PA.
