Ironton School(s)

Ironton School(s)

Illustration of the second, larger Ironton School at the corner of Oliver Street and First Ave. 1893

The frame house on Dahlgreen Place

Around 1875 a "minor" school known as the Ironton School began operating in a small, rented frame building at the corner of Wheatfield Street and Dahlgreen Place. The school received the bell that had been used at the Tonawandas' first district school. Initially serving about sixty pupils under one teacher, the Ironton School was enlarged by 1883 to accommodate approximately one hundred pupils and a second teacher.

In 1886, Ironton school teacher W. L. Case accepts a position in Lewiston, according to a June 29 Niagara Gazette item.

The large brick building on Oliver Street and First Ave

In 1888 voters authorized a new brick school on Oliver Street. Erected in 1889 and completed by 1890, the new Ironton School replaced the frame building, and inherited its bell.

"Ironton Public School #2" (not Ironton #2 but Public School #2, with the Goundry Street School being Public School #1) opens in 1889 at the corner of the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street (present-day Elizabeth Harvey Apartments / Olmsted Center for Sight).

According to Tonawanda and North Tonawanda: The Lumber City (1891) it was designed by architects Johnstone & Eggert:

The rapid growth of North Tonawanda in the Ironton district, together with the crowded condition for the union school, demanded increased facilities, and on November 15, 1888, $10,000 was voted to build an edifice in that locality. The amount was increased to $15,000 and the building erected in 1889 is of modern design, and well adapted to school use.

Miss Kate Hanrahan of Lewiston is principal from 1889-1894 according to a July 7, 1894 Buffalo Courier article. She leaves to become principal of the Echota school in Niagara Falls.

By 1915 the Ironton School is overcrowded, and forced to rent rooms across the street to hold kindergarten. In 1926 Ironton Public School #7 (later known as Gilmore School) is built to accomodate demand.

The Ironton School building is later used as a vocational school (its students and equipment were moved to the new BOCES on Saunders Settlement Rd c.1970). It is briefly considered for the NiaCAP Headstart before being privately purchased to store cars. After years of neglect it is demolished.