The Brookline Journal photo above shows Brookline Public School on Dedication Day, Friday, June 25, 1909. The new school was built to ease the overcrowding at nearby West Liberty School.

The event was a dual-dedication, as this was also the day for a ribbon-cutting at the new Beechwood Public School, located in neighboring Beechview. Interestingly, the two schools were identical in design.

New Schoolhouse Planned For Brookline

Events leading up to the opening of Brookline School began slightly over a year earlier, on April 5, 1908, noted in the following text which appeared in the Pittsburgh Post.

The land for the school was purchased by the 44th Ward School Board from the West Liberty Improvement Company and Isaac Knowlson in April 1908. The lot contains over an acre of land fronting 250 feet of Woodbourne Avenue, near Pioneer Avenue. The site was selected by the board after a careful canvass of the district, taking in the present and probable future needs of the ward.

Plans were put in place immediately for construction of the new building. A $15,000 red brick school house will be constructed during the summer and be ready before the next winter, thus saving scores of children a long, difficult walk to the present West Liberty school building, which is adequate in equipment, but one building cannot care for this big ward.

The structure will probably have four large rooms to start with, and so arranged that additional rooms may be built on later. Buff brick is popular in a large number of the new homes in Brookline and the school board evidently contemplates a change in the color scheme by constructing the school house of red brick.

The site selected also is large enough to provide space for generations to come. The growth of that section of the city has been rapid in the past few years and the new school will have a large attendance at the start. Brookline will have churches, schools, stores, two more now being finished, electric lights, sewers, paved streets, police and fire protection, and at the same time without destroying the advantages of suburban life.

In the end, the plans for the new school changed considerably. The red brick, four room concept was abandoned in favor of a more modern four room concept that cost nearly twice as much, but was built to last and designed in a manner as to allow for easy expansion.

West Liberty Prepares For School Dedication Day

Pittsburgh Press - June 20, 1909 - Brookline School - Click on image to enlarge.

The Pittsburgh Daily Post also covered the Dedication Day activities in the West Liberty school district. The following article appeared on June 20, 1909:

Two School Buildings Are To Be Dedicated

West Liberty District Will Have Structures That,
With Site, Cost $62,000

EXERCISES NEXT FRIDAY

Picnic, Speeches, Athletic Events and
Various Other Features on Program

The progressive spirit of the South Hills district is well shown in the two fireproof and up-to-date school buildings that will be dedicated next Friday in the West Liberty sub-school district. These new buildings make available to hundreds of children new educational centers with the best facilities and under the most wholesome conditions. The expansion of Greater Pittsburgh is nowhere more strongly empahsized than in this district beyond the Mt. Washington tunnel.

In connection with the dedicatory exercises will be held the annual picnic, given for the children on the district. Two most excellent sites were selected for the buildings on hills that command splendid views of the entire country thereabout. The West Liberty district in area is the largest in Greater Pittsburgh and these new buildings make a total of four large school buildings supported for public education.

Rapid growth of those districts since the opening of the Mt. Washington tunnel necessitated the erection of two school buildings during the last year and another school building will probably have to be erected in another section before the school children will have the facilities for education that are desired. Rarely, if ever, in this city have two new school buildings been dedicated on the same day in the same district.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS COST $62,000

The architect for the buildings is Frank H. De Arment. Both buildings are alike and with the grounds they cost $62,000. The Brookline School fronts in Woodbourne Avenue near Pioneer Avenue on one of the highest and most accessible points in that suburb. The Beechwood School fronts in Rockland Avenue on a high hill and from this building one of the finest views spread out, disclosing miles of new homes, well kept, on beautiful hills and shady hollows.

Designs for the buildings adopted by the school board are worthy of the purpose and most appropriate for the high elevation of the sites purchased. The buildings are of low English Gothic type of architecture, the exteriors being finished in gray brick with terra cotta trimmings. The buildings are so constructed as to permit a future addition of four school rooms each recitation rooms and board room.

The interior of the building is constructed of brick walls, with reinforced concrete floor construction. They are plastered throughout in hard mortars and finished throughout in hard wood, with Terazzo corridor floors and iron stairways at each end of the main corridors.

Each building is provided with three approaches reached by a 14-foot corridor in basement, first and second floors. Each room will accommodate easily fifty children and is provided with wardrobes of the latest conveniences, book cases and teacher's closets. Drinking fountains are in each corridor.

The buildings are equipped with combination lighting system, and provided with a heating and ventilation system. The boys and girls' lavatories at each end of the buildings are equipped with the most modern line of fixtures.

Dedication Day For Brookline and Beechwood Schools

Dedication Day events at Brookline School. showing the crowd near the podium and athletic events.

The Pittsburgh Post ran an article on June 26, 1909, detailing the West Liberty Dedication Day events of the day before. The following are some excerpts from that article:

Watching their children marching, singing and running races, hearing notable addresses and participating in dedicatory exercises of two new school buildings, citizens of the West Liberty Sub-District held an all-day celebration yesterday. The fine stuctures, exact counterparts, are the Beechwood School, on Rockland Avenue, Beechview, and the Brookline School, on Woodbourne Avenue, Brookline.

Morning exercises were held at the Beechwood School and after a parade the crowd went to Brookline for the second dedication and the sporting events. Headed by a band, children marched from one section to the other.

Fields, meadows and woodlands gave a refreshing country air to the duel events, although downtown Pittsburgh was only a few minutes ride from either school. The scores of dwellings that have sprung up in the district within a few years are so hidden by shade trees that the occasion seemed much like an old-fashioned country parade.

MANY BRING BASKET LUNCHES

Like one great family the united communities gathered for the basket picnic. Many brought enough eatables for supper also, and ate the two meals on the Brookline School steps, in the class rooms, seated on the lawns or under nearby trees. Heavy showers delayed and almost prevented morning exercises, but clouds soon rolled away, the sun came out and the success of the gala occasion was assured.

Presentations of flags at each building and the singing of patriotic airs by pupils, accompanied by the band, were interesting features. Rev. J. M. Heindel delivered the invocation at the Beechwood exercises and addresses were made by Principal Joseph F. Moore, Superintendent Samuel Andrews, William Hathaway, Malcolm Johnston and W. S. Foster, president of the school board.

Among the many interesting events and features, the most exciting was the 50-yard race for married women. With a sack of flour hung up for first prize, representing many loaves of bread, luscious pies and dainty cakes, competition was keen. Mrs. H. T. Kessler captured first place and Mrs. Cecelia White, second amidst an ovation.

While grown-ups joined in the fun, the event was really for children, and for their sake addresses were cut short. Ice cream, pop corn and lemonade were supplied in abundance, two boys' teams played baseball and races were run for boys and girls of all ages. For boys over sixteen years, a Marathon race was held, the course being from the Brookline to Beechwood school, and back.

Boys of Class No. 7 were pitched to victory by Andrew Adamson in the baseball game with Class No. 8. The final score was 13 to 5. Walter Jacobs pitched and Ralph Piroth caught for the losers, and Norman Hamerly used the big mitt for the winners.

Gold scarf pins and cuff links were awarded to boys and girls in athletic events, while the women received merchandise and the men boxed of cigars or stogies.

Brookline Public School in November 1909.

The school building has been remodeled and enlarged twice since 1909. Additions were built in 1911 and 1929. Other improvements have been made over the years. In 2009, the institution entered its 100th year with a celebration of both the history of the Brookline community and of Brookline Elementary School.

* Postcard image provided by Tom Castrodale *