From the Jounal-News Newspaper, Monday, June 23, 2008: 

"Gone But Not Forgotten"
by Kyle Herschelman

For more than 80 years, the old Raymond High School/Grade School building symbolized the future of those in the panhandle of Montgomery County.

At 3:19 p.m. on Monday, June 23, that future became history as the last wall of the old brick building on Prairie Street was brought down.

While the school hadn't been used since 2003, the impact it had on the community is without question.

Whether it be as a high school in the early years or as a grade school later on, the school has seen generation after generation pass through its doors in search of knowledge.

The setup of the building was fairly simple, and undoubtedly familiar to many of those in the Raymond area who graced its halls.

There were the two front entrances to the school, separated, one for boys, one for girls. And for many years, they were uniformly used that way.

There was the office, which was oddly tucked away in-between the entrance level and the top floor. The school didn't really have a first, second, and third floor, but more of a series of half floors connected by wide staircases with wooden banisters.

There was the gym, the site of hundreds of basketball games, school plays, book fairs, and numerous other community events.

And then there was the study hall, a massive space surrounded by class rooms on either side. For years it was the study area for hundreds of students but for the last 30 years of its use, there was a sense of danger and mystery surrounding the hall.

Since as early as the 1970s, children were forbidden from crossing the middle of the study hall floor in fear that the floor would give way, giving the student a much quicker, and much more painful, way to get down to the gymnasium directly below.

Fortunately no one ever did take the plunge but concerns over the building's overall structural soundness eventually led to it's closing in July of 2003.

After a spirited fight to keep the building open went by the way side, the blade finally fell on the issue of demolishing the old school during the February meeting 2008 of the Panhandle School Board when they accepted a bid for the demolition.

With a projected demolition cost of $190,000, the destruction of the grade school will cost roughly $80,000 more than what the building cost to erect almost 90 years before.

History

The idea of the building came to fruition in 1919 after the community saw the need for a bigger high school and voted to build the new structure.

With $110,000 in bonds, the new Raymond Community High School was finally completed in 1920 under the supervision of school board president A.A. Central, secretary Dr. C.R. Driskell, and school board members John McCallum, Alva Jones, and Thomas Doyle.

In the 1923 edition of The Raymonian, the first ever volume of the Raymond Community High School yearbook, a description of the school's dedication ceremony was included.

The description, which was written by "a senior who was there", is below:

High School Dedication:

On November the twenty-second the beautiful new High School building was formally dedicated with a very appropriate program. Music was furnished by the High School Chorus and the address of the evening was delivered by Rabbi Ben Harrison of St. Louis. Following this, light refreshments were served to over seven hundred guests and friends of the school. Seniors acted as conductors through the building and those present were loud in praise of the community spirit to which the school is a lasting memorial.

While C.G. Vernon was the first principal at the new school, one of the most beloved principals to grace the halls of the building was Raymond R. Crum.

Starting in 1940, Principal Crum spent 31 years at the helm of the school, overseeing some of the most pivotal points in the district's history.

In 1947, the Raymond and Harvel Schools were consolidated to eventually form the Panhandle District.

Two construction projects followed in 1956 and 1958 to add an annex and a junior high school building but the biggest change came in 1962.

That year the Raymond High School and Farmersville High School (which included students from Waggoner) consolidated to form the new Lincolnwood High School. With the larger student population, the need for a new school building became apparent, leading to the building of the new high school, which is still in use today, in 1970.

The 1970-1971 school year not only marked Principal Crum's final year at the school, but also marked a new beginning for the building he spent his entire career in.

The old high school housed the junior high for a period of time before they too moved to the new school. From there, the building was the home to Raymond Grade School until the end of the 2003 school year. To put things in perspective that means the final sixth grade class to attend the old school will graduate from the "new" high school next year.

Although it is now reduced to a pile of wood, metal and bricks, the fond memories of the school still remain.

"I hate to see it go," Don Bergdolt, principal of Raymond Grade School for 15 years, said prior to the demolition. "It's an old building but it has a lot of character, a lot of history. It really is an institution."

Marvin and Wanda Schroeder both taught at the old school, combining for more than 70 years of teaching experience between them.

Mr. Schroeder taught in Raymond from 1947 to 1984, spending 24 years at the old building before moving on to the new high school. Mrs. Schroeder worked from 1953 to 1960 in the high school before putting in 30 more years as a teacher at Raymond Grade School.

"At one point, I had taught in three different high schools and was still in the same room," Marvin Schroeder explained. "I started with Raymond Community High School. When they organized the unit district (with Harvel), they dropped the Raymond Community High School and made it just Raymond High School in the Panhandle Unit. And then, of course, the consolidation of Farmersville and Raymond was 1962."

"I taught in every room in the building except the old home economics room and the band room," Wanda Schroeder remembers. "Back then, the enrollment was growing and you moved around according to the space that was available. Some of these rooms were little. If you had a bigger class, you got a bigger room."

But for the Schroeders, the attachment to the building goes further than just a place where they used to work. Since the fall of 1961, the couple has made their home just across Prairie Street, a stones throw away from where they spent all those years educating the area's youth.

"We had some really good years there and a lot of good people to work with," Mrs. Schroeder said. "I'm sorry to see it go."

The final phase of the demolition will take place in September with the landscaping of the area. According to Panhandle Superintendent Connie Falconer, the district has formed a committee to work on a memorial to commemorate the building and it's meaning to the community.

Whatever the committee decides to do, the memories of those who attended the school will never wane. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren can all look back fondly and reminisce about their time at the old brick building on Prairie Street.

And no trackhoe, no dump truck, no demolition can ever take that away.

For more photos of the Raymond Grade School, or to share your memories with us, visit www.thejournal-news.net.

For those wishing to own a piece of the school, bricks from the old building will be sold to help benefit the Lincolnwood High School Post-Prom. Along with a brick, the buyer will also receive a commemorative sketch of the building and a plaque with a brief history of the structure. For more information, contact Kim Jaeger at 227-4559.