History of Saranac Lake high schools | News, Sports, Jobs - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise
History of Saranac Lake high schools | News, Sports, Jobs - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise |
| History of Saranac Lake high schools | News, Sports, Jobs - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise Posted: 19 Mar 2021 09:16 PM PDT Well, I'd better qualify that title. This column will not cover the history of the present high school at 79 Canaras Ave. Freshmen students from the former high school at 141 Petrova Ave. entered the new high school in 1970. The last graduating class from the Petrova school was 1969. Now stick with me here … this column was prompted when I heard a couple of young people in Tops Market say, "Hey, that guy will know the answer," came up to me and asked, "Why was Petrova Avenue named Petrova?" I quickly told them the story, and they went on their way. History is so quirky and inaccurate, and so, for the very first time ever, right here in this space we are telling the absolutely straight, honest-to-God story of the first two high schools in Saranac Lake. There have been bits and pieces of that story in previous columns, but here it is all under one newspaper roof. – The first high school  Petrova school, 1948, dedicated 1925 – This first high school, located at 100 Main St., site of today's Hotel Saranac, was dedicated in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd president and the grandson of our ninth president, William Henry Harrison. The last graduating class of 30 students was in 1924. I doubt if any POTUS has ever dedicated a small-town high school anywhere in the United States. How did that ever happen in Saranac Lake? Well, I am glad you asked. I turn to my dear readers to clear up all mysteries. So here is the answer from Henry D. "Buz" Graves Jr., who lives just outside the village on Trudeau Road. Levi P. Morton was President Harrison's vice president, serving from 1889 to 1893. Mr. Morton built the historic Adirondack great camp on Eagle Island in 1903.  The camp was sold to Henry Graves Jr. and his wife Florence in 1910. That, dear readers, is the very short version of the story as to how President Harrison ended up dedicating the first Saranac Lake High School … and for once, a vice president got to do something big and create a bit of Saranac Lake history. – The second high school –  I have a very tattered copy of The Enterprise dated Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1925, with page 1 filled with stories about the opening of the new high school on Petrova Avenue. First — Madame Petrova … Over the years, many stories circulated about Ms. Petrova, a famous Russian ballerina, dancing on the stage of the Petrova school. Well, it turns out that she was not Russian and she was not a dancer. Her name was Muriel Harding; she was born in Tur Brook, England, in 1884 and died in Clearwater, Florida, in 1977 at age 93. She came to the United States at a young age, became a famous actress, starred in more than two dozen movies, wrote the script for several others and wrote three plays. Her studio billed her as a Polish-born Russian aristocrat. She published her autobiography, "Butter My Bread," in 1942. She arrived in Saranac Lake in 1921, touring with a theater group for a special event as the guest of William Morris, who owned the biggest theatrical agency in the United States. He had a big, beautiful home on the shores of Lake Colby known as Camp Intermission. She was so famous the street and school carried her "stage" name. (See photo.) – The dedication stories – The Enterprise, 1925:
Most of the story is missing, with Dr. Sullivan's speech, but here is the lead:
[Dr. Sullivan is probably another relative of my cousin, Beth Sullivan Bevilacqua, the right-hand woman to Harrietstown Supervisor Mike Kilroy.] More presentations at the new school were featured on page 1:
Of course, the school became more famous in 1948 when I was in the graduating class.  |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST  Trapeta Mayson (left) and Yolanda Wisher, adjunct instructors in the Department of English and Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University, are teaching "Black Women Writing: Short Stories (CW T680)" to graduate students. (Pre-pandemic photo) Disclaimer: Beth Ann Downey is currently a student in "Black Women Writing: Short Stories (CW T680)," the class that is the subject of this story, as a second-year MFA student.
Trapeta Mayson and Yolanda Wisher, adjunct instructors in the Department of English and Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University, had their students watch author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in a TED Talk video during the second week of their "Black Women Writing: Short Stories" class this winter term. In her talk, titled "The Danger of a Single Story," the prolific Nigerian writer describes how stereotypes manifest both in society and in literature. "The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete," she said in the 2009 address. "They make one story become the only story." It is this same kind of myopia that the class aims to address — and why it was folded into the curriculum of Drexel's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in an effort to diversify faculty representation, then further affirmed by Drexel's renewed anti-racism efforts — by presenting and thoughtfully exploring the works of 19th century through 21st century Black women writers so often neglected within the American literary canon. "I think Yolanda and I talk a lot about just the erasure, or the fact that these writers often are not put on the platform that they need to be put on and are not as widely known as they need to be," Mayson said. "Because we are imprisoned by a white literary canon, how many stories are not being told and how much of the American story is not being seen?" added Wisher, who experienced this firsthand as a high school English teacher for 10 years when she wanted to champion these writers in her classroom. "There's so much that we get through these Black women writers' stories about our country and the history of this country and what it means to be an American. The literature of Black women writers gives you a very different perspective and in a very different voice. It speaks to a wider group of people and a wider readership."  (From left to right, top row) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Zora Neale Hurston, (bottom row) Toni Cade Bambara, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. In addition to Adichie's nonfiction and short stories, the class of 16 graduate students also studied work by Alice Walker, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Cade Bambara and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. Mayson and Wisher chose to focus on these writers due to a number of factors, including their many accomplishments, their pioneering and diverse styles, and the instructors' joint admiration that they hoped would translate into excitement and engagement for students. "In each of these women's hands, the short story form takes on different proportions and has different powers and potentials," Wisher said. "When I look at all of these women, they're kind of renegades in a way. They're outlaws of the form but also of literature." Nomi Eve, an assistant teaching professor for the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the MFA program, recognized the importance of centralizing these writers and their work in the curriculum she had set forth for the MFA, as well as making it available to other graduate students. Eve tapped into Mayson and Wisher's authority in teaching the material established through an iteration of the class they hosted through The Rosenbach museum in the summer and fall of 2020. Mayson and Wisher are both on The Rosenbach's board of directors. "I believe that we must centralize Black voices in all of our courses," Eve said. "Students need to read this work and consider these perspectives and learn this part of literary history if they are to graduate and make literature that is relevant and write stories that will move the needle on the greatest of issues facing us today — that of social justice." Moving this needle also means facing head-on the difficult topics addresses by the Black women writers in the class — those of racism, sexism and classism that are still relevant today. Wisher and Mayson agree that their co-teaching style and shared ownership of the texts helps promote a safe space for these poignant conversations. "It stems from our desire to have real talk, to create a curriculum that invites discussion about the things that make us really deeply or tragically or violently human," Wisher said. "We need spaces to talk about this. And I think the arts and literature provide a layer of creativity and empathy that allow us to have those kinds of conversations in safe, supportive, reflective, but also direct and frank ways. We just want to be real, and the work allows us to do that." Jeannine Cook, a second-year MFA student as well as community activist and owner of Harriett's Bookshop, first witnessed the instructors' "masterful co-teaching" as part of the initial Rosenbach course, and now again as part of her graduate coursework. Everything she is learning, Cook said, makes her a better writer, a better businesswoman and a better Philadelphian. "I think what Drexel and all institutions get to understand is that a healthy future depends on our ability to amplify the voices that have been stifled — the voices that are going to lead us and guide us," Cook said. Cook's proof point came once again in week two, when students were asked to respond to the Adichie video with their own TED Talk outlining when they first realized this trope of the "single story." Several students credited a high school or college class with providing this important perspective or mental shift — one that opened their eyes to such inclusive or familiar work like that which "Black Women Writing" teaches.  Students meet synchronously for "Black Women Writing: Short Stories (CW T680)" class this term. The class promotes anti-racism by disrupting the white literary cannon and shining a light on 19th century through 21st century Black women renegades. "I think of universities and colleges as places where you go to learn how you think; to learn how you think differently from other people, and more importantly, knowing all of that, how to get along and do things collectively and achieve mutual good," Wisher said. "That's what I think you you're supposed to learn at college. Colleges, schools, and educational centers are the front line of this work." "[These courses should be taught] just like anything else is. … It expands that worldview, that global perspective, that ability to thrive," Mayson said. Eve plans to offer the same course or similar opportunities within the MFA curriculum moving forward. Similarly, Mayson and Wisher will continue to discuss ways to create spaces for Black women and other women of color to gather around this work without the presence of white readers. But no matter who is studying or reading along, each educator is dedicated to this divergence from the single story. "What's most exciting about this course is the times when we do get together and just talk about characters," Wisher said. "People that we've never met — and who don't exist — but who give us a way to talk about the hard stuff."  |
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