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Early in the year 1872 Mr. Badger was directed to prepare plans for an addition to the Willard School house. His plans were approved and four spacious rooms were annexed to the school house. In 1873 the School Committee report(s) that “these new schools have been organized and established since the change, yet the increase in population in this flourishing part of our township is so rapid that they are now all full and in efficient operation.”
In 1875 at the annual town meeting the School Committee were authorized to employ a Superintendent of Schools. They accordingly selected Colonel Francis W. Parker at a salary of $2,000.00 per annum. The old course of study was discarded and a new one prepared, and the school year was reduced from forty three weeks to forty weeks, a fall term of 16 weeks, and winter and spring terms of 12 weeks each.
In 1880 Colonel Parker resigned as Superintendent and Mr. Sylvester Brown was selected to fill the vacancy, Mr. Brown having been principal of the Willard School during the years 1878-9, and Mr. A. H. Blood was selected as principal and served two years.
In 1881 the number of scholars between the ages of 5 and 15 years enrolled at the Willard School was 611 and the School Committee recommended that an addition be built on the front of the present building a distance of 60 feet, with a width of 42 feet, the expense being estimated at $6,000. This addition was completed this year containing twelve rooms.
The next year Mr. Brown having resigned, Mr. George J. Aldrich was selected to fill the vacancy.
The Willard School was destroyed by fire on Sunday February 17, 1889, and the scholars were accommodated in the John Hancock School, Foresters Hall, Farmers Hall and in Saint Mary’s Hall. At a meeting of the School Board held March 30th it was voted to send a communication to the City Council recommending the erection of a new school building for this section.
This photo evidently was taken in 1888 and shows us the last corps [of] teachers employed in the old school house. Their names were reading from left to right
Miss Chamberlain (second row) (in front)
Miss Theresa Fegan Miss Conway
Miss Collins Miss Lewis
Miss Dicky Miss Shaw Miss Kelley
Miss Ellen Fegan Miss Crane
Miss Newcomb Miss Garnder
Miss Desmond Miss Billings
Miss Glines Miss Burns
Mr. George M. Wadsworth
Miss Emeline A. Newcomb, a teacher in the Willard School from 1857 to 1909. a period of 52 years of efficient services in this district.
