PROBLEM 47

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING

Problem: Students of educational administration should be familiar with the historical development of schoolhouses. Such a knowledge will enable them to eliminate errors such as have been made in the past in the planning of new buildings and will also show the reasons for the modern development in schoolhouse planning.

The city of Marrstown, N. K., has a large number of elementary school buildings. Some of them which were built as far back as the early part of the nineteenth century are still in use. Because of this fact, it is possible to classify the buildings according to their floor plans. These plans readily fall into five different groups. The five groups are presented here with the dates of the period during which these types of buildings were constructed in the city and a description of the characteristics of each group.

Group I (1812-1880).—This classification covers buildings containing one room on a floor and those with minor variations of this plan. Light is bilateral or trilateral, through single windows. When bilateral, the light comes from opposite sides of the room. Of the ten buildings listed in this classification, four are in use. These buildings are common to the outlying districts of the city.

Group II (1847-1880).—This type of building contains usually from two to six rooms per floor. The description of the four-room-per-floor building is given as typical of the group. Instruction space is divided into quarters by sliding glass partitions; entrance doors on two sides of the building lead to attached stair halls located centrally on the sides of the building. Seldom, if ever, are special rooms found; and

toilets are generally outside the building. Small coat closets are provided in the stair hall. Classrooms are lighted bilaterally through single windows, light from the long side of the room being limited by the stair halls. Communication must be made either through adjoining rooms or from outside the building.

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DIAGRAM 1

SAMPLE FLOOR PLAN OF GROUP 1

Group III (1862-1883).—This type of building contains a corridor in some part of the building, sometimes connecting only a few of the classrooms. Classrooms are separated by either plaster or glass partitions and are lighted with single windows.

Group IV (1880-1907).-The adoption of this type of building was a marked step in advance over the preceding type of school architecture. It is the prototype of the modern school

building. This type of building contains a wide corridor extending through the entire length of the building and terminating in two stair wells. Entrances are at opposite ends of the corridor on the first floor. Additional stairs in the form of scissors-type fire towers are located at the middle of one side of the corridor. Classrooms separated by sliding doors are arranged alongside of the corridor and at ends on the other side. Corner classrooms have bilateral lighting and interior rooms unilateral from the short side of the room, all through single or double windows. Coat rooms are placed between the classrooms and the corridor. A steep gambrel

roof and a deep, poorly planned and relatively unused basement also characterize this type of building. This type of building was erected as a unit without thought of additions, but additions are possible in most of the buildings without destroying the light in classrooms and without affecting communication.

Variations of this general plan are: classrooms arranged along corridors at each end of the building and at right angles to the main corridor; and unilateral lighting for the interior rooms through banked windows in the long side of the room.

Group V (1907-1922).—This type of building is an elaboration of the buildings in Group IV, but has some advantages over its predecessors.