The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

The 1932-1933 faculty of the new Greenville Central School include: FRONT: Leta Arnold, Marjorie DeHeus, Scott Ellis, Ruth Rundell Grenci, Virginia Stevens; MIDDLE: Ethel Ray, Emily Duntz, Goldie White, Don Mabee, Elizabeth Meyer, Leonard Palmer, Mildred Stone Vaughn, Muriel Wooster, Leona Thompson Lewis; Elizabeth Bentley, Eva Button Bott, Mary Mabie, Gladys Beylegaard, Ruth Slater Palmer, Dorothy Mitler Price.

The Class of 1931, posing for their graduation picture, is the first pictured class of the Scott M. Ellis Elementary School. This practice ended with the Class of 1968, the last class to graduate from this building. Pictured are, bottom: Hilda Howard, Elizabeth Strong, Clarice Palmer, Evelyn Tompkins, Annella Dinnel, Marilla Brockett; middle: William Vaughn, Dorothy Vincent, Beulah Rugg, Natalie Hull, Helen Potter, Mildred Cutler, Howard Boyd; top: Joseph Slater, Elmer Carlson, Arnold Nicholsen, Leland Cunningham, John Jennings, Roland Young.

Students of the Greenville Free Academy pose for a classic school picture. Formed in 1816, the Greenville Academy established Greenville as an area educational center. Having undergone changes of name and fortune, the building shown was razed in 1905 to make way for the current building, which continued to serve as a school building until Greenville’s centralization of schools. Today, this building serves as the Greenville Memorial Library, part of the Greenville Park and National Historic Register area.

A custom that was celebrated at the Greenville Free Academy in the late 1920s and early 1930s, May Day (the one shown above took place May 20, 1932) meant streamers around the May Pole, a few social activities, and the crowning of the King and Queen, A year earlier, King and Queen were Lee Cunningham and Clarice Palmer.

The classes of 1922-1923 pose beside the Greenville Free Academy. Top row: Anna Hannay, Edna George, Jesse Elliott, Howard Story, Clifford Hoose, Laura Barker, Violet Tryon, North Cameron, Goldie Wright, Philip Lockwood, principal Paul Patchin; fourth row: teacher Miss Phipps, Bernice O’Hara, Eva Smith, Gladys Cunningham, Hele Wickes, Charlotte Birmann, Lillian Tryon, May Shaw, Elizabeth Williamson, Dorothy Lord, Eva Evans, Mildred Winegard, Florence Evans, Sadie Kudlack, Marion Irving, Marian Hale, Hawley Conklin, teacher Miss Newman; third row: Bernice Irish, Helen Story, Dora Evans, CoraMae Willsey, Florence Newman, Ruth Slater, Gladys Beylegaard, Ralph Stevens, George Jenkins: second row: Dorothy Cameron, Alice Chesbro, Irene Worth, Leona Ingalls, Mary Francis, Irene Dougherty, Helen Rugg, Margaret Boomhower, Ruth Rundell, Margaret Chesbro, Marie Vogel, Evelyn Hoose, Myra Griffin; bottom row: Edward Swartout, Leonard Palmer, Con Baumann, Kenneth Hallock, Melvin Peck, Arthur Petersen, Erwin Yeomans, Ernest Bell, Horace Lockwood.

The Greenville Central School Class of 1933 celebrates its 70th graduation anniversary in 2003. In the front: Mary Barkman, Florence Shook, Lawrence Applebee, Edna Ingalls, Merle Powell, Mary Potter, Margaret Story; Row 2: Evelyn Brand, Eugene Raffo, Beatrice Swart, Ruth Wood, Myrtle Kendall, Esther Nickerson, Eloise Roe, Hazel Parks, William Siddall, Margaret Goff; back: Donald Blenis, Paul Augstein, John Cartledge, Albert Talmadge, Sheldon Ives, Herbert Cook, Reinhold Schermer, Maynard Makely

The pride of Greenville Free Academy, the basketball team (circa 1930-1931) strikes a team pose. Left to right: Russell Baumann, Arnold Nicholsen, Maynard Makely, Lee Cunningham, Elmer Carlson, Joe Slater, Bill Vaughn, Roland Young, Merle Powell, Ken Lawyer, Charles Radick – coach, Scott Ellis – principal.

Graduating eighteen years ago, the Greenville Free Academy’s Class of 1929 posed for one of life’s milestones: Back row: Raymond Story, Gerald Ingalls, Christina Hallett, Edna Heinick, Dorothea Jennings, Charles Stevens, Gordon Abrams; Front Row: Hazel Gardner, Ruth Gardner, Marie Bullivant, Julia Anderson, Barbara Wickham, Edna Irish, Ida Stone; Missing: Esther Palmer, Ella Tryon.

Grades 5, 6 and 7 of the Greenville Free Academy for 1914-1915 pose. Front row: Marjorie Meade, Elizabeth Griffin, Gladys Evans, Lillian Thompson, Walter Stevens, Girard Irving, William Irving, Louis Hoose; Second Row (three boys): George Hawley Conklin, Howard Irving, George Irving; Third Row: Ruth Ellsworth, Mary Vanderbilt, Irene Chesbro, Stella Griffin, Ben Spees, Clifford Schofield, Henry Francis; Back Row: Cora Winnie, Helen Conklin, Florence Evans, Mrs. Alveretta Townsend (teacher), Madeline Chesbro, Bessie Kniffin. (The GFA site is today the Library.)