This new high school we’re talking about here is now the Petrova Elementary School opened in 1925. The former high school was located at the site of today’s Hotel Saranac on Main Street.

The last graduating class of 31 students from that school was in 1924. When I graduated from the “new” Petrova High School in 1948, there were 78 students in our class. Perhaps an indication of the population growth in Saranac Lake over 23 years.

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Dr. Baldwin’s dedication speech

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The coverage seemed to use a strange format for a ‘different’ speech:

“Dr. Baldwin mentioned some of the services the community will expect from the school in the education of the village’s children.

“That the children will be made better thinkers than the present generation was the first expectation mentioned. The community will also expect, he declared, that school will be taught by teachers of high character and ideals.

“While religion cannot be taught in the public schools, yet moral principles and the fundamental truths underlying all religious faiths may be expected to be taught.

“The community will also expect, Dr. Baldwin said, that the co-operative spirit will be taught so that each generation will be better fitted to live in the community than the last.

“Dr. Baldwin expressed that the test of time will demonstrate more and more that the building now launched upon its career will prove in every mounting degree a lasting pride to the entire community.”

A note about the school dedication carried in another Enterprise column “Coming and Going”:

“District Attorney Harold W. Main and County Judge Frederick G. Paddock, of Malone, attended the school luncheon given for officials and members of the board at the new high school yesterday noon.”

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The size of the school property

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Ms. Gibney, another speaker at the dedication ceremony, revealed a fact about the school that I’ll bet nobody, and I mean nobody, would know except my friend, Judge Roger Symonds, Sr., of the town of Franklin.

When Ms. Gibney said the site of the school was on 9 1/4 acres, Judge Symonds already knew that because he had been Superintendent of Maintenance for the entire school system but, wait, you understand, not in 1925.

When we had our farm on Norman Ridge in the 1930s our neighbor, Peter VanCour, was the Franklin town justice.

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Placid ski jumping

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“Annual ski week at the Lake Placid Club will terminate in a ski jumping contest at Intervale [today’s site of the Olympic Ski Jumps, the property at that time was all part of the Club — there was a 60-meter wooden jump at that site torn down in preparation for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games] Jump on Monday, February 23, held under the sanction of the National Ski Association and U. S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association. The latter organization was admitted to the eastern division at their annual meeting in Canton, South Dakota, February 10 and 11.

“Anders Haugen of Minneapolis, Captain of the U.S. Olympic team, winner of the Beck Trophy here last year will compete again this year, as will Bing Anderson of Nansen Ski Club of Berlin, N.H., who has twice won the Robinson Trophy which, if he wins again this year, will become his permanent possession. Rolf Monson of Brattleboro, Vt., last year’s Canadian ski jump champion, and Oinen (?) of Fargo, N.D., 17-year-old boy who made a standing jump of 180 feet at Canton, S.D., last week will be two of the contestants in a list including Arling Anderson of the Nansen Club, Hor Hansen of the Nansen Club and Thor Wollenbak and Reidar Lundh of Grand Beach Ski Club, Grand Beach, Michigan; also Adolf Olsen of the Portland, Maine Ski Club, Hollis O. Merrill of Schenectady, N.Y.; Gordon Brown and S. K. Platt, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.”

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Not counting sheep?

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“At a jury trial, Christopher Hagen of AuSable Forks, was acquitted of the charge of stealing nine sheep from Mrs. Hattie C. Davis, who lives near Jay. The latter asserted the sheep strayed to the Hagen place and were kept by him. The case attracted great interest throughout the AuSable Valley.” [The distance from Jay to AuSable Forks is quite a long “stray” for nine sheep.]

Perfect subjects for today?

A presentation before “The Fourth Annual Columbia University Interscholastic” speaking contest held in Plattsburgh on Saturday …

“Saranac Lake was represented by Leonard Lazarus, whose subject was ‘Abolition of the Electoral College’ and Cornelius Carey who spoke on ‘Disarmament.'”

Mr. Carey went on to become an attorney and Franklin County Judge.

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In last week’s column about the Bloomingdale High School and the Veteran’s Honor Roll that used to stand outside the town hall… I said that some veteran names may have to be added from wars in Iraq, Desert storm and Afghanistan. Well, I received a phone call asking why I didn’t mention Korea and Vietnam. I imagine those names must already be on the Honor Roll since the Korean War ended in 1952 and the Vietnam War in 1975 … 70 and 47 years ago. According to Augie Simpson, the Honor Roll was taken down in the 1980s.

Also, the graduation ceremonies in 1943 were held at the town hall and until Tori, my compatriot at the Enterprise, enlarged the photo of the four graduates, I did not realize they were standing in front of the Honor Roll.