We once had a campus residential house reserved for site superintendents on the corner of Horace Street and Arlington Ave.
The house was the first building completed on campus in December 1952. The construction cost was $26,000. The first family to occupy the new home in January 1953 was the Brill family (Dr Brill, Ruth, Tom and Jane).
The house came with a detached two-car garage on the left. The house was surrounded by the front and backyards. The original house had three bedrooms and two bathrooms using the same building materials that were used for dorms. It means the bathrooms had green walls and floor what we saw in the old dorms.
Due to severe termite damage, the house had to be torn down. In its place is a new building for vocational classes.
Previously, the corner had tall and thick plants to absorb automobile noises and for privacy. In the corner was a giant tree.
In the same corner is the new building for trade classes. Outside the red brick walls are the electronic sign for school announcements and the four metal wires to form the “CSDR” letters with trimmed plants. This is cool.
Take a look at the sidewalk leading to the street with the ground light and a mailbox for the superintendent’s family. Years later, the same sidewalk is the only remaining thing from the torn-down house.
Below is an entrance street from Horace Street. The gate was always left open for incoming and outgoing traffic. One Sunday afternoon, my mother took me back to school for a new week. As our family car went down this campus road, Dr Brill was in the garage with the door drawn open. He waved at me.
As can be seen in the background, the old vocational building (built in 1955) and the gym (built in 1959). They are all gone.
In their places are the new CTE (Career Technology Education) and a new and larger gym. The metal gate now opens and closes automatically.
From 1953 to 1998, three families (Brills, Lennans and Randalls) lived in the campus house. All the succeeding superintendents and their families have lived on their own around town.
In the 1990s and the 2000s, the campus house was also referred to as the “White House”.
After the Randalls moved to Arizona in 1998, the house was left vacant until 2002. The Family Counseling Service Center moved from the smaller House Two on Maude Street to the larger House One on Horace Street.
Once the White House found to be severely damaged by termites, the FSC moved to the very first Ruibdoux I dorm that opened in Feb 1953 as a new home for the Counseling Center. The House One was condemned and then razed. We salvaged several items including the small ironing table from the kitchen wall for the museum.
I remember one evening in 1997 I needed to discuss my school history book project (1945-2003) with Dr Randall. I walked over to the campus house and knocked on the front door. Diane answered and invited me inside while he was talking on the phone. When he was done, he asked me to sit on the kitchen table and enjoy the apple pie and a chat. That was a pleasant and unforgettable surprise.
Kevin Struxness, ‘76, MA
Editor, CSDR Old Times
7 December 2024
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