The Second Floor

The Butler School that was built in 1921 is far different from the Butler School one-hundred years later. Most people are unaware of the two additions in 1932 and 1936, or where the original building ends and the additions begin.

That is where the blueprints by Helmle & Helmle and Harry Reiger come in handy. By looking at how Butler School has changed over the years, questions arise, answers are sought out and in the end, history is documented.

Though it is not known when these elements were removed, the original 1921 building had a few surprising details that were lost over time. The centerpiece of the school are its three arched windows directly over the main entrance. For many years Room 204, the music room stood behind those arched windows. At some point in time, it became a fourth grade classroom (quite a desirable one since it has a stage!). The interesting detail about Room 204 is that it was originally two separate rooms. The portion to the north was the teachers’ lounge and restroom. The southern portion was the school library and a fantastic library it was! The original library sported overhead beams on the ceiling and a fireplace. As stated before, it isn’t known why or when these rooms were combined into one, but it’s likely that the changes happened during one of the additions.

Outside of Room 204 is where another interesting detail of the original building was. Students and teachers walking through the upstairs hallway were able to see the day’s weather by merely looking up. A skylight was part of the original Helmle & Helmle plans. It’s assumed that like most skylights, it eventually began to become a bother with leaks and was taken out during subsequent construction.

Across the hall from Room 204 were two classrooms. Interestingly enough, those two classrooms were merged together to create the Butler Library that most alumni remember. Once again, it’s assumed that this took place around the same time that the teachers’ lounge and library were merged into a music room. Unfortunately, as Butler faced overcrowding in the 2000s, the large room was turned back into two classrooms (Rooms 203A and 203B) and the library moved to one of the portables (mobile units) before ending up being housed on the stage.

The Basement

The last aspect of the original building worth noting is the basement. Currently this portion of the basement contains the boiler room, cafeteria, kitchen and speech room. That was not the case originally. The boiler room has stayed close to its original design with the exception of a coal room. The differences with the original lie within the other sections. Originally, the basement was composed of two rooms separated by a wall. The northern portion was designated as the “Boys’ Playroom”. The southern portion was the “Girls’ Playroom”. The separation by an interior wall meant that the only way to get to each portion was via the corresponding stairwell from the playground doors. At some point over the years a doorway was cut through the interior wall to connect the two halves of the basement. The southern half became the cafeteria (The first mention of this was 1954. An area was created where children who brought cold lunch could eat. Others went home, or to a local eating establishment each day.). The northern half eventually became the kitchen and speech room, but it’s not known exactly when hot lunches began being served at Butler School. By all accounts, a hot lunch system wasn’t put into place until the late 1960s or early 1970s.

When the additions were built, the basement space added was designated as storage except in the case of the South Addition. Room 10 was noted as being an “additional fourth grade classroom” during the 1936 construction. Eventually Rooms 1 and 2 in the North Addition basement became Kindergarten classrooms, and the storeroom on the south end was made into three rooms for student resource groups, storage and office space.

Butler Elementary School