My Private Tour

I have always known that my school was an old building with a lot of history, but little did I know HOW old! I learned a lot today in my little tour (given by one of our sweet custodians with all the keys) of the oldest parts of the building and had tons of fun getting lots of pictures along the way! (Until my external flash died halfway through, boo. I'm going to have to go back again for a couple more pictures later.)

I actually thought of doing this way, way back when but forgot until I was chatting with two of our custodians this afternoon and we got on the subject of the old sections of the building. One of them volunteered to take me through it all and I was so excited because I just happened to have my wide-angle and flash on me today! Perfect timing!

So here's my photo journey into the dank depths and surprising heights of our school:

The wheelchair access to HELL! (Nah, just the basement)

Leftovers from when our school has used the basement for a spook alley.

The biggest room down there. It was pretty darn big.

It's good to see that, in the time passed since this building was constructed, we Americans have learnded hhow to speil. :)

The one door we couldn't open....

I have no idea what this is. It just looked cool.

Oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh! I seriously squealed when he got the lights on in this room and I saw this! It's a poster! Made out of dot matrix printer paper! Eeeeee!

And laughed at this. I remember using iMacs in high school!

I'm totally, completely coveting this gem. Can you see the country top right? Ooooo, and I couldn't find a manufactured date anywhere on it. I just wanted to take it home as soon as I saw it!

A chair. And a blackboard. Ick. I hate blackboards.

Old clock. On ancient wallpaper.

This beauty is on the ceiling. See the disk at the top? Yeay for floppies!

I have cancer now.... :)

The original foundation. So fun! (This is about when my flash died so the rest of these had to use the on-board flash, ick.)

A gorgeously old light switch cover that we found in an extremely humid little closet under the foundation.

Mom, you were right. I was wrong. It was a high school way, way back when.

And way back before that....

I want this window. I have no idea how that would be possible to take, but I still want it.

The corner of our old gymnasium overlooks the art museum's sculpture garden. Not a lot to see in the winter.

Aaaaaaaaaaand....... ta-da! Yeah, I bet your school doesn't have a TOWER! This was the most exciting discovery to me. We totally thought this little door was a closet, only to open it and, lo and behold, tight spiral steps into an incredible room!

It was absolutely filthy and disgusting but I was in awe over these beautiful (rotting) windows in the "tower room".

Woo-hoo, coathooks in the tower!

Overall, I really thought it was an amazing look into the history of the building. I thoroughly enjoyed it and now only need to go back with my external flash charged up so I can get more pictures of that tower!

One of the interesting things I learned is how many additions there are to the original building. I knew before about how much it had been added to but didn't really know much about the additions. I learned that it started as ONLY a gymnasium with the stuff underneath. Then the older part of the building was added, after that came the 8-plex outbuilding, and lastly came my half of the building. That was crazy to learn after seeing some of the different parts labeled with their construction date.

Love & Smooches!

Jocelyn

P.S. My school has a FALLOUT SHELTER! How cool is that! Sadly, it's been boarded up and built over, so there's no access. :(