| THE MILNE SCHOOL HISTORY, Albany, NY - 9/8/12 The Milne School began in 1845 as an elementary-years campus school for the training of New York State College student teachers and was originally called The Albany Normal School. The Albany Normal School was reorganized at the end of the 1889 school year by the NYSC president, Dr. William J. Milne, for teachers of the seventh to twelfth grades with its first high school graduating class in 1890. Sixteen years later, in 1915, it became known as The Milne School. The Milne School with 7th-12th grades had 87 years of graduations. At its end, its class years were tapered down, and Milne closed at the end of the school year in 1977 due to University budget cuts. Its campus buildings were re-absorbed into University and college-related agency offices, meeting rooms, and storage rooms, and Page Hall returned as an auditorium with a schedule of public screenings and events. WELCOME TO OUR TOUR For those of you that need to, there are the three elevators available. In the Milne Building there is an elevator located in the front south side of the hallway at Washington Avenue area. There is second elevator located in the Washington Avenue side of the Richardson Building, also on the south side of the hallway, and there is third elevator in the center of the Husted Building. These elevators can accommodate only a previously documented number of people with each ride. You may be delayed by using the elevator, but you can catch up with the rest of us at our Tour Stopping Points. Our Tour Stopping Points: 1. We meet at the Page Hall Courtyard, if the weather is fine, if not, then inside Page Hall. Photographs can be taken on the steps and at all tour locations. 2. We will enter Page Hall through the courtyard stairs and the center lobby doors and down into the former Milne Assembly Hall space. 3. We can walk around the stage area, and you can sit in the same seats that have been there many years. 4. We go next into the Milne Building and the former Art Room, now used as a meeting room. 5. We go down the first floor hallway past the classrooms to the former Senior Room, Principal's Office, and Guidance Counselors' Rooms. 6. We go up the larger stairs to the former Milne Library Room, now a meeting room known as "The Theodore H. Fossieck Milne Alumni Room." Milne graduates have contributed to the mural restorations. 7. We go down the second floor hallway past the classrooms and the former English Office Rooms and the Business Office Rooms. 8. We go up the narrow stairs to the third floor, where we see the former Music Room and Home Economics Room. 9. We go down the third floor hallway past the classrooms and former Social Studies Offices and former Science Offices. 10. We go down the larger stairs to the basement of the Milne Building and walk through the former Boys' Locker Room and Industrial Arts Rooms. 11. We go to the stairway to the former Milne Gym, go down the stairs, and look through the window in the door at the floor level, now a storage space. 12. We go up the narrow stairs and back to the lobby of Page Hall and down the stairs to the Girls' Locker Room area. 13. We are now in the Richardson Building and go through the former Girls' Locker Rooms, which are now offices. 14. We go through to the basement curving walkway to the former Cafeteria in the basement of the Husted Building. 15. We go up the stairs, or use the elevator here, to the first floor of the Husted Building, where there is now a cafeteria. The first tour may end here for some people, and you may return to Page Hall, but the second tour may include the areas below, used when Milne expanded. 16. We leave the first floor of the Husted Building cafeteria area and go up the stairs to the second floor, where the former Science Offices were located. 17. We go back down to the first floor and go through the curved glass hallway back to the first floor of the Richardson Building to where the Principal's Office was located. 18. We go up to the second floor of the Richardson Building at the front stairs to the floor where the former classrooms and the former Math Offices were moved. 19. We go to the area of the former Little Theater on the second floor and down the hallway, where the former English Offices were located. 20. We go up the Richardson Building stairs at the Page Hall Courtyard to the third floor and to the former Music Room at the end of the hall. 21. We go down the stairs to the first floor and over to the area in the back of Page Hall. This is the end of the tour. Thank you for your time and interest with this tour today. Revised Commentary From My History Of Six Years at Milne, 1965-1971 Page Hall We enter into the back area of Page Hall through the double doors and will visit our former Assembly Hall location. The hallway behind the seats has been closed off since when we were at Milne, as it keeps it much quieter for people now watching events on the stage. We remember it open to the back and hearing people behind the seats and the risers. We can go up on the stage and imagine how it was to have our graduation take place across this area. We also remember the variety of events that took place here while we were at Milne, from Student Council election meetings, to entertainment events, to health presentations, including those to never start smoking. From Page Hall we will go toward the Milne Building and stop outside the Art Room, where Mrs. Brita Walker was an art teacher. The room has been turned into a meeting room and a lounge. It has been carpeted, and the art supplies area interior has been replaced. Artwork used to be displayed in the hallway outside the room. We will pass by the narrow-sized stairs that lead down to the Boys' Locker Room and go into the first-floor hallway of Milne. Milne Building To our right is the former front door of the Milne Building at 440 Washington Avenue, which is no longer in use, as they now use instead the Western Avenue address. In the hallway at the top of the stairs is the office room to the left, the former location of the Language Department. The Latin, French, and Spanish teachers all shared this room. Across the hall at the other side of the stairs is the location of a classroom used for language instruction. There is now an elevator here that goes up to the second and third floors of the Milne Building. There were no handicapped-access ordinances factors in our days at Milne. As we turn back down the first-floor hallway, on both sides there were several classrooms, the Women's Faculty Restroom, and a Custodial Closet. Farther along on the right-hand side of the hall toward the original Principal's Office, was where the Nurses' Office was located, followed by an Office Supply and Duplicating Room and the Men's Faculty Restroom. In the back right-hand corner of the hallway was the outer room of the two boys' and girls' Guidance Counselors Rooms, filled with college information booklets. Mr. Mark Yolles's office was inside the door and Ms. Lydia Murray's was in the back corner. A door connected to the Administration Office, and off that was the Secretary's Area, with the Information Counter, and then the Principal's Office to the left. Dr. Theodore Fosseick was there originally, and Mr. Charles Bowler was the principal after Dr. Fossieck retired. Mr. Harold Bell was Milne's Assistant Principal during some of these years. Hall passes were granted at the Information Counter, as well as notes turned in when missing school. To the left side of the Administration Office was the location of the Senior Room. This was filled with chairs, small couches, and a table or two. The walls were covered with artwork and information about upcoming and past events. We will go up the larger-sized stairs from the first floor to the hallway outside to the second floor. There was a Library Office on the right-hand side and then two rooms for the library through the double doors. The Milne Library, Room 200, was a large room with the center main desk, with bookcases throughout, and tables and chairs on either side of the way to the desk. In addition, there was a second room of books to the side of the main room. This room is used as a University meeting room and is known now as the Theodore H. Fossieck Milne Alumni Room. The Albany historic murals have been restored with contributions from Milne graduates. Down the second-floor hallway on each side there are classrooms used for English, Math, and Language instruction before the departments moved to the Richardson Building. A Girls' Bathroom was located in the left side of the hallway. The Business Department had three rooms at the end of the hallway, including a center office for Supervisors Mr. Gustave Mueller and Mr. Gordon Simpson and others they worked with. To the far left corner was the room with all the typewriters used for instruction. On the far right corner, where the elevator is now, was a room with business machines that was also used for shorthand instruction. Back in the hallway, at the right-hand side, was the room with a Small Stage that was once the language lab. We each sat at individual workstations where we would put our own small reel of tape into each built-in tape machine and would follow-along with the instructor with the language being taught to us. Going up the narrow stairs to the third floor of the Milne Building was a classroom used for Social Studies, and to the right side end of the hallway were a Girls' Bathroom and then the Music Room. Dr. Roy York was the Music Supervisor during our time here, and he moved to the Richardson Building when the new space was made available. Mrs. York, his wife, sometimes joined him in music instruction. Next to the original Music Room were the two Home Economics Rooms. Miss Barbara Quayle, who later became Mrs. Barbara DuPois during our years there, was the Home Economics teacher. Her desk was off-side centered in the large room between the sewing machines and tables and chairs and the four areas of cooking space. The first microwaves we knew of were here in 1966, in 8th grade, so we were very early in the public marketing and use of them. There was a connected small Home Economic Storage Room next to the large room. Going down the hallway were classrooms. On the left-hand side were the Science Supervisor's Office; on the right hand side was the Social Studies Supervisor's Office. To the left-hand side were a Boys' Bathroom and two large Science classrooms with large glass-door cabinets and long worktables. A classroom was on the side of the large stairs where we will go down to the basement. We will walk down the stairs to the area where the Boys' Locker Room used to be. It has been torn up and left unfinished with some lockers remaining, but it is mostly used for storage. We will walk through the open area, past the Coach's Office area, the Boys' Bathroom and Showers, and go to the far end to the Industrial Arts Shop Rooms. On the left side, there was an office for the Shop Teacher, Mr. Fred Lyon, who took over for Mr. Arthur Ahr when he retired. There was a small room with a door for the large printing press, a room to the left for the electrical-shop equipment, and to the right another room where small projects could be worked on. Next to it was a Sculpture and Project Room, where there was also a clay wheel. Some of this space is locked, and all is left unfinished. Outside of it, the hallway led to the Milne Gym. There was a Catwalk that overlooked the gym with offices behind it, and it crossed over to the girls' side of the locker rooms. We have been instructed that this Catwalk area is unstable with water damage, and the doors to it are locked. The Milne Gym is not open for us to see. The last time I saw it from the Catwalk, years ago, it had wire fences built inside the area to protect items that were in storage there. The sports lines and markings in the floor and around the walls were still there, but the gym looked in terrible shape. All doors to the gym are locked. We will go back up the narrow stairs to the first floor and return to the back area of Page Hall. Richardson Building (1) We will then walk to the back of the Page Hall lobby and go down the stairs on the left side down to the basement. This was the area to the Girls' Locker Room. This area with lockers, showers, bathrooms, and storage space has been replaced with offices. Exiting the space was where the office was of our original Girls' Physical Education Teacher, Ms. Barbara Palm, and then our second Girls' Physical Education Teacher, Ms. Barbara Brown Peters. There was a Little Gym, a small room at the end of the hallway that was used for gym classes when the main gym was being used or the weather was bad. It was also used for our first school dances in the seventh and eighth grades. This area is also an office section now. Husted Building We will continue walking over to the ground floor of the Husted Building in the curved the passageway to the Cafeteria. On the way there, there was a Supervisors and Teachers Lunch Room to the right side. In the Cafeteria there was a line for food and two rooms for students to have their lunch, which is now office space. At this point we can take the stairs or use an elevator that will take us to the first floor of the Husted Building, which is now an active cafeteria space. What used to be here were classrooms, including a large half-circle classroom with graduated steps, a second room with a flat space, which used to have our original room-sized computer set up in it, and boys' and girls' bathrooms on the first floor. All of it is now gone. On the Husted Building's second floor, where the Science Rooms were, including those for General Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, is again office space. We will return to the first floor of the Richardson Building using the curved window hallway. Richardson Building (2) The first floor of the Richardson Building was the office space used by the English Supervisors. The far end, the area opposite the hallway going into Page Hall, became the new location of the Milne Administration Offices, inside of which was a door that connected it to the Principal's Office. In the hallway beyond these offices is the stairway that led to the second and third floors of the Richardson Building. There is also an elevator here. On the second floor were classrooms for the Math Department. On one end of the hallway was a TV Studio and Classroom, where classes were taught by student teachers and taped in black and white videotape. At the other end of the second floor was a large room with a stage that was used for English classes. On the third floor were Math Department Offices and the new Music and Orchestra Room for Dr. York. Back on the first floor, in the connector area, there was a pay phone, and we return to the back of Page Hall. We end our Milne tour here. I regret not seeing the Milne Gym open and usable, seeing the Boys' Locker Room all torn up and left as storage, and all the offices now in spaces in which we used to spend many hours. It is sad to see the changes, and I wonder if they had been able to keep Milne open, how 35 years more of graduating classes would have continued the traditions we knew and loved as students at The Milne School. I am glad the buildings still stand, that we can come back and see them, and as long as Milne students remain, the memories of our faculty, staff, and classmates are still alive. |