HomeMy WebLinkAbout3. Estabrook School HSR, Feb. 26, 2013Joseph Estabrook School: Historic Structure Report Plan, Room Use and Changes Over Time 40
Rooms 1 -4
Four conventionally sized classrooms, of 900 square feet in size. These rooms housed first and
second graders of the Phi team originally. Rooms 1 and 2 have been used for Kindergarten
classes since 1967, when the Kindergarten program began in Lexington.
Room 7
A large, high- ceilinged room in the cellar, the room has been used for most of its life as a storage
area. The room was originally intended to become a complete television studio, but the studio
was never created. According to Susan Ward, music lessons were also held in the storage room.
In addition, the room was built to serve as a bomb shelter, if needed. In 2012, the room still
contains large metal drums of drinking water, labeled Department of Defense, along one wall.
Other survival materials remain as well. Bruce Ward had a summer job about 1970 stocking the
fallout shelters in Lexington. The crew worked at Estabrook for three weeks "because the water
tanks could only be filled at a rate that the filters could handle, so filling them all took
forever.i91 Bomb shelters are believed to exist at the high school, Diamond Junior High School,
Harrington School, and very likely other schools.
Bomb shelter supplies still kept in the storage room in 2012.
Outside the storage room, a door leads to a stair well for access to the outside of the building by
the west patio.
91 Susan Ward, personal communication, June 6, 2012.
Anne Andrus Grady June 2012