The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-12-29
lNIIEI' u! |. YORK ! (. !. Ct ANS !
Finest SCHOOL!
TWO MILLION DOLLAR sTRuc.
TURE FOR 1000 STUDENTS, a,
MODEL or UP.To.DATE EQUIP.
MENT AND SAFETY CAMPAIGN,
FOR FIREPRooF BUILDING.
SHOWING RESULTS.

NEW YORK, Dec. 29.-New YORK
now has the largest and finest public
school in the world. Speaking at the
dedication of the new Dewitt Clinton
High school, which has just been for.
mally opened, W. H. Maxwell. city
superintendent Of schools, said: Il
have visited many schools in the diff.
fereqt States of this country and for
eign countries but have not found a
public school that could equal this"
While nearly two million dollars
have been spent on the site, building
decoration and equipment, the Board
of Eeducation realized that the great
building, with its mural decorations,
$4,000 organ, It's gymnasium, and
other equipment. might prove nothing
more than deathtrap for its 1000
students unless 1t we're made safe
from fire.
The result is that while archltec.
turalIy the new school is the finest Of
Its kind in the world, structurally it
ia a striking example of what can
be done to make a building absolutely
unburnable as well as artistically
beautiful, and the authorities are con.
fldent that a reputation of the recent
fre disaster at Cornell could not hap
pen in this great school.
The steel work is thoroughly fire
proof, with hollow tile bricks to pro-
tect 1t from buckllng and corrosion
and the stairways are encased in fire.
proof shafts with automatic doors held
open by fusible links. The interior is
unusually well protected from an in.
side fire by thick partitions of hollow
tile and the walls and ceilings are
lined with porous terra Gotta.
The example set by the Board Of
Education in making Its new schools
models of unburnabIe as well artistic
construction, Is being followed by the
big colleges both in and outside New
York, Columbia College has Just adj
ded two new buildings to the group It
Is erecting on NTornlngsEde Heights
which are of the same type of fire.
proof construction as the Dewitt
Clinton High school. The new labor
atory buildings OF the Pennsylvania
University, and the new medical build
ings at Harvard are in the same class
But the most noteworthy example
OF tireproof college construction Is
represented in the five newly opened
buildings of the College of the City
OF New York, every one of them be-
ing freproofed with hollow tile from
cellar to roof. The public hall in the
main building hedgcd In on every side
by terra Gotta bricks Is considered by
experts to be the finest example Of
fireproof construction in the world
The Importance Of making colleges
and schools of unburnable construc.
ton like the Dewitt Clinton is real
ized when it is remembered that 10
schools and two colleges are destroyed
by fire every week. The Cornell build.
ing lately destroyed was magnificent
structure. but the element OF safety
had been neglected, with the result
THAT five students were rooster to
death,
Organizations carrying on the cam.
paign Of education aimed to hrtng
about an era of fireproof building are
making especial efforts to secure safer
schools in all cities. The Dewitt
Clinton school is declared to be Il
model Of how such buildings should be
designed