Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-09-16
BY John Clagett Proctor

Dear old golden rule days;
Reading and 'riting and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune OF the hickory stick"
How true these words are, no one
knows better than the boys who at
tend the county schools and the old
Brewery School where is now the
Homeopathic HospitaD, the original
school at Fourteenth and @ streets, the
Grace Church School and many of the
other early schools of the District. In
these schools corporal punishment, in
some form, was permitted as recently
as 1856, when, according to the record,
there were 159 cases of such punishment
inflicted. This, however, showed a
decided decrease from the year 1915,
when 500 pupils were reported as thus
punished. and this, perhaps, was the
minimum number.
But of the Grace Church School the
writer can speak of his own personal
knowledge, and he would, no doubt,
be backed up by at least three other
members of the Oldest Inhabitants
Association who early attended
that school-they being Ferdinand T.
Schneider, William T. Martin, Charles
w Lippold-and Joseph M. Brown of
The Star.
Grace School
Grace Church School Building is
still standing at the southeast corner of
Ninth and S streets NV, though now
occupied by a colored religious con-
gregation. Indeed, the lower portion
of this building has always been used
for religious purposes, but for about
10 years from 1873 the upper part was
used as public school for boys. How
ever, even before this the site was
used for public school purposes, at least
at early as 1871, when Wesley Chapel
had a mission on this corner 1t was
a one-story, one-room wooden struc-
ture, 80 feet wide by 40 feet long, and
still remembered by any number of
our older citizens.
Old Grace M. E. Church was COM
pleted in 1873, and at the meeting of
the Board of Trustees, held July % of
that year, John Randolph offered the
following resolution, which was referred
to the Committee on Schools:
Resolved, That the subboard of the
second district be authorized to lease,
for five years, the church building on
the corner of Ninth and S streets
northwest, furnishing four schoolrooms,
in lieu of those on Ninth street between
and @ streets, at rent of $1,000
per annum.'
Externally, Grace Church looks almost
The same today as it did in 1873, and,
Of course, year or two years later,
when the writer was entered in the
primary class, and when he met his
arSt school teacher-Miss Marion j.
Malone. What a real, genuinely SYM
pathetic woman she was All the little
tots loved her. Sweet, affectionate,
,onsiderate, kind and thoughtful
Two entrances we're provided to the
schoolrooms, one on the north side
md one on the south. To these en-
frances long fight of crude wooden
stairs led. They were without any
covering and, of course, ran from the
ground to a platform at the second
story. Here door led into a hall
way running north and south. sepa-
rating the four schoolrooms. Every
thing then was typical, in many re-
ipects, of the old country school-no
running water, no plumbing and no
heating apparatus, except the large
round stove used at that period. and
which would get redhot and burn up
most everything around it while the
boys in the far corners of the room
would be having difficulty keeping
warm.
The rooms were large and airy with
nearly 12-foot ceilings, the floor dimen-
sions being % feet inches by 81 feet
D inches. There were accommodations
tor 60 pupils, and it is needless to say
there was seldom vacancy.
The first grade was taught in the
southeast room by Miss Malone, who
was temporarily succeeded in 1877 bv
Miss Mary Celia Jones, Miss Harriet
]. Drury subsequently taking the lat
eer's place. Miss Susie E. Porter taught
the second grade in the northeast room
From the beginning, Miss Kate T.
Brown taught the third grade in the
northwest room, Miss Virginia R. Get
tings taking her place in 1874. and
continuing for several years thereafter
Emma F. Quinian taught the fourth
grade for several years. She was quite
likely widow. She was a nice-Iook-
ing woman, though her face wore a sad
look-a sort of Madonna face. She
was stout, and did all the whining
for the building; and she could do it
TO a queens taste. Her experience
was no doubt largely gained in con.
nection with her own son Frank who
was one of her pupils by the time the
writer entered her grade. Not like some
shoughtless teachers, who would box
The boys over their ears, she never
forgot just where to administer the
punishment, and few boys were ever
able to squirm out of her grin once
they were doing the jackknife over
her knee
one character connected with the
school, whom the boys all loyed-or
sloathed" would be more correct-was
John, the colored janitor. He was about
The color OF the stove, and when anv
pf the teachers desired to send note
10 the home of one of the bows TELL
ing his parents of his misbehayior