Special to The Star-Herald
Cunningham School, first built in 1910, was erected as the town’s first school constructed for high school students only. Up to that year, all town students from first to twelfth grades attended either the Academy, later known as the Training School, on the east side of the Presque Isle Stream or Gouldville School on the west side.
As Presque Isle’s population grew and the local schools became overcrowded, it was decided by the town fathers to construct a school exclusive for high schoolers. This would relieve the student-population pressure and perhaps deliver a better education to local students.
The school, the first public school in the area to be constructed of masonry (bricks), was opened in 1910 and was known as the High School. It was thought that this building was more or less fireproof because of its brick outer shell. In the winter of 1921, the school was consumed by fire. Despite the brick exterior, the roof was constructed with wooden timbers and the walls with wooden 2 x 4s along with the standard plaster and lathe (wood) construction. Three hundred and twenty-two pupils were temporarily displaced; however, found makeshift classrooms in local churches for the remainder of the school year.
Construction on a new high school was begun in the early spring of 1922 and opened just before Thanksgiving. The new school included the town’s first school gymnasium. The High School, as it was officially known, was state-of-the-art. It included a heating and ventilating system with each room being ventilated independently of the others. A speaker system was installed for the human voice to be heard clearly and distinctly in all parts of the new assembly hall. The facility would accommodate 500 students. Despite the larger school, overcrowding continued. A new, larger gymnasium-assembly hall was constructed in 1939 on the south side.
The town fathers again decided in the late 1940s that because of the continued growing student population, a new high school would have to be erected in order to prevent severe overcrowding. Construction began in 1948 and completed in 1949. The first class to graduate from Presque Isle High School was the class of 1950. The old high school was dedicated to Frank Cunningham, heretofore named Cunningham School, who had been principal there since 1923. Dr. Cunningham was named the first principal of the new high school.
Cunningham School was razed in 2005 after 83 years of dedicated service to the community. The students who would have attended in the fall of 2005 were transferred to Presque Isle Middle School. The school closed with Larry Fox as the last principal.
Photo courtesy of Jim Carter
FRANKLIN S. CUNNINGHAM was not only the principal of the old Presque Isle High School, which eventually became known as Cunningham Middle School, but the current Presque Isle High School, as well. Cunningham was born in Mt. Chase near Patten and graduated from Patten Academy. He graduated from Bates College in 1918 and received his master’s degree from Bates in 1926.
Photo courtesy of Dick Graves
CUNNINGHAM SCHOOL in 1926, then known as the High School.
