Hoxsie’s going old school this week. Real old school. Scotia, New York was a booming village in 1905 when it built its first high school, on First Street just two blocks up from the main street, Mohawk Avenue. It served as the high school until a new one was built on Sacandaga Road just two blocks away. That one was, in turn, replaced by the current high school, further out Sacandaga Road, in 1955. I’m not sure this was always the case after the new high school opened, but as I moved through the school system, the First Street school was the 7th grade building, and the lower Sacandaga Road building was the 8th grade. By that time, the building pictured here was nearly 70 years old, and the only update that had been applied was the addition of a gymnasium on the back and some fire doors that were installed just as it was about to close. The radiators clanged like a steel mill, and the wooden floor in the nurse’s office was so warped it was practically corduroy.
When this postcard was sent in 1907, the building was practically brand new, and not yet surrounded by homes and the buildings of St. Joseph’s Church. Lettie B. Reynolds had good news for Mrs. Streeter: “There arrived in this home on Jan. 26 at 8 A.M. Another dear little baby boy his name is Eugene and grows like a weed. Mother is doing nicely. I hope this will find you and yours all well and happy.” For those who want to know, Lettie was the wife of Nelson Reynolds, and the mother of Lelia, Viola, Grace, Floyd and, finally, Eugene. They lived on James Street, very near the new school.
Years after this was originally posted, we wrote a very thorough history of this building and the schools that followed it.