Jax Stumpes: Bennett HS Reunion Weekend (8/17-18/2013)

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Bennett HS Reunion Weekend (8/17-18/2013)

Saturday, August 17, 2013
A tour was scheduled of Bennett High School. It was one of the best schools in Buffalo when we attended in the early 1970s. Now with all the highest achieving students going to magnet schools, Bennett is left to work with the rest. However, with a reconstruction in 2007, the building itself is in great shape.
The school auditorium seats were refurbished:

Energy-efficient lights had to be installed, hanging from where lights were recessed behind glass:

The architectural details remain:

Here two classrooms were opened up into a large science room:

The Class of '56 raised money to furnish the science rooms with supplies:

The former shop classroom has become the botany classroom, thanks to the skylight:

A science experiment?

A classroom in the new wing:

The new classrooms have windows that are exact replicas of the original windows at Bennett:

We had a swimming pool, but now it is the natatorium (with the same old pool):

Same old bleachers, too:

Now to the gymnasium, and the school mascot:

The bleachers used to rise as high as the bottom of the windows:

Clever use of plastic bottle caps:

Karen C and Lynette B at our old homeroom #289:

The courtroom was built to complement a course on law:

But the class got canned as being too "elitist."
All classrooms have a smart board:

Too bad they don't have a smart board of education in Buffalo...
Same old murals in the second floor hall:

View from the media center:

All the original woodwork was carted away:

The marble bust from the entrance hall was relegated to the library:

A beautiful chemistry lab:

Again the problem is keeping it supplied each year.
The balcony over the gyn was closed off for safety, and turned into lecture rooms:

The South Cafeteria became the Blue Cafeteria:

And the North Cafeteria became the Orange Cafeteria:

Guess what the school colors are!
I think this sign was there in the 1970s:

Looking out over All High Stadium (one of two stadiums shared by all the city high schools):

Careful! Don't trip and chip your tooth again, Ron!

In the entrance lobby with the refurbished classical friezes, there is now an ATM:

The Sports Hall of Fame board:

Our Class of '73 has 5 members in the Hall of Fame; first was Kathy McCarthy (second from left in bottom row):

Then Karen and Kathleen Carr (end of top row) and Tamiko (end of bottom row):

And Richard Fink (beginning of second row):

Karen with her high point average basketball:

Sunday, August 18, 2013
On our way home, we stopped at Chestnut Ridge Park.
Cichorium intybus/Common Chicory:

Eternal Flame Falls (where is the water?):

Shale Creek depends on snow melt and rain.
Kent proves he was there:

A steady little flame fueled by natural gas:

Tamiko's turn:

KSS

Shale Creek:

Does shale sometimes break off in blocks?

This was more typical shale behavior:

Nearly invisible fish:

Okay, it looks like there was a stone path built here, but it is more of that block shale:

A side waterfall over layers and layers of shale:

Log jam:

Mood moss:

Fungus:

Buds or seeds?

On to East Aurora for Sunday Brunch at the Roycroft Inn:

Excellent buffet:

Arts & Crafts Movement objets d'art:

Kent in a Roycroft chair (very Stickley-like):

In the lounge:

Mural in the side entrance:

The Roycroft Inn (1897):

We need to identify this tree:

The Roycroft Inn is part of the Roycroft Campus, an artisans colony founded by Elbert Hubbard who started the American Arts & Crafts Movement. Recently a "Renaissance" has emerged in Roycroft artisanship: