Amityville Public Schools

A short history with some personal view points

I am not sure when the built the first school house. Then in the year 1872 a wooden school house. Which was a three-classroom affair on the corner of Ireland Place and Park Avenue. This school house was moved to Broadway opposite Avon place to make room for a new school building on Park Avenue and Ireland Place. The wooden building served many uses over the years and still is today. When I was growing up in the 1940’s & 50’s it hosed the Amity Battery and Ignition Company.

Park North School Building

After they removed the old wooden schoolhouse they built a new brick building in the same spot on Ireland place and Park Avenue. They used the tower from the old wooden building for fortifying it. plus, they had two Civil War cannons on either side of the front walk. The bell which used to call students to classes was place on a monument on the corner of Ireland Place and Park Avenue. The bell tower was removed in 1907 when they added the west wing.

1906 photo shows the Park North School before the West Wing was added

Colorized Photo taken after 1907 when the West Wing was added.

When I went to kindergarten back in the years 1946-47 our teacher used to take us to the field in back of the Park North building to play attis a tasket a green and yellow basket plus other games, at that time the Park North was minus it's Bell tower and I also remember that it had on about the second floor of the building was a small gymnasium which also had a small stage and I remember that we put on a play where I played a wheel of a train I had a big paper wheel that I probably made in kindergarten and was bigger than I was at that at the time. I was small, and the building seemed very large to me. What used to scare me was when they used to bring us down to the basement for the blue light inspection when they look for lice in your hair. It used to scare me to go in the basement which was dark and with brick archways

The park North building remained a kindergarten through 12th grade Or the surrounding area including Seaford, Massapequa and Copiague until 1924 when the population grew too large for one building and they built the Park Central Building next to the Park North Building.

The park North building in 2004 became administration building and they demolished The West Wing

Park North School building in 2004

Park Central School Building

The Park Central Building built in 1923 opened in 1924 when it became Amityville high school and served at the high school until 1932 when this Park South Building was built. Park central building served as the junior high school from 1932 until 1953 when it became a grade school.

I was in the Park Central Building for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades at the time it had a cafeteria on the first floor and offices the second two floors were classrooms. The whole school had an hour for lunch and we played out in the athletic field in the back of the school organizing games such as ring-o-levio and piggy-back fights and in the winter time we had snowball fights I don't think a lot of this would be allowed today but we had fun at the time and no one got hurt that I know of anyway.

The Park Central School Building in the 1930's

Park South School Building

Amityville park South building built in 1932 a duplicate in style of the park central building, it served as high school from 1932 to 1953 when they built a new high school on Merrick road

Since the park South building was built as a high school and had a much better gymnasium in the park North at with the gymnasium it had balconies on three sides and a beautiful stage. They kept the chairs which were nice wooden chairs connected in fours under the stage for it also served as the auditorium for the park South building. Also, it had science labs that I like it and a wood shop which I liked. I remember this sign the wood shop teacher put up “if you want to kill time work it to death”. The building had 3 stories with first floor had offices, Library, the gymnasium/auditorium and the locker rooms with the boys at the side of the gymnasium and with the girl’s locker room behind the stage. The second floor was mostly classrooms except for entrances into the balcony of the gymnasium and the third floor was just classroom I think one of them was the science lab on the third floor. I went to the park South building for the seventh and eighth grades but even in the lower grades when it rained out we used to go into the gymnasium 4 films usually cartoons of what do you woodpecker which I think was violent I don't know if they would allow that today either. In the seventh and eighth grades was the first time we changed classrooms for each subject with different teachers I thought it was cool at the time.

Park South School Building when it was a High School in the 1930's

Color photo of Park South School in the early 1950's

Park South School in the 1950's with the sundial

1936 Amityville Wrestling Team

Amityville baseball and football teams when they played at Park Ave schools

Merrick Road High School

The "NEW" high school on Merrick Road open for the class of 1953 of which my sister Jeanette Wilkes Boyle was a member. I didn't follow her until 1957.

The new high school was flanked with the gymnasium on one side and then auditorium on the other side. One of the unique features of this building a building is that had two light courts so that it give me windows access to the classrooms on the second floor. The first floor had had offices, classrooms wood and metal shops plus the cafeteria in the rear of the building. The library was on the second floor in front of the building.

I thought it was a fine big building until I went with the wrestling team to other schools in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and realize it was quite small. I think it's funny that Park North handled a wide area, now is one of the smallest schools on Long Island I think the history of the population growth of long Island. They are not finished yet, for they built two schools in Northeast and Northwest Amityville and in 2004 they built a new school building on Park Avenue connecting Park South and Park Central buildings plus they are thinking of expanding the high school. When will enough be enough.