BRUNSWICK

The site of Brunswick’s first public high school earned some recognition on Monday.

A plaque at the Hawthorne building was presented in partnership between the Village Heritage Society and the Brunswick Area Pride and Heritage Committee, part of the Brunswick Rotary Club.

Hawthorne is one of 14 sites in Brunswick, Harpswell and Topsham marked by the committee.

Other sites in Brunswick include the Town Farm Cemetery, Wharton Point and the Captain Daniel Stone Inn.

The Hawthorne building was selected because it was the site of the first public high school in Brunswick, said Valerie Campbell, president of the Rotary Club of Brunswick.

The first school on that site was dedicated in 1851 at a cost of $5,885, according to research by the Village Heritage

Society. A lower school occupied the building’s first floor, and the high school was in the second floor. In the attic was a physics and chemistry lab built by the town’s first public high school principal, Charles “Pa” Fish.

That building was demolished in 1891 to make way for a new school which had, among other advances, indoor plumbing. That building burned down in 1915. The only item saved was a book that recorded all the students’ names who attended the school.

The current building was erected later that year at a cost of $73,000, which would translate to $1.7 million in today’s dollars.

In 1938, the high school moved to Spring Street, and the building became Hawthorne Elementary School. Up until then, about 1,100 Brunswick high school students had graduated from that site.

Since in 2009, the Hawthorne building has become home to the school district’s administrative offices.

It also houses the Union School alternative high school program that enrolls between 30-40 students depending on the year, said superintendent Paul Perzanoski.

Family Focus also runs programs out of the building before and after the regular school day for schoolaged children. The Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program also utilizes the building.

“It’s a very popular spot,” said Perzanoski, for its meeting space and conference rooms. “It’s become a real community building.”

At one time, Perzanoski had also envisioned converting Hawthorne into a choice school with a student capacity of about 140, in the hopes that it could ease student overcrowding and compete with charter schools.

The choice school project is currently under the purview of a superintendent’s committee that will make recommendations on that proposal.

The Pride and Heritage Committee has marked the location of the former Brunswick High School, now the site of Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School.

“The Brunswick school system is very well recognized throughout the state,” said committee member Charles Mull, adding that the historic nature at Hawthorne especially was worth recognizing.

The plaque states the dedication was in 2014, but the actual dedication was delayed until Monday owing to last year’s early winter storms.

Mull said the committee will dedicate a 15th site later this year, but declined to say where that would be.

Way back when

THE FIRST SCHOOL on the site was dedicated in 1851 at a cost of $5,885. A lower school occupied the building’s first floor, and the high school was on the second floor. In the attic was a physics and chemistry lab built by the town’s first public high school principal, Charles “Pa” Fish.