story & photo
by Crystal Harpstreit

Birthdays can bring young and old together to celebrate the past, present and future. On Friday, October 16, students, faculty and alumni of Ledyard Center School (LCS) assembled in the auditorium to celebrate its 60th birthday.

In the years before Ledyard Center School, local children attended any one of 14 tiny one-room schoolhouses throughout town. Construction began on Ledyard Center School in 1948 and was completed in 1949.

Upon opening, the school was “already too crowded, and had to hold 6th, 7th and 8th grade in the auditorium with dividers,” said Carol Ambrosch, a teacher at the school. Carol, who studied one-room schoolhouses in the Ledyard area as her master’s project, was very knowledgeable on the subject and gave a speech on the school’s humble beginnings.

Those who came to speak shared fond memories of their elementary school years with the students. Among the speakers was Ledyard Mayor Fred Allyn, who said, “Four of the six years I was here I had the same teacher,” and joked, “I wasn’t held back, but every year I went up a grade, she did too.”

David Holdridge was among those students who attended a one-room schoolhouse before the opening of the new LCS. The modern amenities available at LCS surprised David, as he quipped, “They had bathrooms inside the school.”

To help students visualize the differences between now and when the school opened its doors, Gianni Jannke DeMuzzio, an LCS sixth grader, put a video together with the help of a few other students. The video featured students from different grades remembering a favorite moment at LCS along with barbershop quartet music from the 1940s.

Students got a glimpse into the past when the school’s original time capsule, hidden behind the cornerstone since 1948, was revealed. Inside were town reports, records of the school, a photograph of the school and graduation exercises – all from 1949.

Unfortunately, weathering caused the papers to stick together and become ruined inside the small copper box. Today’s students hope to connect with the future through their time capsule which is inside a weatherproof plastic box and includes a copy of Friday’s paper, a school newsletter and a photo of Principal Mary Fort Boyle.

The birthday celebration was complete with orange and yellow frosted cupcakes and the gift of award-winning children’s books from Sharon Hightower, the Board of Education chairman, who said, “We are celebrating excellent teaching and excellent learning.”

Maybe, 60 years from now, students will open the time capsule from 2009 as that Ledyard Center School’s class share their memories of years gone by.