Two generations at Helen Dickinson

This building is where two generations of us, my mother and then I and my sister, attended elementary school. I took this photo on Aug. 25, 2009.

Today it's unusual for two generations of the same family to attend the same elementary school, but my mother went to Helen Dickinson Elementary School in Fairmount in the 1920s and my sister and I went there in the 1940s and 1950s.

The building had stood for about 30 years by the time my mother was enrolled. It dates back to about 1895. It stands at the corner of 21st and T streets and is said to be the work of architect Charles M. Robinson. In the photo above, you see the original three-story part of the building. At the opposite end is a 1950 addition.

The school was originally named Fairmount Elementary, but it was renamed in 1925 in honor of a former principal. In 1958, long after I had completed the 6th grade and moved on, the name was changed back to Fairmount Elementary. The school closed in 1979. It has since been rehabilitated as housing for the elderly and handicapped.

I could never get away with misbehaving at Helen Dickinson Elementary (which is not to say I never misbehaved). In the late 1940s and early 1950s, some of the same teachers who had taught my mother a quarter century earlier were teaching me. They had no qualms about telephoning my mother if I got into trouble, which wasn't too often, given that I knew the consequences.

I drove to the old school this morning to take a picture of it. I gave little thought to the building itself 60 years ago, but now it strikes me as a beautiful example of turn-of-the-century school architecture.It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.