Excerpts from Bernard K. Yenkin’s The Little Main Street School

In 1935, when we moved to 2188 Bryden Road, I started school at the Main Street School … a very special place – a fact that did not comprehend until much later.

While I was there, I did not think it was at all unusual that there were only three teachers for six grades, using just three classrooms. Nor did I think it was out of the ordinary to be sharing a desk with another pupil.

These were the old fashioned desks with a bench seat. The desk top had a hole where the ink bottle fit. I will admit that double seating could get a bit cramped if ones seat mate was a bit on the chunky side and perhaps sweaty after recess, but since I was always little, it mostly worked all right for me.

My first teacher, Mrs. Karch, taught 1st and 2nd grade and was a very nice lady. One day our class was told that she had died. Our new teacher was Miss Householder, also very nice. Miss Hummel taught 3rd and 4th grades and Mrs. Craig taught 5th and 6th. There were probably just 80 or 90 kids in the entire school.

The Main Street School was one of Bexley’s first schools, but by the time I attended, it was the smallest in the Bexley system.

You can imagine what a shock I had when the news came during the summer after 5th grade that the Main Street School was being closed. It was eventually torn down to make room for Capital University housing. There was not much thought to historic preservation at that time.

The 6th grade for those kids who lived north of Main Street – that included me – would mean transferring to the Cassingham School.

Originally published in Historical Herald, November 2008

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