When I was growing up, Post was a school. Now the building provides offices for staff and training rooms for teachers. I can still see the portrait painting of Mary Elizabeth Post hanging over the entrance. She was an extraordinary woman in her lifetime, but children my age told scary ghost stories about her. Don't be silly, the building isn't haunted. Her name was Mary, so the children called her ghost Bloody Mary. They said if you looked in the mirror and performed a chant then her ghost, dripping blood, would appear behind you. I googled Bloody Mary, and the main figure for that name is Queen Mary I of England. Mary Elizabeth Post and Queen Mary I were completely different people. I recommend you google Mary Elizabeth Post. Such a lovely woman.
I attended school here in the mid-1960's. Back then it had grades 4-6 only. Ms. Dozier was the principal and I had Ms. Skevington for 4th grade, she used to read classic literature to us every Friday. She wore her long grey hair in a braid wound on top of her head, old fashioned high top shoes, and she always hummed when she walked down the hall. For 5th grade I had Mr Carter. He was kind of a young teacher and I remember getting swatted twice.. Once for passing a note and once because he swatted the whole class. I don't think it was very effective. For 6th grade I had a really pretty, structured teacher who was black. She was probably the only black teacher at the school at that time. I can't remember her name, but I remember she said she was from Alabama and she spoke with a southern accent, which made me happy because I spoke like that, too, since I was from Tennessee. Each grade had its own playground and one of them along 4th Ave. was lined with lime trees. The cafeteria was up on the corner and we walked to it in a line every day. We did a puppet play one year about the formation of the school and Mary Elizabeth Post. We made puppet heads with sawdust and glue and read from a script. I got to be Ms. Post.
