In 1922, President Harding was popular—just about as popular as any president since Washington had ever been. He was a little less popular a few years later, after he had died and members of his circle who had not shot themselves began serving prison terms. But the name seems not to have been enough of an embarrassment to change the inscription on the school. It retains that inscription in its new life as a retirement home more than a century later.
The first school on this site was the old Chartiers Public School (we assume the date 1878 refers to the building of that school). In 1922, this much larger building went up around the old school—for it appears that the original school may still exist, invisible under a layer of 1922 construction.
The architect of the new school was Frank M. Crooks,(1) or Frank McC. Crooks, or Frank McCrooks, or Frank McK. Crooks. Thanks to our correspondent David Schwing, we have these four variant spellings of his name in four listings, so we have no idea which spelling is correct. However, three of the variants produce the name “Frank M. Crooks” if we do not treat “Mc” as a separate letter for purposes of initials and alphabetizing, as many publications did a century ago. For now, therefore, we accept the name as “Frank M. Crooks.”
Footnotes
- Source: American Contractor, February 18, 1922, p. 57. “School (grade, add. & alt.): $100,000. 2 sty & bas. Dunbar st., Carnegie, Pa. Archt. Frank M. Crooks, 541 3rd av., Pittsburgh. Owner Bd. of E. J. H. Walker, secy., 606 Beechwood av., Carnegie. Brk. walls. Owner is taking bids to close Feb. 14, at 7 p. m. Owner will take bids on school abt. Mar. 10. Plans drawn.” (↩)
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