Back To OldMendhamHigh Home Page Updated: December 2007 Hello to Alumni (and anyone else surfing on through!) If you attended Mendham High School before 1991, you were there when it bore a striking resemblance to a factory. In fact, the school was repeatedly mistaken for a factory often in it's earlier days! Apparently it was quite a joke around town! On this page, you will find the long and completely uninspiring story about how the school was built in the late 1960's, until it's grand opening in 1970. But why write a webpage about something that sounds so potentially boring? Well, while doing research, we discovered something shocking - the school wasn't originally suppose to look like a factory! The original plan was to build a beautiful ultra-modern school, but something went very, very wrong ..... ! So read on down to discover what happened to the super modern plans, and why a factory was built instead! The Story Starts Here - Mendham/Chester in the 1960's Mendham and Chester Need a New School! Since history can be boring (sorry Social Studies teachers, but it is!) I'll try to keep this part brief! In the 1960's, Mendham did not have their own high school. Kids in Mendham before 1960 went to Morristown High. In 1960, Mendham kids and Chester kids went to West Morris in Chester. It's now called West Morris Central, but back then it wasn't in the center of anything, so it was just plain old West Morris! Well, things started getting real crowded at West Morris Central! With so many kids attending one school, it was getting a tad overwhelming! Everyone was getting really smushed, like this smileyface , and students were just crammed together! It was time for a new school to be built, and Mendham was the natural spot to pick. (Actually, the West Morris district wanted to build five high schools around the area, but that's a whole another story!). The voters approved it, so plans for the new Mendham high school went into action! Mid 1960's - Architects are Hired! So in the Mid 1960s, things started rolling to make this new school! The land for the new school was bought from a sheep and cow farm on Main Street in Mendham, owned by the Traudt and Rowe family. Overall, the citizens of Mendham were very happy with the location of the new school. This architectural firm from Connecticut called Sherwood, Mills, and Smith (can't say I ever heard of them) got the job of designing the new high school in Mendham. They designed other high schools in the area, like Montvale and Franklin Lakes (like you really needed to know that, right?). And guess what - they decided to make a very cool modern school! In September of 1966, the drawings of the new Mendham high school were unveiled to the public! 1966 - The Plans Are Revealed! And here are the new plans! The new Mendham High will be a very modern place! There will be cool-looking narrow windows, modern entrances and doorways, a beautiful courtyard where students will congregate with their boufant (or whatever you call 60's styles!) hairdos, and winding tree-lined paths. The new front entrance to the school will be lined with pretty columns. The new school also won't be flat and boxy, as it will have a far more interesting look. What a wonderous place it will be! This is what Mendham High is going to look like! (I think I see The Grove!)     ← Side View: Here is a wide angle view of the new school. The roof is designed with some slanting to hide all the exhaust vents from view. They thought of everything, didn't they! Here is a close-up of the new front courtyard     ← The New Courtyard: This will be the new front courtyard around the main entrance. Columns line the front doors. Looks good to me! The only very odd thing about this new school is a lack of windows. Apparently, having few windows was an "in thing" during the 1960's! The architects even bragged about the superiority of the "scarcity of windows" design. And get this: They called having few windows "Sun Control" (What????). The architects didn't want any glare bothering us students and teachers. How nice of them! But maybe having very few windows is a nice idea, since the teachers always had a hard time mastering using those venetian blinds! And to all the teachers who who enjoyed having spider plants in their rooms, well, I doubt all those plants would have thrived with no sunlight! Also incorporated into this new modern design is the ability to expand the school. The school will initially have 2 floors, but with the support structure of being able to have a 3rd floor built. Also, the school could expand by building a new 2 floor wing with 10 classrooms, connected by a very modern bridgeway! So there you have it - this will be our future school! Even though I wasn't born yet (I'm from the Class of '88, born in 1970), I'm sure I would have been overjoyed knowing that I could someday strut around in my beehive (or whatever) hairdo around such a cool-looking school (with few windows), like the lady in the picture! These plans were in the September 1, 1966 Observer Tribune. Fall 1967 - Bumps In The Road Well, all is going well in getting these new plans approved and to get construction started. West Morris (Central) High School is getting real crowded now! But then in the Fall of 1967, a series of ominous newpaper articles appeared in the local Mendham/Chester (Observer Tribune) newpaper .... There is a delay in getting aproval for the new school!     A Little Problem - This article appeared in September 1967. Apparently there is some delay in getting approval for the new plans! This means the new Mendham High won't open next year in 1968, but instead in 1969. Since the school won't be ready, West Morris (Central) will be super crowded, and they may even have to run double sessions! But I'm sure they will get things straightened out, right? The modern school's cool plans are rejected!     Oh No!! - This article appeared in the Observer Tribune in mid November of 1967. Apparently, the cool modern design for the new Mendham High was REJECTED! Surpise, surprise - it was rejected since it cost too much and all the construction bids were too high! Now the Board of Ed wants the architects to redesign everything! Don't change my future modern school! Noooooo! The architects new boring design gets approved!     All is Lost! This newpaper article appeared in late November of 1967. The architects took less than a month to completely redesign the school! So it's safe to say they didn't spend too much time being creative! I think they took a prior design for a factory and just slapped some classrooms into it! Well, the boring new cheap design is readily approved and the boring school is given the green light to go get built! The plans for the cool, ultra-modern school are officially dead and gone. Well, Great. The new plans were rejected for being over budget. Then the architects designed a new school with the same floor space, but much cheaper to build (but has windows, though!). Construction on the school didn't start until early 1969. Nothing worth mentioning happened in 1968. Spring 1969 - Construction Starts! Construction on our future boring-looking school starts somewhere around March of 1969, give or take a month. Now the estimated opening is September 1970. Below are some construction photos, from 1969. All of these appeared in the Observer Tribune. May take a minute to recognize any of these!     ← Spring 1969: Here is a very early construction photo. Recognize what you are looking at? This is the very beginnings of the original school, with just the steel skeleton being finished. Wow!     ← August 1969: Check this out! This looks like some sort of picture of Hurricane Camille devastation, but it's not! It's really an overhead construction photo of the school! Click here to see a larger view of this photo, and some text to help you know what you are looking at!     ← September 1969: What is this? It's a big bulldozer on the soon-to-be Circle, helping build the school. I can see that math classrooms 215 and 216 have walls, but rooms 218 and 219 don't yet! Summer of 1969 - Construction Progresses (sort of) Construction plods along throughout 1969 and into 1970, too. But like most construction projects, sometimes things take longer than expected! The construction of Mendham High seemed to be no exception to that! Get to work! Finish my future school, will ya!     ← August 1969: This article appeared in the local newspaper in August of 1969. Apparently, construction is just too slow! The Board of Ed isn't happy! Now the architects say the construction is projected to be completed in July of 1970, which is just a few weeks before the projected grand opening! Not really much time to get everything ready! Hurry up now! Late 1960's - Random Events in the Construction Listed below are a bunch of comments, facts, and events that occurred during the 18 month construction period for building the new high school:     In 1969, the Board of Ed refinanced their debt to pay for furniture for Mendham High. I am glad they did this, as all us alumni wouldn't have been too thrilled hanging out in the empty lobby sitting on the floor! Just wouldn't have been the same!       In March 1969, the first truck load of steel is brought to the site!       Around May 1969, masonry work starts on the school.       In the Fall of 1969, the first principal for Mendham High is hired, even though school was still a year from opening. The new principal is Richard E. Matthews, who was head of Science at West Morris (Central), and also Head of Curriculum. He was principal for many years at Mendham.       At this time the school was being built, our area of New Jersey was still fighting some last efforts of evil-doers trying to build a new airport (jetport they called it then) in the Great Swamp in Morris County. If this jetport was built, it would have completely industrialized and probably urbanized Mendham and surrounding areas, let alone completely wipe certain areas of Harding, Chatham, and especially the pretty farmlands of Long Hill (Passaic Township) off the map! Thank goodness the jetport was finally defeated once and for all (I hope!).       There was a contest at West Morris (Central) to have the students think of a name for the new high school. But I guess no one thought of anything good, since we still all call it Mendham High School to this day!       In 1969, there was an attempt by Mendham Township to merge together Mendham Borough and Mendham Township schools, and then try to merge the still not-finished new Mendham high school into it, too! Basically they wanted to steal it from the West Morris Regional district! Safe to say, it never went through, the Borough voted it down.       It was decided around 1969 that there would be no senior class when Mendham High opened in 1970. That way, the current juniors at West Morris (Central) could be seniors in the school they knew. And apparently this really happened, as Mendham High had no graduating senior class in June 1971! Juniors ruled that year!       Many teachers were transferred from West Morris Central to work at the new Mendham high school. I have no idea if this was something to be dreaded or requested! Here is a list of some (but not all) of the teachers and staff transferring from West Morris: Mrs. Pflug, Ms. O'Reilly, Mrs. Goldman, Mrs. Hoyt, Mr. Vintschger, Mr. Soldovieri, Mr. Krape, Mr. Mills, Mr. Valin, Mr. Cassidy, Ms. Larsen, Mr. Freeman, Mr. Candisky, Mr. Gabrielson, D. Kimmel, Mrs. Bradshaw, Mrs. Payne, Mr. Swank, Mrs. Dean, and Mrs. Cacchio. (Hearing these names must be quite a "blast from the past" to us alumni!). September 8, 1970 - The School is Open! Construction was apparently completed in time, as the school does open to students in early September, 1970. The final cost was $3,050,000 dollars to build the place. I think about 600 students started the first year, with only freshman, sophmores, and juniors attending. Mendham High School, 1970 So our Long, Sad Story Concludes here. All us West Morris Mendham High School alumni were suppose to attend school in an ultra-modern (but windowless) building, but instead had to make do with a boring boxy factory-looking place with a huge chimney and orange decor. But the many renovations since (especially the big one in 1991's) have made the school far less boring nowadays and completely changed the look. But what could have been if the original plans went through! So if you are an alumni, aren't you glad you know all this years after you were there? The end! Click here to return to the top of the page, since you are a really long ways from there! Click here to return to the Main Page This page is part of oldmendhamhigh.com (A Mendham High History & Alumni Site) The absolute address of this page is http://home.att.net/~suelighthouse/factory.html Last Updated: December 2007 Our Main Page |  The De-Evolution of the Grove! |  The New Construction 2006-2008 |  Welcome Back to 1982! (900 Shows Main Page) |  Journeyman Covers Page |  No Place Like Home! (The Book) |  Old Blurry Photos of the School |  Old High School Stuff found in my House |  Journeyman Photos #1 (places and things) |  More Journeyman Photos #2 (more places and things) |  Mendham HS Official Site |  Official Mendham High Alumni Site     Send mail: Email at: suelighthouse@att.net Sue Willis (Class of '88) - local librarian (as only a librarian would ever be motivated enough to research this thing!), also member Mendham Borough Historical Society (they helped me on the research, thanks again guys!)