HADLEY — Before the former Hooker School is demolished this spring to make way for a new town library, former students and teachers, as well as others who have called it home, will be able to reflect on its nearly 100 years of history.
“Remembering the Hooker School Building, 1921-2019” is the title of the Hadley Historical Society-sponsored event set for March 10 at 2 p.m. at the 46 Middle St. site.
Alan Weinberg, a member of the trustees for the Goodwin Memorial Library, said because Hooker is an historic building, the Massachusetts Historical Commission required a lengthy report about it before it comes down.
“As part of that whole process we thought it would be good to have an event to document the building and remember the school,” Weinberg said. “People sharing memories is a proper sendoff and good-bye to the building.”
From 1921 through spring 1996, Hooker, named after Civil War General Joseph Hooker, was an elementary school, with children in kindergarten through fourth grades being educated there. A 1950 addition doubled the size of the building and added a kitchen and cafeteria.
Both it and Russell School, which still stands across the street from Town Hall, closed in spring 1996 to make way for the Hadley Elementary School on River Drive.
Since 1998, following a small-scale renovation, Hooker has been the site of the Hadley Senior Center, along with other departments, including the Council on Aging, Hadley Media, the Planning Board, Parks and Recreation, the Historical Commission and the town nurse.
A new senior center will be built in the field behind Hooker School, starting in March, while groundbreaking for the new library is expected in June, about a month after the building is demolished.
Friends of the Goodwin Library and Friends of the Council on Aging are co-sponsoring the event.
“We will have all materials, photos, documents and memories of the school for people to see,” Weinberg said.
Organizers have already put together a slide show, and Weinberg expects that Hadley Media will film the event.
A Hooker School file and DVD will be put in the archive at both the Hadley Historical Society and the new town library.
Weinberg said plans are underway for preserving a plaque that graces the entrance, and bricks from the building could be saved and then sold as mementos to raise money for the Edward Hopkins Educational Foundation.
While still in the planning stage, Weinberg expects many will want to come to the event to get one last look at the building and share their thoughts.
“Multiple generations have gone to that school and still live in town,” Weinberg said. “It’s been an important part of the town center.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
