Davey Elementary School History
Written by:
Jon Ridinger, Davey alumnus
When discussing the history of any school it’s always important to understand there is a history of the school—the organization—as well as the building that organization is housed in. Sometimes the two parts are the same, but for Davey Elementary, that is certainly not the case as the school organization carries the lineage of Central Elementary School, while the building it is housed in has also served as a high school, junior high, and middle school. Because of that, Davey can be considered both the oldest and youngest elementary school in the district, while the building that houses it is the second oldest building in the district and oldest still used as a school (the board offices at the old DePeyster School date to 1888 and 1920).
Photos of the “Union School” or “Old Central” on the corner of Park Avenue & N. Mantua Street, likely in the 1920s or late 1910s (left) and 1930s or 40s (right). It opened in 1869 and was razed in early 1953.The Building
The current home of Davey Elementary, opened in 1922 as Theodore Roosevelt High School and later served as Davey Junior High School from 1959 to 1993 and as Davey Middle School from 1993 to 1999. After a year-long renovation, it opened in 2000 as Davey Elementary School, assuming the place of Central Elementary.
Theodore Roosevelt High School
The Davey Elementary School building dates to the late 1910s when the Kent Board of Education recognized the need for a new and separate high school building and were able to get a bond issue passed to fund its construction. Originally, they intended to build the high school along South Water Street and Day Street, where the new city hall and main fire station are now located. Two consultants from Teachers College, Columbia University—Dr. N.L. Englehardt and Dr. George D. Strayer—however, recommended they not place the school at that location because, it would restrict the ability to expand the building with the forecasted growth in enrollment, prevent the inclusion of athletic fields, and its proximity to the railroad tracks would lead to both excessive noise as well as soot from the trains, making for a poor learning environment.
After the report, the Board started looking for a better site for the new high school. “Major” Roy H. and Jessie Smith (namesakes of the Roy Smith Shelter house, Majors Lane, and the nearby Jessie Smith Nature Preserve) offered to donate several acres near the intersection of Park Avenue and North Prospect Street if that site was considered acceptable. Dr. Englehardt visited the new site in November 1920 and gave his endorsement of it, saying “Relatively few communities of the size of Kent have high school sites which may be considered better than the one which you have chosen for Kent.” Later, the board acquired some additional property from John Davey and others to complete the 10-acre site.
The initial design of the building and site were almost perfectly symmetrical. Later modifications, however, were made retaining the symmetrical front façade, but discarding it on the rear of the building, likely due to the topography of the site and other modifications to the design. Construction began in May 1921 on the “new Kent High School”, and it was completed enough that by February 10, 1922, it was able to host basketball games in the gymnasium, which boasted seating for some 700 fans and featured a three-sided balcony and large windows.
Its capacity easily made it the largest gymnasium in town as Kent State was still three years away from opening their own gym. Prior to that, the high school played basketball games at the gym of the Kent Congregational Church, which now houses Bell Tower Brewing Co. The opening of the new gym featured the school’s band, followed by a girls basketball game between Kent High and Kent Normal High, and a boys basketball game between the same two schools. A few years later, the gym hosted at least one game for the Kent State men’s basketball team when Kent State hosted Spencerian Business College in March 1925.
“The gymnasium boasted seating for some 700 fans and featured a three-sided balcony and large windows. Its capacity easily made it the largest gymnasium in town.”
The remainder of the building was completed by May 1922 and the new auditorium, with seating for over 800 people, hosted the Kent High School senior class play on May 12, followed by the dedication of the World War I memorial in the main entrance on May 14. Later, it hosted a joint baccalaureate service with Kent High School and Kent Normal High School (later called Kent State High) on June 4 and then the Kent High School commencement exercises for the class of 1922 on June 8.
1952 view of a basketball game showing the original balcony. This is looking towards the corner where the stairs are now located that connect the gym with the cafeteria.In August 1922, the Kent Board of Education decided to name the high school after former US President Theodore Roosevelt, who had died in 1919, making it one of several schools named for Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1920s. The first official day of school at the new building was September 5, 1922, and it was dedicated on September 22 and 23.
A football field and track and other athletic fields were included in the plans, though the football field was not completed until 1924 after several delays in 1923. The high school football team continued to play at DePeyster Field until then, dedicating the field in October 1924. It was named Bowers Field after F.W. Bowers, who was clerk of the Kent Board of Education.
Most seating was along the hillside, but a grandstand with a small press box was added to the opposite side of the field in the 1940s, along with lights. The grandstand itself stood until 2006. The field itself served as the home of Roosevelt’s football and track teams until the current Roosevelt Stadium opened in September 1970, and it hosted Kent State’s football team on multiple occasions in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including Kent State’s first ever homecoming football game in 1930.
“The building was completed in May 1922 and hosted the Kent High School senior class play on May 12.”
Bowers Field 1949 looking WNW from the corner of Davey School (Then TRHS)
A manual training building was built around 1937 behind the existing school as part of a Works Progress Administration project. Previously, manual training had been housed on the western end of the first floor. The former manual training area was then subdivided into individual classrooms. To satisfy the requirements for WPA funding, the manual training classrooms were a separate building. According to a 1993 Record-Courier article, the manual training building was designed to support a second floor.
“Bowers Field hosted Kent State’s first ever homecoming football game in 1930.”
The August 24, 1922 Kent Tribune article announcing the naming of the high school
Davey Junior High/Middle School
At various times in the 1930s, 40s, and early 50s, Roosevelt housed the eighth grade and sometimes the seventh grade along with the high school students, but by the 1950s, the site was proving to be too small for the growing student body. As a result, a new high school campus was planned along North Mantua Street. It opened in September 1959, while the former high school was rededicated as Davey Junior High School to house students in grades 7 through 9.
Some sources indicate the school was named for the Davey family, while others state it was named for Ohio Governor, Kent native, and Kent High School alumnus Martin L. Davey. That same year, 1959, the Kent City Schools officially welcomed students from Brady Lake and Franklin Township as those two districts were merged into Kent, adding two more elementary schools (Franklin and Williard) to the district.
Further enrollment growth in Kent during the 1960s and early 1970s led to new elementary schools (Holden and Walls to replace South and DePeyster, respectively) and additions to Longcoy Elementary, Roosevelt High School, and Davey Junior High. The addition to Davey added two floors of new classrooms, a new cafeteria, a new library, science labs, and a new gymnasium and locker room, which was initially known as the “girls’ gym” (later called the “upper gym”). It also connected the industrial arts/manual training classrooms to the rest of the building. Construction began in 1966 and it was completed in the fall of 1967. During the 1966-67 school year, several classes from Davey were housed at DePeyster School, which was vacant after the opening of Walls Elementary in the fall of 1966.
Davey Junior High housed the district’s seventh through ninth grades until 1978, when an addition at the current Roosevelt campus allowed for ninth graders to be moved to the high school again, making Davey a grades 7-8 school until 1986. That year, the district attempted to move all sixth graders to Davey, but realized the building could not support the full sixth grade enrollment. As a result, beginning in 1987, sixth graders from Holden and Walls attended Davey, while sixth graders at Franklin, Central, and Longcoy remained at their respective elementary schools. This arrangement remained in place through the conclusion of the 1998-1999 school year. As a result of the school housing grades 6-8, the name was finally changed to Davey Middle School in the fall of 1993 when the school formally adopted the team teaching structure, though talk of a new middle school was already well under way.
a page from the 1960s or 70s with the Davey medallion that was once on the sidewalk in front of the school, along with a mention of the namesake for the school as the Davey FamilyDavey Elementary School
Funding for a new middle school, later named Stanton Middle School, to house all of Kent’s sixth, seventh, and eighth grades was approved in 1996 and construction began in 1997. The bond issue to build Stanton Middle School also included funds for two small additions and various renovations at Roosevelt High School, along with money to renovate the former Davey Middle School for use as an elementary school. Although there were some early discussions on making Davey an intermediate school for all of the district’s fourth and fifth grades, it was ultimately decided to keep the Davey name attached to the building (rather than move it to the new middle school like had been done with Roosevelt in 1959) and to make it a neighborhood elementary school to take the place of Central.
The final classes at Davey Middle School were held in June 1999 and Stanton Middle School opened in August. Renovations began on the Davey building during the summer of 1999. Among the renovations at Davey included the partial restoration of two of the original six windows in the auditorium and reupholstering the auditorium chairs, reconfiguring the former upper gym, locker room, and industrial arts wing to house the new Kent Preschool, removal of the green and white lockers and replacing them with elementary school cubbies, renovation of the restrooms to be better sized for elementary students, renovation and reconfiguration of former the band room, practice rooms, and choir room for classroom and multi-sensory space, removal of the office spaces between the former science rooms and adding in-class restrooms for kindergarten rooms, general replacement of doors and windows, upgrades in lighting and climate control all over the school, and a stairlift and elevator to improve accessibility and help bring the building more in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The final classes at Central Elementary School were held in June 2000 and during the summer, staff moved classroom items and records to Davey.
Davey Elementary opened in August 2000, the newest Kent elementary school by name but carrying the legacy and lineage of Kent’s original elementary school.
Rick Ridinger, standing in the Davey Auditorium in 2000 during an open house held prior to the completion of the renovations. The auditorium had 2 of its original 6 windows partially restored, the floor refurbished, walls painted, radiators removed, and all the seats from the 1959 remodel were reupholstered and painted.