‘Not the first time’

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1:12 PM Friday, March 12, 2010

I have been following the newspaper articles regarding the Taft School property with interest. The old adage “what goes around comes around” is appropriate. This is not the first time this school property has been traded.

In the 1950s, the land where Taft School was built was owned by the city and was the Mary Oglesby Park. The school district owned the land at the corner of North Main Street and Manchester Avenue where the old North School, Middletown’s first public school, was located.

The city and the school district swapped land. The schools received the Mary Oglesby Park to use for the Taft School site and the city built a public parking lot on the former old North School property.

In one fell swoop, a great deal of Middletown history disappeared. A founding family name, Oglesby, was gone from public property and the site of the first free public school left the school district.

Norman Hayes

Middletown

Editor’s note: The letter writer is a former Middletown City Schools superintendent and local historian.

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