Youngest School in the District Built with Community in Mind
Huntington Elementary School was built near the site of the former Lowndes Avenue and Roosevelt Elementary Schools. Erected in 1968-69 as part of the Huntington Station Urban Renewal Project, Huntington El, as it was long called, is the youngest building in the Huntington School District.
Lowndes Avenue School, the original structure on the site, was built in 1913 for $58,000. Like other such schools in the district, it served students ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade. In 1927 an addition was added at a cost of $99,409 and the building was renamed Roosevelt School in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. When Robert K. Toaz Junior High School opened in 1939, Roosevelt became a true elementary school, housing grades K-6.
Roosevelt was an imposing structure, by any measure, and it featured separate entrances for boys and girls. It was demolished during the 1967-68 school year and construction on the current building started soon after.
When Huntington Elementary School first opened in 1969, it was used as a junior high school. Toaz was closed that year for renovations after a fire badly damaged the auditorium and surrounding areas. The following year Huntington El began service as a K-6 school. It has served various grade levels since and today houses students in grades 4-6 as is known as Huntington Intermediate School.
The structure was built to also serve as a community center, with a full auditorium, an oversized gym, several multi-purpose rooms, an especially large cafeteria and library and a courtyard featuring an impressive amphitheater with a series of large built-in concrete steps for outdoor instruction or performances.
The interior layout provides relatively easy access to all facilities, a plus for evening use. During the construction of the school, several private homes were also demolished through eminent domain proceedings to allow for more spacious grounds surrounding the building.
Huntington Intermediate School is a two story building erected on a 13 acre site. There are currently 29 rooms of more than 550 square feet that are used for instructional purposes. Of these, 21 are utilized for classroom teaching and another eight are devoted to music, math/ESL, art, SEARCH, reading, computer and remedial instruction.
Smaller instructional spaces are used for other academic classes as well as speech therapy, music lessons, a social worker and a psychologist. The large gym can be divided into three smaller spaces.
The Huntington School District’s central administration offices take up an entire wing of the school, amounting to eight more full rooms and several smaller spaces. The entrance to this wing is located on Tower Street. It also has its own parking lot.
According to a long range planning study completed last winter by Western Suffolk BOCES, Huntington Intermediate School operated at 90 percent of its capacity of 550 students during the 2006-07 school year.
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