School Board Asked to Rename Woodhull School after Jack Abrams
A group of school community members led by fifth grade teacher Keith Meyers has asked the Huntington School Board to rename Woodhull Intermediate School after retired teacher and principal Jack Abrams. The group made a presentation on the topic at the last meeting of trustees on Jan. 28.
“Jack has been a dedicated employee of our district for more than fifty years,” states a memo sent by the group to Huntington faculty and support staff. “To know him and his tremendous enthusiasm is a privilege. Though he has held many different titles over the years, his name is synonymous with Woodhull because he was the principal there for many years and he started our district museum in the library at that school, which became known as our first Heritage Room.”
Numerous members of the school community spoke in support of the proposal. Trustees were non-committal on the request, indicating that more study was needed.
Construction began on Nathaniel Woodhull Elementary School in 1966. The building opened for the 1967-68 school year and immediately absorbed students from Roosevelt Elementary School, which was then closed and demolished as part of the Huntington Station Urban Renewal Project, making way for the construction of what is today Huntington Intermediate School.
Woodhull has been used in a variety of configurations, from housing grades K-6, to serving as a kindergarten center and administrative complex to today’s use as a school for fourth through sixth graders. The site is approximately ten acres in size.
Following community input, trustees on the Huntington School Board at the time named the building after Nathaniel Woodhull, one of the legendary figures in Long Island history. He served as a general during the Revolutionary War and worked closely with George Washington, heading the militias of Suffolk and Queens.
Born December 20, 1722 in Mastic, Mr. Woodhull married a sister of General William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He played a key role in numerous battles leading up to America’s independence, including the Battle of Long Island and another famous one in Ticonderoga, among others.
Mr. Woodhull was elected president of the first Provincial Congress that met in New York in 1775 and was re-elected to the position the following year. He died September 20, 1776 as the result of wounds suffered in battle against the British on August 28 of that year. One can only wonder what role he would have played in America’s birth as an independent nation if his life had not been cut short.
Prior to his death, he was held prisoner in filthy conditions and his injured arm had to be amputated. It was said that he conducted himself with personal courage, judgment and firmness of character, commanding both “the respect and obedience of his troops.” He is buried in Brookhaven and is widely referred to as Long Island’s greatest Revolutionary War hero.
Mr. Abrams was born during the Great Depression and is a graduate of Andrew Jackson High School in St. Albans, Queens. After serving in the U.S. Army Special Service and Signal Corps and earning a B.S. degree in education from New Paltz Teacher’s College, he cut his teeth at the Newbridge Road School, in North Bellmore before joining the Huntington school family in 1955.
His first of many assignments here saw him as a sixth grade teacher at Woodbury Avenue Grammar School. As the years unfolded, his long career in Huntington took him to the post of elementary science coordinator before advancing to the principal’s office at Nathan Hale, Woodbury Avenue, Washington, Village Green, Toaz, and Woodhull schools. He served the last six years of his career as principal at Jefferson Elementary before “officially” retiring in 1987.
Today, Mr. Abrams serves the district as curator of the School Heritage Museum, which he founded upon his retirement from full-time administrative duties. The Museum is located in Huntington High School and contains thousands of school artifacts, some dating back hundreds of years.
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