Huntington History Lesson
A recent review of the minutes of a May 1954 Huntington Board of Education meeting turned up an interesting item under the heading "Selection of Names for New Elementary Schools:"
"Supt. [Carl] Warren reported that on the contest with the grade schools for selecting a name for the three elementary schools he had the following to report to make: The majority vote went for the names of Flower Hill, Southdown and Whitson. He said that the committee recommended that the schools in the Station are to be named after presidents and the schools in the Village area be named after locations.
"A motion was made and seconded that the Village schools would be named the Flower Hill School and the Southdown School and that the school in the Station be named as the Washington School.
"The motion was unanimously carried."
It should be noted that Washington School is located on Whitson Road, thus the students' desire to name it Whitson School.
It is interesting to note that Roosevelt Elementary School on Lowndes Avenue in Huntington Station was closed in January 1967 and demolished a year later. It was replaced by Huntington Elementary School. For some unknown reason, the building was not named after a U.S. president despite the policy established in May 1954.