Sept. 2 Ribbon Cutting for Jack Abrams School
A formal ribbon cutting to commemorate the renaming of Huntington Intermediate School in honor of Jack Abrams will be held on Tues. Sept. 2 at 3 p.m. A reception will follow in the school courtyard. The public is invited to attend.
At their June 9th meeting, the Huntington School Board unanimously renamed the building Jack Abrams Intermediate School, effective July 1. Mr. Abrams will be at the ribbon cutting event, along with school trustees, students, teachers, district officials, PTA members and local residents.
Mr. Abrams, who currently serves as curator of the district’s School Heritage Museum, 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 in Korea and graduating from New Paltz Teacher’s College with a B.S. in Education, Mr. Abrams began his career at the Newbridge Road School in North Bellmore before joining the Huntington school family in 1955. Along the way he added advanced degrees from Hofstra and Columbia.
The first of many assignments saw Mr. Abrams work as a sixth grade teacher at Woodbury Avenue Grammar School. As the years unfolded, his Huntington career included stints as elementary science coordinator and principal of Nathan Hale, Woodbury Avenue, Washington, Village Green, Toaz, Finley’s 6th school and Woodhull. He served the last six years of his career as principal of Jefferson Elementary School before officially retiring in 1987. It wasn’t long before he was busy establishing the district’s museum, which today is filled with about 1,500 items.
The building now known as Jack Abrams Intermediate School has a 40-year history. 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, the building long called Huntington El, is the youngest 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 of 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.
During the school’s construction, several private homes were demolished after eminent domain proceedings, allowing for more spacious grounds surrounding the building.
Jack Abrams 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 full rooms and several smaller spaces. The entrance to this wing is located on Tower Street. It also has its own parking lot.
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