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Moe explains: "The trend of building shopping mall-sized schools outside town alienates students, encourages sprawl, and impairs our sense of community. We can serve our students better by revitalizing our historic neighborhood schools. It's responsible, thoughtful, and fiscally sound."

To highlight the value and plight of historic neighborhood schools, the National Trust for Historic Preservation made them the theme of a poster contest. Nearly 150 Schools, school districts, and nonprofit groups submitted entries celebrating currently used community schools at least 50 years old.

And the Winners Are:

The three winning posters, and the ten additional posters that earned honorable mention, express the vitality and commitment these schools inspire in their communities. They also provide a cross section of the state of historic neighborhood schools in the United States today.

The Brookville Area School District, Pennsylvania, won first prize for its poster featuring Northside Elementary School (1939). Until recently, state maintenance regulations made improving Pennsylvania's historic schools difficult. Northside Elementary was almost closed when municipal authorities proposed replacing it with a new school outside of town.

This school and others received a new lease on life when preservationists were able to show the state that properly renovated historic schools could actually be safer than new schools.

Edison Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon, whose poster won second prize, exemplifies schools that serve not only their students, but the larger community as well.

Located near the center of town, Edison provides a focus for community activity: students who need special attention get help from volunteer tutors in the community. In exchange, after hours, the 1926 school grounds are an outdoor community center, bustling with bicycles, basketball games, and lively conversation.

Not far from the historic town square of Liberty, Missouri, stands third-prize winner, Franklin Elementary School (1939). Most of its students can walk to school.

On their way, they pass familiar community landmarks, including one of a few remaining eight-foot-high Statues of Liberty. These statues were dedicated by the Boy Scouts of America in celebration of their 40th anniversary in the 1950s.

Myers Grade School in Cannelton, Indiana, one of the entries to earn Honorable Mention, was the oldest school in the contest. Myers may also be the oldest continuously used school in Indiana.

With slate blackboards dating from the school's founding in 1868, and wiring for the digital age, Myers symbolizes the twin aspects of continuity and change that historic schools can offer their communities.

The Endangered Species

But, while schools like Myers may enjoy a secure view to the future, some of the schools celebrated in the contest see a far less certain view ahead. The historic schools of Corning, New York, for example, may soon be gone forever.

The Corning School Board wants to replace them all with a much larger school on 60 acres (24 hectares) outside of town. Sixty percent of the city's students now walk to school; if the new school is built, none of them will. People working to save the turn-of-the-century schools have convinced the board to postpone demolition and study alternatives. A vote is scheduled for June 2001.

Even more tenuous is the fate of Larry Donaldson Webster Elementary, in Collinsville, Illinois. The school board has voted to demolish Webster next year in favor of a new school building. Webster Elementary has seen its share of disaster: not long after it was founded in 1867, it was destroyed by fire; a few years after it was rebuilt, a tornado blew its roof off.

Expanded in 1914, Webster has been a solid anchor of the Collinsville community and a key feature of Collinsville's downtown ever since. Now the school's supporters are rallying to save it from this latest, human-made threat.

Older and historic schools, properly renovated and adequately maintained, can provide a first-class, state-of-the-art learning environment for new generations of students.

Historic neighborhood schools allow young people to walk to class, enjoy a smaller, more intimate facility with neighborhood friends, be surrounded by distinctive design, and be more closely connected with the community. Schools in random, isolated locations out of town afford little of this. They promote isolation, loss of identity, and sprawl.

The Policies at Fault

The roots of the trend toward mega-school sprawl, contends the National Trust, lie in public policies that promote building new schools on outlying, undeveloped land at the expense of small, walkable, community-centered schools in older neighborhoods.

Many state education departments either mandate or recommend huge sites for schools that smaller schools in established neighborhoods cannot meet. This puts pressure on communities to abandon existing schools, build large facilities outside of town, and promote sprawl.

State funding policies often fail to provide incentives to maintain schools properly, leading to problems with deferred maintenance. Building codes biased toward new construction are applied to older schools that could otherwise be upgraded to meet state-of-the-art standards.

In many states, school districts are exempt from zoning and planning laws, meaning they are free to build mega-schools in outlying areas. Real estate developers or property owners can influence local policy by donating land to school districts, thereby improving the value of new subdivisions and altering a community's growth patterns.

Possible Solutions

To save and renovate historic neighborhood schools, the National Trust is calling for the elimination of arbitrary acreage standards and policies or funding biases that favor new construction over renovation and good stewardship.

The trust advocates the completion of cost comparisons before new schools are built or existing ones abandoned. Local planning and zoning exemptions for school districts should be reexamined, it contends, and incentives established that encourage routine school building maintenance.

Furthermore, argues the trust, "Smart codes" legislation should be adopted to encourage school renovations while ensuring student safety. School administrators and policy makers should work to ensure that the majority of students can walk or bike to school. And education and training in school renovation techniques and options should be offered to school facilities managers and others.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting the irreplaceable. With more than a quarter million members nationwide, it provides leadership, education, and advocacy to save diverse historic places, and revitalize communities.

Katharine Logan is an assistant editor of ArchitectureWeek.

On their way to school in their town's historic center, students of Franklin Elementary School (1939) in Liberty, Missouri pass friends, neighbors, and community landmarks. Image: Franklin Elementary School With slate blackboards dating from its founding in 1868, Myers Grade School, Cannelton, Indiana, is also wired for the digital age. Image: Myers Grade School All the historic schools of Corning, New York may soon be gone forever, replaced by a new mega-school outside of town. Image: Clive Howard The school board has voted to demolish the historic Larry Donaldson Webster Elementary School in Collinsville, Illinois next year. Supporters are rallying to save it. Image: Cherrell J. Boyd Until mid-April of this year, Eakin Elementary School's future was uncertain, but preservationists and citizens have persuaded the city of Nashville, Tennessee to save the 1928 school. Image: Michael Nutt Since 1873, the Stewart Avenue Elementary School has anchored the heart of the Columbus, Ohio German Village neighborhood. Image: Ron Silvers; sponsored by The German Village Society Sequoia High School, Redwood City, California (1924) was the first high school built between San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. Image: Kristen Miller This 160-student Hilltop Elementary School (1927), Somersworth, New Hampshire, brings families into the learning process and offers learning opportunities year round. Sixty-five percent of its students walk to school. Image: Brandon Dally   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.