Cordley Elementary to celebrate 100th anniversary

photo by: Richard Gwin

The Cordley School orchestra plays in front of the school in 1929.

Tudy Youngberg remembers when Cordley Elementary School was “just a box”: a two-story red brick building with no kitchen and a gym in the basement. As a girl, Youngberg entered the school’s double doors wearing a feed-sack dress and wool stockings, and next week she’ll enter those doors again.

Youngberg, 79, is one of several Cordley alumni planning a return to the school. On Sunday, Cordley will commemorate 100 years since it opened with a community celebration and carnival on the school grounds. It was those grounds that Youngberg and her classmates played kickball, hopscotch and marbles on, and where Youngberg said she made several friendships she maintains today.

photo by: Richard Gwin

The main entrance on the south side of Cordley Elementary School is shown in this photo from September 2015.

photo by: Richard Gwin

The Cordley School orchestra plays in front of the school in 1929.

“That school was central to my life,” Youngberg said, adding how grateful she is that it is still operating.

After talk of potential closings, Lawrence voters approved a $92.5 million bond issue in 2013 to improve all the district’s schools, particularly the older elementary schools in central and east Lawrence. The renovation of Cordley was completed last year, but the core of the school — what stood when Youngberg attended — still stands.

Exterior walls of the original building were incorporated into new construction, and the original wood floors remain in the school’s office. What was before the north facade of the building stands as an interior wall facing the school’s new media center. In the basement, the old gym — chalkboards still intact from when it doubled as a classroom — also remains.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Dr. Richard Cordley

As part of Cordley’s anniversary celebration, there will be school tours, a display of historic school artifacts, a video both to record visitors’ memories and panel discussions with former students and staff.

“We’re very proud of our school, and this is a major milestone,” said Sally Zogry, co-chair of the event committee. “And I’m really looking forward to seeing the alums come back.”

Youngberg attended Cordley from 1942 to 1949, leaving just a couple years before the school’s first addition. Before that, Youngberg said the basement gym was split up into classrooms and some students had class in a room above a nearby grocery store. With no kitchen, the students had an hour break in the middle of the day so they could go home for lunch. The memories Youngberg has of her neighborhood school are all fond ones, she said.

“The kids really knew one another and our parents knew one another,” she said. “…I felt like I was friends with everybody.”

The school also has ties to Lawrence history. It was named for the Rev. Richard Cordley, a Massachusetts abolitionist who was new to Lawrence in 1857. When Cordley first moved to town, he lived in a house on Vermont Street about two blocks from where the school now stands. Cordley was the pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church for nearly 40 years and also served on the school board. He died in 1904, and the school was later named in his honor.

Paul Carttar, 62, who attended Cordley from 1959 to 1965, is also looking forward to the 100th anniversary celebration. Carttar, who will be the moderator for one of the panel discussions next week, said that the school felt like a community to him, and he still feels a connection with his former elementary classmates.

“This wasn’t just a place you go for six hours of the day, nine months of the year,” he said. “It was an alternative community and home.”

That sense of community is what organizers of the event would like to celebrate. Zogry, who has two children who attend Cordley, said having the event open to the public is key.

“We feel like we’ve been a strong component and representative of our community,” Zogry said.

Youngberg said she will “absolutely” attend the celebration and is looking forward to seeing some of the classmates whom she has remained friends with over the years.

The Cordley 100th Celebration and Fun Fest will be from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 24 at the school, 1837 Vermont St., and it is open to the public.