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best kind in use. The rooms are alle wainscoted from the floor to a height of about two feet, and under the windows to their botton, about three feet.
"The halls are wide and connodius. At each end is a foot-wariner, one foot wide and five feet long, set in the floor... [with) two direct radiators in each hall. At each end of the lower hall are wide stairways, with landings half way up, leading to the upper rooms, which are exact duplicates of those below. The floors are all of Georgia pine...
"The architect is Mr. Cornelius J. sloat; Robert Lemon, mason; E. McWilliams, carpenter; Trask & Carinichael of New York city, heating and
ventilating. Subcontractors for the brick work were Lovely & Van Emburgh. The school cost about $15,000 "exclusive of furniture."
Middletown schools reopened January 3, with the exception of Orchard Street School whose students were excused until the new school building opened. Benton Avenue School opened January 8, 1884. At the time of World War II, it was converted to the Middletown National Defense Training School to train workers for the defense industry. After the war, it was again used as a school until it closed in June, 1963. The building was used for several other purposes until it was condemned by the city in the late 1970's. During the early morning of January 8, 1980, the building was badly damaged by a suspicious fire. It was demolished shortly thereafter.
Linden Avenue School opened September 3, 1889. Built by the Lindsey Brothers, it was described as "pleasantly situated on a little hill just beyond Hasbrouck Street. It is a large and substantial brick structure and the view from its broad Queen Ann piazza is magnificent...
"There are four large, airy rooms, each of them twenty-four by thirty-two feet, two upstairs and two down. They, as well as the building itself, are finished throughout in Georgia pine and there is every indication that the work has been done in a
conscientious manner."
An addition to the school was built 1912-13. During the late 1960's, the school was converted to a teacher's resource center, and was abandoned by the mid-1970's.
As recounted earlier, the old Wallkill Academy was found to be unsafe and was ordered torn down for a new high school to be