Greytown School, 1957

By Don Farmer

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This aerial photograph of Greytown School taken in 1957 will be of interest to those who went to the school at that time – and to those who attend the school today.

The street in the foreground is East St and the photograph depicts most of the main school area running back to the unformed road then known as the stock route which is now Reading St.

To the far left of that unformed roadway is the gravel driveway leading into the berry fruit farm managed by Gordon Murphy.

The building immediately in front of that driveway was a school prefab containing two classrooms and to its right is the old woodwork room with a small garden shed not far away.

It was used for storing garden tools (the garden plots are clearly visible).

Alongside the gardens is the Greytown District High School block with the L-shaped section of it being the home economics area (mostly used for cooking classes.)

The concrete area was used for outside assembly and for morning exercise sessions in winter months.

Then comes the primary school classroom block (now demolished) with the school bell mounted in front, above the entrance foyer.

Behind that block are the old coal shed (on the left) and to the right were toilets and PE equipment sheds.

The two open air classrooms remain as does the school swimming pool in the right foreground, with changing sheds.

Two of three school buses which ferried out of town children to school can be seen in the photograph with bike sheds nearby.

The buses were housed across the road in sheds owned by the bus contractor Harold Peterson.

There was no administration block in 1957 or school assembly hall.

The small building in the centre of the frame in the school grounds was the school dental clinic.