Woodbury Avenue School Historic Marker to be Unveiled June 14

By Michael Kornfeld

Several generations of students attended the Woodbury Avenue School on Woodbury Road in Huntington over the span of nearly fifty years – from 1923 – 1971.  Although the school has been closed for more than 40 years and the property on which it stood is now home to a townhouse complex, the school’s alumni, parents, teachers and administrators have never forgotten it.

Former students from the elementary school created a website (woodburyavenue.org) a number of years ago and continue to actively maintain it. A school reunion in August 2006 – featuring a dinner-dance, picnic and softball game — attracted more than 100 alumni, teachers and administrators – with some traveling great distances to be there. And alumni have chipped in to pay for a Town of Huntington historical marker that will be unveiled at the site of their beloved former school on Saturday, June 14 at 1 p.m.

“To think that after all these years the school remains in the hearts of the alumni is a testament to the teachers and principals who were so dedicated to our educations,” said alum Brian Hansen, who now serves as curator of the school district’s Huntington Heritage Museum, where hundreds of photographs, memorabilia and artifacts of the school’s history can be found. “One would be hard-pressed to find alumni as dedicated as those of the Woodbury Avenue School alumni,” Hansen added.

He noted that Jack Whitney, a  former teacher at Woodbury Avenue School and its principal from 1965-1970, is expected to join a number of the school’s alumni and former faculty members for the ceremony on June 14 at Innsbrook Court off Woodbury Road (just south of High Street and Soundview Road). Huntington Superintendent of Schools James W. Polansky, Huntington Town Historian Robert Hughes and Hansen also will make brief remarks. Afterwards, an informal gathering of Woodbury Avenue School community members will take place at Finley’s of Green Street.

The stately brick edifice that was Woodbury Avenue School stood near the intersection of Soundview and Woodbury Roads in Huntington Village. The school initially housed students in grades K-8, before the opening of the district’s first junior high school in 1939, at which time it became a K-6 elementary school. For decades, most students either walked to or were dropped off at the school by their parents. Despite large-scale protests and a major petition drive by the tightly-nit Woodbury Avenue School community, the school closed its doors in June 1971. The building was leased to BOCES for several years before being sold to the Baptist Church for use as the Huntington Christian School. The church later sold the property to developers who had the school building demolished in 1987 and erected a condominium complex on the site.

Woodbury Avenue School may be long gone, but it lives on in the memories of the many students who attended it over the years and the teachers, administrators and other staff members who worked there.

(Photo of Woodbury Avenue School in 1971 by Laurie Lucey)