Hail to Cove, all hail
Stopping by the church on Thursday after my doctor appointment, I picked up a copy of the Sunday worship bulletin for tomorrow, then sat at a table in Battin Hall and let my computer download a long software update while an HNES kindergarten class watched a movie. A long update won't take here where we are because the WiFi connection keeps cutting off and on, whereas that in Battin Hall stays reliably connected.
Done, I drove over to the school, which has a new roof, and some of the aluminum cladding that I had installed over the summer of 2010 has been ripped down, noticeable above, the raw wood at the roofline.
Went inside and walked through to see what is going on. One is, the chimney in my first grade classroom, bricks showing, a touch of history. Showing in several classrooms in the old original part of the school building, I hope they still show after the restoration is complete, but not an issue if not.
Another is that the oak floor is gone, holes cut as necessary in the subfloor, and under a window I snapped a picture of the old piping for the steam radiator system that I remember in the building as a great new feature in the 1940s.
Thinking though, I could not remember for sure whether, when I started first grade in September 1941, we had the space heaters or the new steam radiators; but I remember now. What is now the "coaches office" on the west side of the building looking out onto William's Field, is an outside-entry room at ground level (it may even have a dirt floor, I don't remember), that was the boiler room for the steam radiator heating system. Not there originally, that room was part of the new construction, that more than doubled the building southward in the 1940s, during the Second World War. So, my tentative impression was correct, that the old original stove was in the classroom. I do recall that the steam system did an interesting job of drying out the air uncomfortably in classroom, but that now the whole room was warm in winter, not just the space around the space heater. I also noticed that the chimney rises all the way to the roof, but of course the old chimneys were removed and no longer stick up from the roof. Vague, but I also recall that the steam boiler, long defunct, was taken out after we got the building as Holy Nativity School Foundation.
Down that memory lane, I remember at some point of re-roofing my own house, after we had central air conditioning installed in the Old Place, having chimneys cut off below the roofline. I don't remember how we adjusted for gas logs and gas heater fumes to exit the attic, but that was taken care of.
Walking down the hall past the entryway, I noticed that the pictures are still there, and the plaque, of my Class of 1949, our beloved teacher Miss Virginia Parker (I officiated her funeral service in St Thomas by the Sea Episcopal Church, Laguna Beach (where Miss Parker was a member and long ago was the musician, piano player), while I was the priest there from 2004 to 2009, and later with her niece, scattered Miss Parker's ashes on the Gulf surf early one morning), under her, a plaque with our class member names, our 8th grade class picture, and though I didn't try to read the plaque in the dark, I think it's a list of all the teachers and principals we had our eight years at Cove School. Robert will know. Looking at our class picture, the tall boy leaning against the right-most white column is Robert Padgett. I am behind Robert, a bit shorter, the boy with black hair looking over Robert's right shoulder.
Outside again, the hurricane tore away bricks at the upper, roof level of the northeast corner of the Bill Lloyd Building, that has been restored. I don't know what is planned to replace the roof of the walkway between the main building and the auditorium chapel cafeteria building that was added in 1950 and now is named for Beverly McDaniel, longtime Head of School and a board member of the Holy Nativity School Foundation. I think the onsite reconstruction superintendent told me, the last time I was there a week or two ago, that either a peaked east and west cover or a cover similar to what the hurricane tore away would be installed there.
A good day. Stop at the downtown post office to check the mail. Back across Hathaway Bridge, stop in Breakfast Point at the new house that's under construction for Malinda, Ray, Britany and Lilly.
Pax &c
T+
Done, I drove over to the school, which has a new roof, and some of the aluminum cladding that I had installed over the summer of 2010 has been ripped down, noticeable above, the raw wood at the roofline.
Went inside and walked through to see what is going on. One is, the chimney in my first grade classroom, bricks showing, a touch of history. Showing in several classrooms in the old original part of the school building, I hope they still show after the restoration is complete, but not an issue if not.
Another is that the oak floor is gone, holes cut as necessary in the subfloor, and under a window I snapped a picture of the old piping for the steam radiator system that I remember in the building as a great new feature in the 1940s.
Thinking though, I could not remember for sure whether, when I started first grade in September 1941, we had the space heaters or the new steam radiators; but I remember now. What is now the "coaches office" on the west side of the building looking out onto William's Field, is an outside-entry room at ground level (it may even have a dirt floor, I don't remember), that was the boiler room for the steam radiator heating system. Not there originally, that room was part of the new construction, that more than doubled the building southward in the 1940s, during the Second World War. So, my tentative impression was correct, that the old original stove was in the classroom. I do recall that the steam system did an interesting job of drying out the air uncomfortably in classroom, but that now the whole room was warm in winter, not just the space around the space heater. I also noticed that the chimney rises all the way to the roof, but of course the old chimneys were removed and no longer stick up from the roof. Vague, but I also recall that the steam boiler, long defunct, was taken out after we got the building as Holy Nativity School Foundation.
Down that memory lane, I remember at some point of re-roofing my own house, after we had central air conditioning installed in the Old Place, having chimneys cut off below the roofline. I don't remember how we adjusted for gas logs and gas heater fumes to exit the attic, but that was taken care of.
Walking down the hall past the entryway, I noticed that the pictures are still there, and the plaque, of my Class of 1949, our beloved teacher Miss Virginia Parker (I officiated her funeral service in St Thomas by the Sea Episcopal Church, Laguna Beach (where Miss Parker was a member and long ago was the musician, piano player), while I was the priest there from 2004 to 2009, and later with her niece, scattered Miss Parker's ashes on the Gulf surf early one morning), under her, a plaque with our class member names, our 8th grade class picture, and though I didn't try to read the plaque in the dark, I think it's a list of all the teachers and principals we had our eight years at Cove School. Robert will know. Looking at our class picture, the tall boy leaning against the right-most white column is Robert Padgett. I am behind Robert, a bit shorter, the boy with black hair looking over Robert's right shoulder.
Outside again, the hurricane tore away bricks at the upper, roof level of the northeast corner of the Bill Lloyd Building, that has been restored. I don't know what is planned to replace the roof of the walkway between the main building and the auditorium chapel cafeteria building that was added in 1950 and now is named for Beverly McDaniel, longtime Head of School and a board member of the Holy Nativity School Foundation. I think the onsite reconstruction superintendent told me, the last time I was there a week or two ago, that either a peaked east and west cover or a cover similar to what the hurricane tore away would be installed there.
A good day. Stop at the downtown post office to check the mail. Back across Hathaway Bridge, stop in Breakfast Point at the new house that's under construction for Malinda, Ray, Britany and Lilly.
Pax &c
T+