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| Masson School, named for educator and civic leader Judson S. Masson |
The naming of buildings, highways, parks and other public properties by governments in honor of someone to honor their legacy has been going on for a long time.
It's a tricky business, not without its pitfalls.
In Lorain, the replacement of many of the old school buildings starting in the early 2000s as part of a $216 million project created a naming issue: would the new buildings retain the name of the ones they replaced – or receive an entirely new name?
As it turned out, the designation of new names was the preferred solution. And, the school system even abandoned its longstanding policy of not naming a school after someone that was still living.
Thus some local history was lost, even as new honors were bestowed.
One of those names – Masson School, named for Judson S. Masson – was abandoned when the old school was demolished and a new school went up in its location on Lorain's west side.
And it was back on Feb. 22, 1954 it was reported in the Lorain Journal (shown below) that civic leader Judson S. Masson had passed away two days earlier, paving the way for a new school to be named after him.
"Mr. Masson served 52 years in the teaching profession until his retirement in the summer of 1947," the article noted.
"His career in Lorain began as principal of Garden Avenue School in 1916 and he became assistant superintendent in 1922.
"Mr. Masson had a leading role in many community affairs but it was his enterprise in promoting good citizenship through the annual "Coming of Age" ceremonies that won him a place on the city's "Roll of Honor" in 1940.
"Mr. Masson was also responsible for the start of the "Town Meeting" in Lorain several years ago, which brought persons well versed in world affairs to Lorain as speakers.
"He has served continuously as a member of the board of trustees of the Lorain Public Library since 1944 and has served as president of the board since 1946."
As noted on a previous blog post, Mr. Masson had many other civic accomplishments, including helping to organize the Lorain Musical Arts Society and the Lorain Philharmonic Orchestra. He also wrote the first Lorain history book.
It sounds like Masson spent his life working to improve Lorain, first through his work as a teacher and school official, and later by way of his civic activities that included enhancing the city's cultural environment and strengthening its library.
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I've written a lot about Masson Elementary and Masson Junior High School, seeing as my siblings and I received a fine education there.
I did a four-part series about "Masson Memories" here, here, here and here; wrote about the school's demolition here and here; and reminisced about those infamous 'half day' sessions here and here.
4 comments:
As noted before, Masson may have been a fine Junior High, but it was never as cool as Hawthorne.
A Sherlock Holmes comic strip? I wonder how long it lasted, because I don't remember reading it. I would have read it, along with Superman, the Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Brick Bradford.
I always thought they shouldn't name anything nothing except where it is and what it is:
"Fifth Street Elementary School" works just fine, doesn't aggravate anybody, and leaves political favoritism out of it.
The story, lower left, of the wife murdering her husband: "Then I got excited and kept pulling the trigger." Yikes!
I see in the Athens Messenger, Jun 18, 1954 that she was charged with first degree murder but found guilty of first degree manslaughter by a six-woman, six-man jury and received a 0-20 year sentence. Leniency because she was the victim of spousal abuse. The article also notes she was "pretty, and dark-haired." She said she still loved her husband, of course.
I did not find any information on her release.
That article on the lady shooting her husband was misleading from the start.It states "automatic" rifle.An "automatic" rifle is just that,automatic.Where one pull of the trigger fully unloads the bullets in the firearm,unless it jams.Then it states that she got so excited that she kept on pulling the trigger and pumped him full of lead.Well if that was the case that means that the firearm is a "semi-automatic" firearm.Automatic and semi-automatic are two completely different types of firearms.This has lingered on for decades to where even the politicians get all worked up over wanting to ban all "automatic assault weapon" firearms when in fact they are actually talking about semi-automatic guns.
Easy there, Tex...
"Kept on pulling the trigger" could mean:
"Kept on pulling the trigger" once it was activated or
"Kept on pulling the trigger" over and over or
"Kept on pulling the Trigger" and the horse shot the guy in all the excitement.
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