By Nila Harris
Having been a teacher in the Pendleton County School System for 34 years, I have always been interested in schools and the education of children. The Portland School seemed to be an enigma to me, however. No one talked about it. So of course, this made me more intrigued. Part of the reason that none of my early co-workers talked much about it, was that Portland School burned down on June 1, 1963. This was before I was born!
Portland Elementary School was located on Center Ridge Road near Demossville. It housed grades 1st-8th grades. At this time, there were several elementary/middle schools in the county and children who played basketball sometimes traveled to the different schools to play. According to former student Kenny Brownfield, the Portland Panthers would travel to McKinneysburg, Goforth, Morgan, Butler, and Mt. Auburn schools. Games played at Portland were held on the dirt basketball court outside. Baseball was played on the playground behind the school, but the children did not travel to the other schools for baseball games. Brownfield talked about how the school had a stage, and that Christmas plays were held there. They also sometimes watched movies. Some of his teachers included Ms. Massey, Corrine Britton, and Mrs. Zilpha Ruber. He also remembered Marcia Bowen and Florence Straub as cooks, and Straub’s husband Eddie as a janitor there. Sometime after being a student there, Brownfield remembers driving past the school the day of the fire. He met a ’55 Ford with 4 boys in it who tried to flag him down. Thinking that the boys were up to no good, he did not stop. When he got home, Brownfield saw that the school was on fire. He often wondered if those boys knew something about the fire.
According to Sheila Sorrell who attended Butler school at the time, some of Portland’s students came to Butler and others went to Goforth after the fire destroyed their school. Sorrell’s husband Barry was a student at Portland. B. Sorrell stated that school was still in session when the school burned down that June. The students met at Pendleton High School for a few days and held classes in PHS’s gymnasium.
Sorrell’s mother, Geneva Sorrell started her teaching career at Portland, right out of high school. She attended college on Saturdays to get her teaching degree. G. Sorrell taught at Portland until it burned, then went to Goforth, and ended her teaching career at Southern Elementary. Other things that B. Sorrell recalls about Portland were concessions at basketball games, the basketball court outside, and field day. He remembers that there was a big pit with safety bars on it. Some of the kids would slide down the bars, then get stuck in there and have to call for help. Sorrell talked about Ms. Turley as a teacher, as well as Mrs. Corrine Britton’s daughter, Ms. Workman. He said there was a teacher who was a former Marine, Mr. Adkins, who served as the basketball coach, and was a principal there at one time. Adkins’ 6 ft. 5” frame was an intimidating force to many youngsters.
Student Rodney Mason, only attended Portland in first grade. He recollects that recess was held in the back of the school in a wooded area. “They would play Army. Some of the big kids built shanties in the woods. Little girls were the nurses. The boys would get injured, and the girls would patch them up.”
Mason’s mother Mary Louise Mason remembered playing tag and roller skating in the basement during recess, when she was a student at Portland. She remembers Mrs. Ruber carrying around a paddle with holes in it. She also remembers Mrs. Sorrell. Her brother Tom Mason remembers Earline Bryant and Mrs. Sorrell and bus drivers Ralph and Rosella Spaulding. According to T. Mason, Mrs. Spaulding was afraid to back out onto the road and would let some of the older boys drive the bus!
It is long gone, but the foundation of Portland School still stands on Center Ridge Road, as a reminder of the long-lost school.
