History of Place – Ossining High School

Ossining High School was constructed in 1929 to meet the growing student population needs of the town of Ossining. The school has served the community and fostered a high level of student learning and development. Through this learning environment, students have been empowered to improve themselves and the space itself. Over the years, it has been the site for many celebrations and conflicts. Many of the celebrations of this space are the numerous activities and clubs that exist to serve a wide range of student interests. The large campus allows for many different locations for students to accomplish this. With respect to this change, the school was also the location of racial protests. During the late 60’s and early 70’s there were 4 separate incidents of these. These incidences lead to changes in how the town of Ossining determined the school boundaries of their elementary schools.

As time passed, the school needed to accommodate more students. The response to this was to make major additions to the existing school. Four additions have been made to the school in the last 90 years with a 5^th addition expected. Many of the classroom spaces have changed to fit various needs. Classrooms that were once used for home economics are now used by the special ed classes. Science classes that were once all on the third floor were relocated to the science wing addition. Up until the early 80’s, the current weight room was used as a rifle range! Other classrooms in the school have fallen out of use. In the school tower, two different classrooms have fallen into disrepair and have not been used in decades. In addition to the fire hazard the classrooms would pose there is also asbestos present. Picture of the rooms can be seen below.

I had attended OHS from 2009-2013 and it was there that my passion for science grew. Many of my fellow classmates were supportive of one another and at any school function there was high attendance. Attending the school with this type of environment made be feel welcome and helped be grow as a person.

Now 9 years later, I am a substitute teacher at the school. Many of my teachers are now my co-workers and I have used my experience at the school to help the current students with their life and academic worries. During my time there, the student population was approximately 1200 with my grade consisting of 300 students. The school population has now increased to 1600 students. To get a sense of how much the school has changed, the picture below shows an OHS yearbook from 1929 next to a yearbook from 2017.

OHS continues to provide a quality education for the student who attend. It is still a place for learning and creative thinking as it was when it was first constructed. The hallways have various plaques that remind students of the history of this building.