Alternative Center for Excellence
Encyclopedia
The Alternative Center for Excellence (ACE), formerly the Alternative Center for Education, is located in the former Locust Avenue School in Danbury
, Connecticut, United States. It is an alternative
high school within the city's school system, meant for at-risk students.
The building itself, a brick Romanesque Revival
structure, was designed by architect Warren R. Briggs
in 1896, and later featured in his book Modern American School Buildings. For many years it was an elementary school
, and a laboratory school
where recent graduates of the state's teacher training schools were sent to hone their skills with actual students before going to their ultimate teaching jobs.
Today it is the last 19th century school building remaining in Danbury, and one of the few remaining laboratory school buildings in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1985.
, formerly the Danbury State Normal School where the teachers at the school were trained in its laboratory era, is a block
to the west. Downtown Danbury
is a mile (1.6 km) to the west-southwest, and Danbury Hospital
is to the northwest along Locust.
The terrain is level. Paved parking lots abut the school on the south and west. The entire site is landscaped, with trees planted shortly after the school was opened to honor veterans of the Spanish-American War
.
The building itself is a 60 by two-story structure of common bond orange-red brick on a raised basement topped by a slate-shingled hip roof
. Modillioned galvanized
sheet metal is along the eaves. At the top of the roof is a orange wooden cupola
with octagonal rounded roof supported by round arches with keys and surrounded by a balustrade with chamfer
ed newel
s and pointed finial
s. A stone water table
runs around the building at the level of the top of the entrance steps.
On both east and west facade
s are a nearly identical projecting two-story pavilion with a central pediment
with returns. The centrally located entrances, reached by a set of stone steps, are double doors in concentric recessed round arches. A projecting bay window
on the west side, facing Roberts Avenue, is the only difference between the two.
Inside both entrances lead into vestibule
s with hooks for hanging coats. Four classrooms are on each floor, two on each side of the central hall, with three-foot (1 m) wainscoting of tongue and groove
North Carolina pine
. Partitions within the rooms are all brick. Each is lit by six tall windows and floored in pine similar to the wainscoting. The blackboards above the wainscoting have their original turned trim.
The supporting beams in the ceilings are exposed. They are reinforced at the joints by cast iron columns with decorative floral bases. Also exposed along the upper walls are the copper heating pipes with their original brass fittings run; spaces in the ceiling above that originally helped to ventilate the building have been boarded over to comply with modern fire codes.
In the basement, designed to be fully functional, windows provide similar natural illumination. Brick partitions are pierced with rounded arches, and large brick piers with corbel
ed tops support the ceiling. The walls are decorated with student artwork. The cooking facilities, sink and bathroom stalls are all original. The original 1894 Gurney furnace remains in operation to supplement the modern furnace.
His design, with Romanesque Revival
touches, incorporated his advanced ideas on school construction, primarily that school buildings should be visually appealing. Classrooms were arranged so that the abundant natural light
came over the student's left shoulder. The ventilation and high ceilings kept them airy as well as bright, with space for classes of 50–60 students as was common at the time. The basement was meant to be used as a play space when weather outside was not suitable. In 1899 the Locust Avenue School was one of Briggs' featured designs in his Modern American School Buildings.
The Danbury Building Company constructed the new school for $23,000 ($ in contemporary dollars). After a short delay, students began their spring term there in April 1896. The 150 first
and second
graders had previously attended either Liberty Street or Balmforth. The school's first graduating class planted the trees in honor of veterans of the recent Spanish-American War
.
Within a decade, in 1905, administration was transferred to the nearby Danbury State Normal School
(now Western Connecticut State University
. Students there were required to teach
, observe or manage for two weeks of the school year at either Locust Avenue or the one-room King Street School in the city's northwestern corner. Over time other Danbury schools were included as well, but Locust Avenue remained one of them.
The state's Department of Education
continued to staff the school, and the Town of Danbury to maintain it, until 1965. In that year city and town governments were consolidated and control of the school was turned over to the Danbury Board of Education. It continued to be used as an elementary school until 1976. By that time, all of the other schools Danbury had built in the 19th century had been demolished. Statewide, only two other laboratory schools, in New Haven
and New Britain
, remain.
The next year, 1977, it was reused as what was originally known as the Alternative Center for Education, a program for at-risk students
. A few years later, the building's heating, cooling and ventilation systems, the first of which had been converted from coal to oil in the 1920s, were upgraded to comply with modern building codes. There have been few other changes to the building in its lifetime.
of about 10:1. Approximately a hundred students are in the program in each year. They are divided into nine guidance
groups, with each teacher responsible for about ten students.
Applicants come for a two-day visit, submit three letters of recommendation and do 15 hours of community service
. Afterwards, they are interviewed along with their parents by students and staff. They must demonstrate to the program's satosfaction that they are willing to attend school regularly and devote themselves to academic improvement.
Over 500 students have completed the program since it was inaugurated. They must meet Danbury High School
's graduation requirements, and receive a diploma
from it. They attend both the high school's graduation
ceremonies as well as ACE's.
The school's location has been considered a factor in its success. It is a short walk from both the commercial areas on White Street, where many students work after school, and Roberts Avenue School, where many serve as reading tutor
s. For these reasons the program has remained at the Locust Avenue building, helping to preserve
it.
Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....
, Connecticut, United States. It is an alternative
Alternative school
Alternative school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional...
high school within the city's school system, meant for at-risk students.
The building itself, a brick Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
structure, was designed by architect Warren R. Briggs
Warren R. Briggs
Warren R. Briggs was an American architect who worked in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was a "native of Boston" and trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. His work was greatly influenced by H. H...
in 1896, and later featured in his book Modern American School Buildings. For many years it was an elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
, and a laboratory school
Laboratory school
A laboratory school or demonstration school is an elementary or secondary school operated in association with a university, college, or other teacher education institution and used for the training of future teachers, educational experimentation, educational research, and professional...
where recent graduates of the state's teacher training schools were sent to hone their skills with actual students before going to their ultimate teaching jobs.
Today it is the last 19th century school building remaining in Danbury, and one of the few remaining laboratory school buildings in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1985.
Building
The school occupies a 1.1 acres (4,451.5 m²) lot at the north end of the block formed by Locust, Ninth and Roberts avenues in an otherwise residential neighborhood. Western Connecticut State UniversityWestern Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, WestConn has an arts and sciences curriculum, a business school, and several professional programs including elementary and secondary education, nursing, music performance, and social work...
, formerly the Danbury State Normal School where the teachers at the school were trained in its laboratory era, is a block
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
to the west. Downtown Danbury
Main Street Historic District (Danbury, Connecticut)
The Main Street Historic District in Danbury, Connecticut, United States, is the oldest section of that city, at its geographical center. It has long been the city's commercial core and downtown...
is a mile (1.6 km) to the west-southwest, and Danbury Hospital
Danbury Hospital
Danbury Hospital is a 371-bed hospital in Danbury, Connecticut serving patients in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Putnam County, New York.The hospital has 3,300 employees. John M. Murphy, M.D...
is to the northwest along Locust.
The terrain is level. Paved parking lots abut the school on the south and west. The entire site is landscaped, with trees planted shortly after the school was opened to honor veterans of the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
.
The building itself is a 60 by two-story structure of common bond orange-red brick on a raised basement topped by a slate-shingled hip roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
. Modillioned galvanized
Galvanization
Galvanization is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, in order to prevent rusting. The term is derived from the name of Italian scientist Luigi Galvani....
sheet metal is along the eaves. At the top of the roof is a orange wooden cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
with octagonal rounded roof supported by round arches with keys and surrounded by a balustrade with chamfer
Chamfer
A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round" or a "radius"."Chamfer" is a term commonly...
ed newel
Newel
A newel, also called a central pole, is an upright post that supports the handrail of a stair banister. In stairs having straight flights it is the principal post at the foot of the staircase, but it can also be used for the intermediate posts on landings and at the top of a staircase...
s and pointed finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
s. A stone water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
runs around the building at the level of the top of the entrance steps.
On both east and west facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s are a nearly identical projecting two-story pavilion with a central pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
with returns. The centrally located entrances, reached by a set of stone steps, are double doors in concentric recessed round arches. A projecting bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
on the west side, facing Roberts Avenue, is the only difference between the two.
Inside both entrances lead into vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
s with hooks for hanging coats. Four classrooms are on each floor, two on each side of the central hall, with three-foot (1 m) wainscoting of tongue and groove
Tongue and groove
A strong joint, the tongue and groove joint is widely used for re-entrant angles. The effect of wood shrinkage is concealed when the joint is beaded or otherwise moulded...
North Carolina pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
. Partitions within the rooms are all brick. Each is lit by six tall windows and floored in pine similar to the wainscoting. The blackboards above the wainscoting have their original turned trim.
The supporting beams in the ceilings are exposed. They are reinforced at the joints by cast iron columns with decorative floral bases. Also exposed along the upper walls are the copper heating pipes with their original brass fittings run; spaces in the ceiling above that originally helped to ventilate the building have been boarded over to comply with modern fire codes.
In the basement, designed to be fully functional, windows provide similar natural illumination. Brick partitions are pierced with rounded arches, and large brick piers with corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ed tops support the ceiling. The walls are decorated with student artwork. The cooking facilities, sink and bathroom stalls are all original. The original 1894 Gurney furnace remains in operation to supplement the modern furnace.
History
The Town of Danbury, which at that time was in charge of education, built the school in response to growing population on the city's eastern fringe following the subdivision of the former White Farm in that area. Development on Locust Avenue took off, complemented by new streets like Ninth Avenue. Children in the area had to walk a long distance to the Balmforth Street School. Architect Warren Briggs had already designed a sister school on Morris Street on the other side of the city.His design, with Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
touches, incorporated his advanced ideas on school construction, primarily that school buildings should be visually appealing. Classrooms were arranged so that the abundant natural light
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
came over the student's left shoulder. The ventilation and high ceilings kept them airy as well as bright, with space for classes of 50–60 students as was common at the time. The basement was meant to be used as a play space when weather outside was not suitable. In 1899 the Locust Avenue School was one of Briggs' featured designs in his Modern American School Buildings.
The Danbury Building Company constructed the new school for $23,000 ($ in contemporary dollars). After a short delay, students began their spring term there in April 1896. The 150 first
First grade
First grade is a year of primary education in schools in the United States and English-speaking provinces of Canada. It is the first school year after kindergarten...
and second
Second grade
In the United States, second grade is a year of primary education. Second grade is the second school year after kindergarten. Students are traditionally 7–8 years old, depending on when their birthday occurs....
graders had previously attended either Liberty Street or Balmforth. The school's first graduating class planted the trees in honor of veterans of the recent Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
.
Within a decade, in 1905, administration was transferred to the nearby Danbury State Normal School
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
(now Western Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, WestConn has an arts and sciences curriculum, a business school, and several professional programs including elementary and secondary education, nursing, music performance, and social work...
. Students there were required to teach
Student teacher
A student teacher is a college or graduate student who is teaching under the supervision of a certified teacher in order to qualify for a degree in education...
, observe or manage for two weeks of the school year at either Locust Avenue or the one-room King Street School in the city's northwestern corner. Over time other Danbury schools were included as well, but Locust Avenue remained one of them.
The state's Department of Education
Connecticut State Department of Education
Connecticut State Department of Education is a branch of the state government of Connecticut in the United States. The agency is headquartered in the State Office Building at 165 Capitol Avenue in Hartford...
continued to staff the school, and the Town of Danbury to maintain it, until 1965. In that year city and town governments were consolidated and control of the school was turned over to the Danbury Board of Education. It continued to be used as an elementary school until 1976. By that time, all of the other schools Danbury had built in the 19th century had been demolished. Statewide, only two other laboratory schools, in New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
and New Britain
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254....
, remain.
The next year, 1977, it was reused as what was originally known as the Alternative Center for Education, a program for at-risk students
At-risk students
The term at-risk students is used to describe students who are "at risk" of failing academically, for one or more of any several reasons. The term can be used to describe a wide variety of students, including ones who belong to ethnic minorities, those who are academically disadvantaged, those who...
. A few years later, the building's heating, cooling and ventilation systems, the first of which had been converted from coal to oil in the 1920s, were upgraded to comply with modern building codes. There have been few other changes to the building in its lifetime.
Program
The Alternative Center for Excellence keeps class sizes low, with a student-teacher ratioStudent-teacher ratio
Student-teacher ratio refers to the number of teachers in a school or university with respect to the number of students who attend the institution. For example, a student-teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students for every one teacher...
of about 10:1. Approximately a hundred students are in the program in each year. They are divided into nine guidance
School counselor
A school counselor is a counselor and an educator who works in elementary, middle, and high schools to provide academic, career, college access, and personal/social competencies to K-12 students...
groups, with each teacher responsible for about ten students.
Applicants come for a two-day visit, submit three letters of recommendation and do 15 hours of community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
. Afterwards, they are interviewed along with their parents by students and staff. They must demonstrate to the program's satosfaction that they are willing to attend school regularly and devote themselves to academic improvement.
Over 500 students have completed the program since it was inaugurated. They must meet Danbury High School
Danbury High School
Danbury High School is a public high school in Danbury, Connecticut. Despite Danbury's population of 81,000, there is only one public high school, along with several small private schools, and one vocational high school. Danbury High School is supplemented by a magnet program called the Alternative...
's graduation requirements, and receive a diploma
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
from it. They attend both the high school's graduation
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
ceremonies as well as ACE's.
The school's location has been considered a factor in its success. It is a short walk from both the commercial areas on White Street, where many students work after school, and Roberts Avenue School, where many serve as reading tutor
Tutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
s. For these reasons the program has remained at the Locust Avenue building, helping to preserve
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
it.