The building of a new brick schoolhouse in Wakefield North Ward was approved at Town Meeting in early 1898 to address crowded conditions in the existing schoolhouse which had required "96 scholars" to attend the Lincoln School. The North Ward was considered to be the area between Main and Salem Streets, west of the Newburyport Branch of the B&M Railroad, and the building was the third new school to open in as many years. After debate, the meeting voted to build a four-room two-story school building at a cost of $12,000 on a 13,000 foot lot at the intersection of Cordis Street and a private way which ran north of Cordis Street, rather than move and repair the existing school building. It was also voted at a subsequent meeting to name the school in memory of Dr. Francis P. Hurd, 'cultivated, refined, and philanthropic citizen' who had bequeathed $2,500 to the Beebe Library. The first and second floors were identical, with a vestibule, corridor, coat rooms and a lavatory, teachers' room, and two classrooms, each measuring 28 ft x 32 feet. In the 1901-1902 school year, the faculty included Principal Eleanor F. Emerson, a graduate of Salem Normal School; Jennie Carter, Millbury High School, grades 1 and 2; Isabel G. Flint, Salem Normal School, grades 3 and 4; and Eva Howlett, Salem Normal School, grades 5 and 6. According to the 1901 and 1902 Town Reports, 44 students were enrolled in grades 1 and 2 in all of 1901, and 50 students enrolled during the first five months of 1902. Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2021 Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Historical Society.
