Lexington, KY - Having been a student teacher at M.A. Cassidy Elementary School while at the University of Kentucky in the early seventies, when Dr. Richard Day moved with his family back to Lexington in 1985, one thing was certain.
"I knew where my kids were going to go to school," Day said. "And we bought a house two blocks away."
A few years later, after his children had gone through Cassidy, Day was transferred from Meadowthorpe Elementary School to be the principal of Cassidy, a position he held until retiring in 2004.
In November, as Cassidy celebrates its 75th anniversary, as well as the completion of a massive $11-million renovation, Day will be delivering a program on the school's history as part of a number of events scheduled to mark the occasion.
Constructed by P.W.A. workers and completed in 1935 during the Great Depression to meet the rapidly growing population of Lexington's east end, M.A. Cassidy Elementary School was named after Massillon Alexander Cassidy, who worked for 43 years with Lexington-area schools, serving as superintendent for Fayette County and Lexington city schools (sometimes concurrently), beginning in 1885.
Along with his longevity in the school system, Cassidy is remembered for his progressiveness, instilling a number of programs and social innovations, such as penny lunches, indoor plumbing, "opportunity classes for irregular children" -
a precursor for special education -
and junior high schools.
The school's structure, which in 1935 had six classrooms and a few other spaces, has gone through a number of incarnations. A few years after its completion, a library was added. In 1956 the school received a new wing of classrooms, as well as a cafeteria and gymnasium -
up until that time students would go to neighbor Morton Middle School for lunch or school assemblies. In late 1976, work began on a major remodel of the school that required Cassidy students to attend the Old Picadome School for a year.
In the early portion of last year, work began on Cassidy's most recent renovation, a completely invasive remodel that included all new electrical and mechanical systems, as well as the addition of a new 19,000-square-foot wing which holds new classrooms, administrative offices, atrium and media center.
Susan Hill, an architect with Tate Hill Jacobs Architects, the local firm which handled the renovation project, said the work was envisioned to cover the school's needs for the next 30 years. "That's the charge. Whenever you do this kind of renovation, except for ongoing maintenance, it should not have to require another major renovation for 25 to 30 years," she said. "It's $10 million that went somewhere."
Hill said it was a priority for her company to respect the school's historic integrity, not duplicate it. There was a deliberate separation between the old structure and the new wing, which was achieved with a long atrium between the new spaces that lets old classrooms on the north face receive an abundance of natural daylight. The new atrium is now the formal entrance to the school, but the former iconic entrance, marked with a cupola facing Tates Creek Road, was left intact.
"We didn't want to make a copy," Hill said. "We didn't want the new addition to look like it was part of the original building. We went distinctly 21st century."
Given the school's esteem in the community, especially in the adjacent Chevy Chase neighborhood, the idea of replacing M.A. Cassidy Elementary School with an entirely new structure on the same site never received much traction from school officials.
"I'm really pleased that Fayette County, despite the fact that the county is growing and adding new schools, that the county has made the commitment to keeping its historic buildings. A lot of districts don't do that, they say they require too much work, and they take them down," Hill said. "Buildings are not just about the architecture, they're really about the life of the community that's gone through them. They're about the lessons learned, the stories shared, friendships made -
and that building embodies all of that. A new building would never do that, even if it was built on the same site."
Dr. Richard Day, who still lives two blocks away from the elementary school, said he was relieved when he saw the new design didn't completely compromise his former school.
"If they had not come back with a cupola, that would have been trouble," he said. "I might have started it."
M.A. Cassidy Elementary School will be hosting a 75th anniversary ceremony and open house to show off the new renovation on Nov. 18. Doors to the school will be open at 5:30 p.m., and an optional dinner will be served at 6 (dinner is $6). A program about the history of Cassidy will begin at 7 p.m. For more information about the event, contact the Cassidy PTA at www.cassidypta.org.