The Last School Standing

While about a dozen original West End buildings remain in the West End Project Area, the one at 26 Blossom Street stands as the only surviving school building to have served the children of the neighborhood. The Winchell School’s construction began in 1884 and was completed the next year. It originally was a two-story building with a pitched roof, but had a third full floor added in 1907. It remained an active school until its closure in 1960, not long after which, Massachusetts General Hospital purchased the building for a school of nursing.  It has served a number of other functions for MGH over the years.

Aside from its importance to those who once lived in the West End, the old Winchell School is also architecturally important to the city. The building was designed by Arthur Vinal, who was Boston’s official architect between 1884-1888. It is generally considered to be “fine example of Romanesque Revival architecture,” according to a 2005 Boston Landmarks Commission report.

Former West Ender Bob Andrews grew up at both 56 and 57 Auburn Street and spent five years as a student at the Winchell. He began his kindergarten year in 1949. As a student in Miss Adler’s classroom it was his first time in school and is something he describes as very special.

“It was a lot of fun. You got to know the people who lived in your neighborhood,” he says. “You really got the feel for the environment where you’re growing up.”

Bob easily rattled off the names of all five teachers he had during his time at the Winchell: After Miss Adler (who he acknowledges may have been a “Mrs.”), there came Miss McGovern, Miss O’Neill, Miss Smith, and finally Mrs. Stewart, who taught fourth grade. It was that final teacher who, when pressed, Bob chose as his favorite at the Winchell.

“You know, you start to get into more difficult work at that age, more challenging,” he says. “She did it quite well.”

Boys only attended the school through fourth grade before moving to the Peter Faneuil School, Bob says, while girls continued their education there through the sixth grade. Having left the school in June 1954, Bob says he hasn’t set foot in there one time since.

Unfortunately, his opportunity to do so may be coming to a close. MGH currently has plans to develop the property they renamed Ruth Sleeper Hall. While those plans are still subject to change – and may even preserve some elements of the original building – it will no longer be the same building Bob Andrews and so many others spent those formative years of their youth.

“I have very fond memories of my time there and it hasn’t changed one iota other than being owned by Mass General,” Andrews says.

He noted that his “oldest and dearest friend from the West End” Joe Greenberg has been back to the Winchell. According to Bob, Joe simply presented himself at the building and asked to walk through and they allowed it.

“One of these fine days before they tear it down – hopefully they don’t – I will go in and do the same,” Bob says. “I would love to walk though it again – on the old wood floors and up the three flights of stairs. Stand there and just look and try to picture where my classrooms were.”