Henry Raymond
Fairfax News => Current News & Events => Topic started by: MikeF9 on January 19, 2011, 01:17:18 PM
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I had a phone conversation with Lucy Montague, former BFA teacher, and probably the last remaining teacher of the original BFA that burned in 1941.
Lucy currently lives in Jeffersonville.
She came to BFA as a subsitute on March of 1940 and was eventually hired full time. She spent a couple of years here before returning to New York State. She returned to Vermont, marrying George Montague.
In January of 1941, Lucy was living in the brick house on Main Street, two buildings up from where Steeple Market is now. She had an apartment upstairts. She heard the explosion, looked out the back window, and saw BFA in flames. Ruth St. Jock, later to become Ruth Benway, ran up the street to tell people that the school was on fire. Lucy did not go up to the scene, as she had hurt her knee skiing on the hill across from where Swansons is now.
She was teaching 2nd grade and after the fire, her class was held in the Homer Hunt house, just north of the school. She figures her class size was about 25 kids.
She taught at Fairfax, off and on, and finished full time when Mike Nason was principal in the late 60's/early 70's. She did some substitute teaching under Dick Brown's tenure as principal until she retired.
Thus, she is probably the only(?) person to teach in the old BFA, the new BFA, and the 1960 wing. Maybe wrong on that, I'm not sure.
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Think I need to do a little research. I was talking with Louis Roberge, and he thinks Fanny Carpenter may have done the same thing.
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Mike Larry Leach was in the 4th or 5th grade at the time of the 1941 fire , and with his memory & accurate recall , he could tell you about Frannie's teaching career because he became BFA's head custodian a couple of years before my principalship began in July 1971 .