Reprinted from the works of George W. Grisevich, Bulkeley High School, 1986

“West of the Stone Pits”
A Brief Sketch of Wilson Street School
now known as the Thomas J. McDonough School
Hartford, Connecticut

As Hartford’s population increased through the years, so did the number of school districts.  Many took on names that reflected direction or location from the two oldest districts.  Others, such as the Washington School District, took on the name of an important street within the district.  Eventually, a total of ten school districts developed.  They were: First (North), Second (South), Second North, West Middle, Arsenal, Washington, Southwest, Northeast, Northwest and Gravel Hill.  Each had its own School Committed (Board of Education) with taxing powers and the people maintained close supervision and control over each.  However, in 1934, the voters of Hartford decided to make the entire city one district.

Today’s Thomas J. McDonough School on Hillside Avenue and Wilson Street can be traced back to the formation of the Washington School District in 1841.  After the district’s first meeting, a committee was formed to plan for a schoolhouse.  It was to be constructed at the intersection of Washington Street and New Britain Avenue.  By 1843, it voted to hire a male teacher for four months whose duty it was among other things, to “measure wood sent in payment of tuition.”  On October 25, 1844, the committee voted that he “board around” within the district.

In time this first schoolhouse became known for its “inadequate accommodations” and by 1873, the district committee decided to construct two new buildings; one of brick on Washington Street to replace the original, and a wooden branch school on Wilson Street. Both buildings were ready for use in 1874.  (The Washington Street School cost $13,000. and the small primary school on Wilson Street, west of the “stone pits”, cost $4,250.)  They opened with about 100 pupils and 75 pupils respectively and an 1894 report describes the latter as having “two spacious rooms…with a good sized entry-way and lighted basement.”

The Wilson Street branch school, as it was called, was constructed some distance from Washington Street to accommodate the younger children in the Zion Street area. (Walking from Wilson Street – Hillside Avenue to Washington Street – New Britain Avenue even then far exceeded a reasonable walking distance for the very young.) By 1896 it became so overcrowded that the older pupils along with their teacher were “transferred” to the 600 pupil Washington Street building.  The branch continued with about 150 in an extended building of four rooms and both schools remained under the supervision of the same principal.

The Washington Street District eventually replaced its small (1874) school on Wilson Street with a “commodious” structure of brick.  It was ready for a September opening in 1903 and provided improved facilities considered the “best of modern arrangements and equipment” for that time.  (The original wooden schoolhouse was not demolished but remained in use, perhaps as an annex or for storage, until about 1913.)  A second large brick building opened in September of 1914 and was not the last addition.  Post World War I housing developments necessitated yet another addition to the Wilson Street buildings of 1903 and 1914 and the Board of Education in its 1920 annual report noted this by observing “housing conditions of the city may make it necessary for the district to add to its Wilson Street building.”  The report records “the remodeling and enlarging the capacity of its two buildings.”  These improvements seemingly explain the “1918” inscription at the top of the northernmost building on Hillside Avenue today.

By 1931, rather than construct another addition to the original structures of 1903 and 1914, a separate school was constructed on Hillside Avenue.  This new school (Hillside Avenue and now called Moylan) opened for kindergarten and 7th and 8th grade classes with Mr. Thomas J. McDonough as its Principal.  (In 1920, McDonough began his Hartford career as a teacher.)  In 1934, the city schools consolidated its districts into one and McDonough was made Principal of both the Wilson Street and Hillside Avenue (Cornelius A. Moylan) Schools.  He remained at the helm of both until retirement in 1963 at which time the Board of Education renamed Wilson Street School the Thomas J. McDonough School.  This recognized his 37 years of service to public education here.

Important dates in the Thomas J. McDonugh School History:

1841 Formation of the Washington School District

1843 First teacher hired.  Schoolhouse located on Washington Street and New Britain Avenue.

1874 Wilson Street branch school opens

1903 First brick structure on Wilson Street opens next to 1874 building

1914 First addition to 1903 building opens

1918 Another addition on Hillside Avenue

1920 Thomas J. McDonough appointed a teacher at Washington Street School

1926 Thomas J. McDonough assigned to Wilson Street School as teacher and Vice-Principal

1931 Hillside Avenue School built (now Moylan School) and Thomas J. McDonough made Principal.

1934 Consolidation of public schools and Thomas J. McDonough’s appointment as Principal of Wilson Street and Moylan Schools

1963 Retirement of Thomas J. McDonough and renaming of Wilson Street School in his honor by Hartford Board of Education

1999 Another addition and renovation on Hillside Avenue completed

District Boundaries

Boundaries for the Washington School District (Report of the Board of School Visitors of the Town of Hartford, March 31, 1898, page 76):

On the south, beginning at a point in the center of the south branch of the Park River and Flatbush Avenue, and running easterly through the center of Flatbush Avenue to a pint nearly 200 feet east of the western line of Zion Street, intersecting a line produced from the center of Fairfield Avenue; thence southerly by said line and through the center of Fairfield Avenue to a point intersecting E.W. Mosley’s north division line; thence northeasterly in the direction of said Mosley’s line to a point 200 feet east of Franklin Avenue, in the division line between this and the South District, and some 475 feet south of the south line of Bond Street; thence on the east, on the north, and on the west to the place of the beginning by the line of the South District.

All children living within this district are required to attend the Washington Street School, except such as by reason of their rank and residence are required to attend the Wilson Street School.

List of some teachers who taught in the Washington Street District School before 1856:

Mr. Josiah Atwood
Mr. Francis Atwood
Captain Harry Barnard
Mr. Cone
Mr. J. Standish
Mr. Hotchkiss
Mr. Loomis
Mr. Barnes
Miss Maria Boardman
Miss Bliss
Miss White
Miss Aurelia Talcott