Springtime Outside Fort Lee High School

Fort Lee is in a lot of ways quintessentially American: it has its rows of houses with manicured front yards, small shops that are neighborhood institutions, a busy library and many other meeting places, both religious and secular, for community members to gather. Its quaintness in these aspects does not mean it’s exclusively American or old-fashioned: Fort Lee represents many cultures, featuring residents, shops and restaurants of diverse ethnicity. Here and there, though, elements of old-world charm are apparent and impossible to deny, even as they integrate well into the townscape.

One structure that has this effect on visitors is Fort Lee High School on Lemoine Ave., just around the corner from the George Washington Bridge plaza. Built in 1928 with a second building added in 1964, the four-year public school’s sprawling two-story expanse, clock tower and central Greek columns faintly recall the architecture of some American college campuses and government buildings 100 years or more older. Triangular pediments, complex front windows and even more intricate bulls eye windows, especially, lend an air of austere beauty. Athletic fields are situated to the north of the buildings, and to round out the picture, a flagpole stands just in front of the main entrance surrounded by a few sturdy trees on a well-kept lawn. The steps that elevate the school building from the street, placing it on a hill, add to its grandeur and allow those on campus to look down at a good chunk of the neighborhood, surveying it. Renovations to the building were made in the 1980s to complete the campus’s current look.

Its relatively large size tells the story of the school’s enrollment: this year the students, in grades nine through twelve, number 1083 with a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.4. (Source: http://high-schools.com public high schools list.) When Fort Lee’s residents are walking or driving past the school grounds, as they do frequently due to the school’s central location, they can glimpse its pupils taking a break on steps between classes, practicing on the field or eating lunch in the outdoor common area at the school building’s south end. On a recent visit almost none were around—but this was heartening nonetheless, since it was mid-afternoon and classes were in session.

Particularly interesting to this visitor were two stone and brass plaques in the shade underneath a tree in front of the school, dedicated to former staff members Frank Raimondo and John Mardy. These teachers and coaches—Mardy was also school principal—formed an integral part of the high school in which they worked and are commemorated here.

Now, in late April, as seniors are finding out about their college acceptances and the underclassmen and women begin to anticipate the year ahead, it’s a particularly sweet time to be in school—not to mention the fact that summer vacation is looming. Even amid finals and term papers, I imagine Fort Lee’s high school students appreciate their alma mater in its comfortable, tranquil moments.