South Huntington Schools Unveil 'Heritage Room' Ahead Of 100th Year

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — The South Huntington School District is gearing up to celebrate its 100th anniversary, and a century's worth of school history is now on display, the district announced.

A timeline, news clippings and photos offer a glimpse into South Huntington's history in the new Heritage Room at the James Kaden Administrative Offices. Administrators, staff, and board members were joined by State Assemblyman Steve Stern for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially unveil the room on Oct. 3.

The South Huntington Union Free School District #13 was created in 1924 when taxpayers voted 73-67 to consolidate Common School Districts #12 and #13. As the district approaches its centennial, the South Huntington Board of Education and administration wanted to create a "unique room that highlighted the district's history, students and accomplishments," the district wrote.

"We're using it as a living history room," Deputy Superintendent John Murphy said in a news release. "It’s Long Island history. It’s community history, and that's something that we teach at the early grade levels. It’s a resource to be able to show what some of our history has been over the past hundred years and how South Huntington has been affected by our national history."

Stern secured state funding for the project.

"When you look at this kind of display and realize that the town of Huntington, where we live, is so rich in history, even before the founding of our great nation," Stern said. "It’s had an important role to play since the very first days of our Founding Fathers. There's something for everybody to be able to learn, and to look at leaders of yesterday who we can and should hold up as role models for us to follow going forward into the future."

One wall of the room features the portraits of three of West Hills’ most prominent sons who each have a school named after them in the district: Silas Wood, 19th century congressman and one of Long Island’s earliest historians; poet Walt Whitman; and Henry L. Stimson, who served as U.S. secretary of war and secretary of state in the early to mid 1900s.

The other walls follow a timeline with photos, newspaper clippings, and captions showing the earliest school buildings, district growth, and student life through the decades. There’s also an interactive touchscreen that lets users scroll through old yearbooks dating back to the 1940s. The interactive display allows for yearbooks and photos to be added as classes graduate, keeping the Heritage Room up-to-date.

The room was designed and researched under the supervision of Deputy Superintendent John Murphy and by members of the district’s public relations team: Thomas Ciravolo, Liz DeMonte, Christina Wright, and Lea Tyrrell; with the help of Stephanie Gotard and Karen Martin of the Huntington Historical Society.

The Heritage Room is being used as a meeting space for the board of education, community meetings, club meetings, and workshops for teachers and students.