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Date: 2/24/2022
LONGMEADOW – Tucked away in a small storage closet in the Williams Middle School library, a steel filing cabinet had sat, collecting dust for more 30 years. When faculty found themselves in need of more file storage, they decided to utilize the long-forgotten cabinet. Unknown to the staff at the building, they would rediscover history.
With the key long-since lost, a custodian drilled out the lock and opened the drawers. Inside were old books, newspapers, magazines, framed documents and a curious gavel.
“It’s really cool,” said Library Media Specialist Scott McGinley. “It’s been hidden for 40 years. It’s certainly been kept safe. The staff and teachers love it.”
Some of the items from the cabinet were relatively recent, including a student handbook from 1983. A framed thank-you letter from Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang, a foundation that helps disabled children go to summer camp, recognized a $100,000 donation. The date and donor were not specified, but the camp was founded in 1988.
Others relics were from further back in history. Among them were books commemorating Longmeadow’s centennial in 1883 and its 150th anniversary, or sesquicentennial, in 1933. There was also a hardcovered book titled, “A History of Springfield for the Young,” by Charles Barrows.
National keepsakes had been sheltered in the cabinet, as well. A bicentennial calendar from 1976, newspapers covering President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and several copies of Look magazine’s 1969 moon landing issue were among the memorabilia.
The small wooden gavel, seated in a yellowed, plastic case, had been made from wood re-purposed from a White House renovation. It was given by President Harry S. Truman to the then-U.S. representative and future Massachusetts governor, Foster Furcolo. An inscribed metal plate on the gavel reads, “Official White House Material. Removed in 1950.”
In 1982, Furcolo gave the gavel to his alma mater, Williams Middle School, then known as Longmeadow Junior High School. The filing cabinet also contained a newspaper clipping about the gavel’s presentation with photos and a letter from Furcolo to the school’s then-principal, Donald Fuller.
State Rep. Brian Ashe and his legislative aide, Robin Frechette, explored the materials with Principal Elizabeth Nelson and Library Media Specialist Scott McGinley. Ashe shared some of his knowledge about Furcolo’s time in government and said he had met the former governor’s wife a couple of years ago.
Principal Elizabeth Nelson said some of the items may be used for eighth-grade lessons on civics, though she said the school would need to be careful of outdated or inappropriate materials. McGinley said social studies lessons explore primary and secondary resources and the items may be of use in those cases.
McGinley talked about the potential to help students experience history in a more tangible way. “[Students] can see digital images online, but it’s different when it’s the actual thing,” McGinley told Reminder Publishing.
Nelson said she would like to exhibit the items for people to see in a display case in the school or perhaps in the Town Hall.