Portsmouth's ‘Hope School’ gone, but fond memories remain

Former novitiate was used by school district for a few years in early ’70s

By Jim McGaw
Posted 2/15/19

PORTSMOUTH — If you were driving along West Main Road near the Middletown line over the past week, you may have noticed a dilapidated concrete building being torn down over to the west. …

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Portsmouth's ‘Hope School’ gone, but fond memories remain

Former novitiate was used by school district for a few years in early ’70s

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — If you were driving along West Main Road near the Middletown line over the past week, you may have noticed a dilapidated concrete building being torn down over to the west. Chances are you didn’t know what it was, or what it was used for.

To a handful of 50-somethings from Portsmouth, however, it was a special place to be in the early ’70s.

“I’m amazed by the number of people I run into who don’t know about Hope School,” said John Burton, who enrolled there as a first-grader in September 1970. “I’ll say, ‘I went to Hope School,’ and they respond, ‘What’s that?’”

It’s perhaps not surprising that Hope School is a nearly forgotten piece of the town’s history, however. Only a small number of public school students went there, and only for a couple of years.

Starting Thursday, Feb. 7, demolition crews started tearing down the vacant building, formerly home to the Mother of Hope Novitiate, to make room for single-family homes that will be constructed as part of the second phase of the Prescott Point development. 

The convent, located on the former Bradford Norman estate, was consecrated in September 1962 as the new headquarters of the Sisters of Our Lady of Providence order, which had been founded only a few years before.

About a decade later, during a time when the town was actually short on classroom space, the Portsmouth school district signed a three-year lease with the sisters to use part of the building for elementary-aged children. 

“It was a big, three-story building and the Portsmouth School Department rented space on the second floor,” said Mr. Burton, a 1982 graduate of Portsmouth High School. “If I remember right, there was only one classroom per grade. I was there for first grade, second grade and third grade. The next year we went to Elmhurst, and that was the end of Hope School.”

Although youngsters from the Union Street and Mill Lane areas also attended Hope School, it primarily served kids from the Redwood Farms neighborhood just south of the novitiate. 

“And we had a lot of kids,” said Mr. Burton, adding the neighborhood was a special place to grow up during that period.

Jodi Meunier, another Redwood kid and Mr. Burton’s classmate at Hope School, agreed. 

“We’d go through the top of the neighborhood, all the way down to the playground,” said Ms. Meunier, another 1982 PHS grad. “We’d be outside running and playing all day. There were no video games.”

The neighborhood would hold a “Redwood Farms Day” one day each summer, with races, games and even a parade. One neighbor would project movies onto the side of his house for all the neighborhoods to watch, and there would be potluck suppers down by the playground.

“It was pretty much a community,” said Town Clerk Jennifer West, another Redwood Farms resident who attended Hope School from 1972 to 1973. “Everybody knew each other for the most part. You never got away with anything.”

‘Pushing each other’

There must have been something in the water at Redwood Farms, because many of the kids who lived there and attended Hope School went on to become stars in both the classroom and on the playing field.

“There was a lot of brainpower and good athletes in that group,” Ms. Meunier said. “Everyone was pushing each other, but in a good way.”

To have your best friends in the same classroom with you at Hope School made your childhood even more special, former students said.

“It was unique because it was only one class, and I had the exact same kids every year, except for those kids who moved in and out,” said Mr. Burton. “By third grade, it was a close-knit group. I liked it. It was kind of a small school and a small-town experience. I can see when you’re older, you want to meet new people. But when you’re a little kid, it’s kind of cool to have all your close friends around you all the time.”

They also had a strong bond with their teachers, some of whom were neighbors in Redwood Farms. Mary Barabe, who taught Mr. Burton and Ms. Meunier in first grade, still lives there, in fact.

“That was her first teaching gig,” said her son, Matthew Barabe. “She was a Salve Regina graduate and that was where I believe she did her internship and then got a job.”

After Hope School closed, Ms. Barabe settled into a long teaching career in Portsmouth. “She ended up spending over 30 years at Melville. She taught first grade at both,” Mr. Barabe said.

Ms. Meunier still keeps a photo of her and second-grade classmate Joanne Riley attending the wedding of their second-grade teacher, Linda Miller, who had invited them to attend her nuptials.

She remembered a third-grade teacher who played piano and taught the students songs like “Lollipop.”

“One of my favorite memories was singing at the end of the school day and we missed the bus,” Ms. Meunier said. “We had great teachers, and we loved them all."

On to Elmhurst

After a few years at Hope School, Elmhurst School — purchased by the town along with the rest of the Glen property in the ’70s — was ready for students. 

“I was in second grade at Hope, then third grade at Elmhurst, then fourth grade at Melville. They bounced us around a lot,” said Ms. West.

The novitiate stayed open but was never the same after that.

“We had CCD there and they still used the chapel,” Ms. West said. “When the church sold it they said it was supposed to be used for 55 and older with assisted living, but that never happened.”

The building soon fell into disrepair and became a target of vandals and graffiti artists, although local police did find it useful for training purposes. It was only a matter of time before it would be demolished, Ms. West said.

“It was kind of looming there. I’m sad to see it go, but it was a danger,” she said.

“It’s part of your history,” said Ms. Meunier. “It’s a very special place and I think of it as part of Redwood Farms.”

Unlike Elmhurst School, at least the novitiate building kept standing for a few decades after it closed, Mr. Burton said. Elmhurst was closed in 2010 and demolished in 2014.

“Both of my elementary schools don’t exist anymore,” he said.

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