East Aurora Advertiser

 School Library Once Featured Auditorium and Stage



There is a piece of history literally hiding in the shadows at the East Aurora Middle School on Main Street, and if money were no object, district employees would love the opportunity to expose it again for everyone to see.

The original part of the middle school stands at the corner of North Grove and Main streets and it was built around 1917. The second floor of the building, where the library is currently located, used to be a two-story auditorium with a balcony and skylights. The stage would face south, and the proscenium was adorned with fluted millwork. Above the stage is the saying “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” which is a Biblical verse from the book of John, and the stage is now flush with a cement wall from a capital project years ago.

The entire second story of the old auditorium is covered by a drop ceiling in the library.

An image from a 1936 East Aurora High School yearbook offers a clear view of the stage front that now hides behind the drop ceiling in the middle school library. Image provided by Aurora Town Historian

Board Member Daniel Brunson said that the old auditorium was demolished in the early 1960s to make space for an improved library. He had heard about it when he came to the district in 1968, but he didn’t realize how important it was to former students until he was an administrator for the school and began hosting tours of the building during Reunion Weekend. The library was always a disappointing stop on the tours because the mid-century design of the space was nothing like they remembered from the auditorium. 

Knowing what was still visible underneath the drop ceiling, Brunson asked maintenance workers to begin removing a few ceiling tiles for the tours.

“I asked the custodian, Tom Wright, to remove a few ceiling tiles, but he went a step further and installed a work light up there and provided a ladder,” he said. “You can’t imagine the joy these graduates had climbing up one at a time to view the biblical quotation that brought back so many fond memories. One group even volunteered to help raise money to restore the old auditorium.”

Brunson said the quote on the stage was not the most prominent feature of the space, it was actually the skylights. Dozens of skylights formed a grid pattern on the ceiling to allow light to stream in, but just like the stage, this is a feature that has been covered by several capital projects.

After removing two ceiling tiles, the quote “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” can be seen on the old stage. Photo by Shelly Ferullo

“It has long since been roofed over,” Brunson said. “It is a shame that when these renovations were done in the 1960s, little interest was given to architectural preservation.”

East Aurora resident Burt Foster graduated from the high school in 1958, and he attended kindergarten through twelfth grade in the Main Street building. He was in high school during the capital project to convert the auditorium into a library. During his senior year after the renovations, the space was a homeroom to 140 seniors.

Foster does not remember the old auditorium getting too much use before the project. The new gymnasium on the other side of the building was outfitted with bleachers to double as a larger gathering space for performances and presentations, and he remembers that space being used more than the old stage.

“I’m sure I saw performances there, but I really can’t recall seeing anything on that stage. Very few activities took place there,” he said. “I was always fascinated by the balcony though, you could walk from one hallway to the next by going through the balcony.”

Foster’s last tour of the school was about 12-years-ago.

Middle School Principal Matthew Brown would love to someday pull the drop ceiling down and re-expose that portion of the century-old building. The library was not remodeled during the most recent capital project. If it ever makes the list of priorities, Brown would like to bring two centuries together by expanding the technology opportunities for students and creating a media center while exposing the old stage to showcase the history of the building.

“Imagine this and how beautiful it would be,” Brown said. “There is so much history here.”

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