Sunnyside School Then and Now

511 Sunnyside Avenue

I was a Sunnyside kid, just like my mother and my grandmother. My great-grandfather would have been a Sunnyside kid if the school had been built earlier. In Merritt Beeson’s day, school was held wherever there was space because the dedicated school buildings were overflowing with students.

Indeed, the original South Side School met in a store building during the mid-1880s at what is now 208 S Second Avenue. A Santa Fe land office building was later moved to the current Sunnyside site and it was used until around 1890 when it was sold and moved to the Mayrath farm. That left South Dodge without a school for several years. This was around the time of the exodus from the townsite of South Dodge so that makes sense.

The area south of the river began growing again and by 1911 parents were considering establishing a rural district if Dodge City couldn’t accommodate them.

The Dodge City district was able to provide a building on the same Sunnyside site and by the Fall of 1912, it was “practically overflowing.” An addition was approved in July of 1913.

The students kept coming so voters approved a $10,000 bond for a new South Side School in April of 1920.

Construction began later that year and students moved to the new building, which they renamed Sunnyside School, in the Spring of 1921. The upper floor had four classrooms and the basement held a playroom and assembly hall. In the beginning, only three of the classrooms were used but a fourth teacher was added by 1924.

This photo has been through some things but that’s my grandmother, Irene Beeson (shielding her eyes) with her class on the front steps of the school. It was taken around 1926 or 1927.

A new addition was built around 1927 and by 1928, Sunnyside had seven teachers for 199 students.

The population continued growing and another large addition was promised around 1946 but it took a few years to break ground. Construction was underway in 1950 for a massive project which included a new combination gymnasium/auditorium/cafeteria, kitchen, kindergarten room, music room, etc. The dedication was finally held on February 25, 1952.

Another addition was approved in June of 1958 and I believe this was for four more classrooms and new restrooms which were added on the west side of the school in 1959. A wing was also added at the southwest end at some point.

Side note: I was so jelly when I learned my mother took her pony to school for show and tell.

Enrollment kept increasing and by the time I began kindergarten in the Fall of 1980, we were stashed in a mobile classroom at the south end of the school. There were just so many kids. It was a good thing we had an enormous playground because we needed that space!

This is how Sunnyside looked when I started school. I remember using the bike rack.

The district made plans to replace the original section of the school in 1981 and of course, had to figure out the funding. They also had to find classroom spaces for the displaced students. During the 1981-82 school year, additional time was tacked onto our school days so we could end our year a few weeks early. That allowed the demolition and reconstruction project to get underway.

The lower grades continued to attend Sunnyside throughout construction of the addition. Some classes were held in the gymnatorium and the older kids were possibly sent to Richland Valley, which was vacant by that time.

The new addition with those fancy cursive letters was dedicated on May 15, 1983. I don’t remember much about how it looked inside but I do remember the new school smell. The hallways were like a maze. I don’t know how I ever made it to Mrs. Roesti’s fourth grade classroom.

The new classroom space still wasn’t enough and several of us were bussed to Richland Valley for fifth and sixth grades. Since that time, the west end of Sunnyside School has been utterly transformed by multiple additions.

This is how Sunnyside School looks today:

I’m old enough to remember when certain people thought they could close Sunnyside after building Beeson Elementary. It’s nice to see the *still* growing population of South Dodge continuing to prove them wrong.

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