James Betelle, Where Are You?

The following article by JOB appeared in The American School Board Journal, January, 1926. In it, he outlines the unique structure of the SO/M school system, accompanied by photographs and floorplans of the four initial grade schools. His description is rather understated, considering how huge the project was; the district had essentially planned to build, [...]

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The December, 1931 issue of The Architectural Forum featured the article, Nine Senior High School Buildings. Two Guilbert & Betelle projects were illustrated; Great Neck High School and The Bronxville School). The text and illustrations for The Bronxville School are shown here. Interestingly, this school was a collaboration with the architect Harry Leslie Walker, who had [...]

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This short piece appeared in the Arts section of the August 24th, 1931 issue of Time Magazine. While it doesn’t offer much new factual information about JOB, it does paint a more rounded picture of his life than what we know so far. Hey, he was bald! Note: Updated to include the accompanying photograph and [...]

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It appears that the Betelle’s had a break-in at their home while they were away during the winter of 1941. The full account was printed in the June 6, 1941 edition of The Millburn & Short Hills Item: $60,000 GEM THEFT HERE Gaining entrance through a first floor window thieves obtained more than $60,000 in jewelry [...]

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South Mountain School in South Orange, New Jersey, was the last of the original slate of grade schools to be built for the South Orange-Maplewood School District by Guilbert & Betelle. Originally called The Wyoming Avenue School, it was completed in February, 1930. There is frustratingly little historical information about it, relative to the other [...]

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