James Betelle, Where Are You?

This article is from the 1928-1929 Yearbook of The American School and University. Much of the text is similar to the CHS article from American School Board Journal, which came out about the same time. It’s interesting to note that Betelle refers to “Messrs. Guilbert & Betelle, the architects for all these new buildings”, as [...]

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In 1925 Betelle designed a new science hall for Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. The November, 1926 edition of the Lincoln University Herald described the structure, as well as outlining the needs for campus expansion. The Herald listed Guilbert & Betelle as the school’s “Official Architects”, but they would eventually design only a boy’s dormitory and [...]

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One of the most important contracts for Guilbert & Betelle were the schools of the South Orange and Maplewood School District in New Jersey, where they would eventually design all of the new school buildings up through 1930. The creation of the first school they built, The Marshall School, (named for retiring Board president James [...]

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The December, 1931 issue of The Architectural Forum article, “Nine Senior High School Buildings” featured two Guilbert & Betelle schools; Great Neck High School and The Bronxville School. The text and illustrations for Great Neck High School (now Great Neck North High School) are shown here. While Betelle is on record as preferring the Collegiate [...]

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Guilbert and Betelle are represented in the 14th Edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica (1929, vol. 20; SARS to SORC), under the heading School Architecture. It’s a one-paragraph blurb describing Columbia High School, accompanied by the first floor plan (which incorrectly places CHS in South Orange; the building is in Maplewood): “The Columbia high school, South Orange [...]

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