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James Oscar Betelle (1879-1954) was a Newark, NJ based civic architect. Public schools were his speciality—if you grew up in the New York Tri-State area, there's a good chance you went to one.
Betelle drifted in obscurity for sixty years, until the day I paused to wonder, "who designed my school?" More…
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- Biographical (21)
- Diary (22)
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Category Archives: Diary
Schools of Summit, New Jersey
After completing my tour of CHS’s clock tower on a Saturday morning in April, I continued on to check out the Guilbert & Betelle schools built in the nearby town of Summit. The firm designed the high school and a … Continue reading
A Climb Up Columbia’s Clock Tower
This past Saturday I had the rare treat of being given a tour of the clock room and astronomical observatory of Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. As an alumnus of CHS, the massive clock tower has always been … Continue reading
Hallowed Ground
I finally visited Ernest Guilbert’s gravesite. I had made an attempt a while ago, but the office was closed. Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, NJ, is over 150 acres, so I wasn’t about to look the hard way. I went directly … Continue reading
The Ghost of New Rochelle High School
My first exposure to New Rochelle High School was a series of photographs in a 1932 article on school architecture written by James Betelle. While I had been pretty familiar with the traditional English Gothic and Neo-Classical designs of his … Continue reading
More Newark, More Schools
Last week I headed down to Newark to learn more about James Betelle’s tragically short-lived partner, Ernest F. Guilbert. I scored quickly by finding Guilbert’s obituary at the library, which painted a pretty good portrait of his life and career. … Continue reading