South Mountain School, South Orange, N.J.

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 schools that were constructed at the time.

These images are from the May, 1932 issue of Architecture magazine, from The Trend in School Building Design, an article by Betelle profiling many of Guilbert & Betelle recent work. It features a period photograph of the school and plans of the first and second floor (the basement is not shown).

Continue reading →

Betelle Census Data

Leave a reply

All the Census data on JOB. There is exactly one Betelle listed in the USA. He has no memory of James. “Harry” is most likely James, as the birth year matches.

1880 census – Wilmington, New Castle Co, DE,
Film #1254119
NA Film Number – T9-0119
p. 318 D
Occupation
Name /Relationship /Marital Status /Gender /Race /Age /Birthplace /occupation /Fathers Birthplace
John W. BETELLE Self M Male W 33 DE Clerk In Freight Office DE DE
Annie BETELLE Wife M Fem W 29 DE Keeping House DE PA
Oscar BETELLE Son S Male W 8 DE At School DE DE
Harry BETELLE Son S Male W 1 DE DE DE
Emma BETELLE Sister S Fem W 19 DE DE DE

Continue reading →

Office Space

Leave a reply

According to my source of all things Betelle:

“Betelle’s offices were in the Chamber of Commerce building Newark. Maybe they have leasing records that show when he occupied the offices, and who took over the office. I can’t imagine that his company simply dwindled to the point he was the last employee. Possibly there were some second hands that took over and reincorporated under a new name. That said, Academic Gothic was truly out of fashion by 1954! He might have just wrapped it up around WWII and called it a day.

“Also, since Betelle lives in Short Hills, I wondered what their library would have. Sometimes people just dump things on the local library. I’d be curious what Betelle’s house looks like. Also, there would have been a will. There was an estate that had to be discharged. Betelle designed the hall of records, it’d be nice if we found the details of his estate there!”

I’ve had this urge to find the exact office where his firm was, and convince the current tenant to let me dig around. You never know what you might find in some forgotten storage room…

Vineland High School, Vineland, N.J.

Betelle designed Vineland High School (now Landis Middle School) in Vineland, New Jersey. There is a good website dedicated to the history of the school, containing a nice overview of the Collegiate Gothic style Betelle employed:

“Exterior style was carefully chosen to blend and harmonize with surroundings. Modified Collegiate Gothic was favored by J. O. Betelle for reasons of scholastic character and other practical points that recommended it for use in a large city school like Landis School. In the Collegiate Gothic style, windows could be as high and wide as needed with a relatively small proportion of wall surface. Also, windows could be arranged irregularly without detracting from the general appearance. Collegiate Gothic was selected for economical reasons as well.”

“Columbia High School, South Orange and Maplewood, N.J.”

James Betelle wrote many articles for educational journals of the day, most notably The American School Board Journal. This one is a brief look at the major features of Columbia High School, which opened its doors in 1927. The article was published in the January, 1928 issue of ASBJ.

COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL, SOUTH ORANGE AND MAPLEWOOD, N.J.
Designed by Messrs. Guilbert & Betelle, Architects, Newark, N.J.

chs 1930

It may be recalled that in the special Building Number of the Journal for January, 1926, several of the new grade schools in South Orange and Maplewood were illustrated in connection with an article describing the community and the local point-of-view and objectives in the school-building program. With the grade school situation taken care of temporarily, attention has been given to a senior-high school building, which is located in the geographical and population center of the two communities. This school, known as the Columbia high school, is now completed and occupied, and is illustrated in this issue.

Continue reading →