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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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Tag Archives: Newark
$100 Million For Newark Schools
From the Wall Street Journal: Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of … Continue reading
Doings in the Hive of the Three Busy B’s
Office parties—when the staff lets their hair down, the boss awkwardly pretends to be “one of the gang”, and at least one person gets embarrassingly drunk—are a staple of the corporate world. These days, such events are limp, pathetic affairs, … Continue reading
Something Beautiful
The April, 1915 issue of The School-Arts Magazine (“For Those Interested in Drawing & Handicraft”) ran a flowery piece, “Something Beautiful”, extolling the “rhythmic and refined” qualities of the Ridge Street School and Newark Normal School. Preceding the glowing praise … Continue reading
Before and McAfter
Guilbert & Betelle designed a number of banks for Newark in the early 1920s. They are frustratingly difficult to track down, because few reveal their addresses, or are probably drastically altered in appearance. Well this one, the United States Savings … Continue reading
Weequahic Walking Tour
If you read my last post, you know that over a weekend in August I visited Guilbert & Betelle’s Weequahic High School and took a tour of Newark’s historic High Street/Lower Broad Street area. Both were illuminating and entertaining. If … Continue reading