How Leaders at the Old Brewer Jr High School Used the 2 Entrances

The old junior high school in Brewer used the two front doors of the building for a specific reason. Do you know what it was?

When the tan building on Somerset Street in Brewer housed the junior high school, there were chainlink fences lining both walkways to the front doors. I remember walking to school, as a young teen and standing outside those doors. It didn't matter if it was cold and snowing or sunny and hot, we were required to stand outside the school until the bell rang and the doors were unlocked.

And we didn't just mill around outside. We had to go to our assigned door. See, the door on the left was the 'boys door' and the one on the right was the 'girls door.' Boys had to line up in front of their entrance and girls stood outside the other entrance. Often there were teachers outside, to make sure we were staying in our designated areas.

Personally, I always thought it was weird. I mean, the moment we walked through those doors, we were mingling with the boys. We shared classes with the boys. So why did we have to separate when outdoors? I guess the answer is probably that school officials thought we'd be up to no good without proper supervision. But the fact is, if we wanted to misbehave, we certainly wouldn't do it outside the school.

One other thing about the building which now houses senior apartments. The hallways were so narrow back then, that they were one-way. So, if you had a class two doors down the hall, but traffic could only travel in the other direction, you had to go upstairs, down that hallway, and back downstairs to get to your class. For the record, I love the new Brewer Community School. It's beautiful and the hallways are huge.