Story Collection to Honor the Old Building

Education began in 1954 in parts of what is now the current BACS building. Since that time, many students have passed through our halls, some the children and grandchildren of the first BACS students. There have also been many teachers who have brought life to their classrooms. We are collecting stories of people’s time here as a way of honoring the building that has housed a tremendous amount of growth, development, and love. If you have a story to share, we would love to hear it! Please follow the directions below. Also, if you’re interested in a brief history of the building, you can read about it below.

Instructions for submitting stories:

• State your first and last name
• State when your story occurred (if you aren’t sure of the exact year, make an estimate)
• State which part of the building your story occurred in (important for location tagging)
• Tell your story in 1-2 minutes on your phone or tablet (see general instructions below)
• Email your story, with a brief description, to stories@bacs.org. In your email please also include your name, the year your story occurred, and the location of the story.

Guidelines for Recording Stories:

• Stories can be recorded on phones or tablets
• Find a quiet place with minimal background noise as much as possible
• Open a recording app on your phone (VoiceMemos on iPhone, Voice Recorder on Android or similar apps)
• Either place phone on a table or hold in hand for the whole recording
• Record your story
  • Hit the record button
  • count silently to 3
  • state your name, the year and location of the story,
  • tell your story
  • count silently to 3
  • stop recording
• If possible listen to your recording to check that the recording was successful and sounds good enough. Rerecord if needed.
• Use the recording app “share” function to email your story to stories@bacs.org
  
  

Building History

The first building on the current site was built in 1954 (the primary unit – grades 1-3) with the second following in 1958 (the intermediate unit – grades 4-6). Grades 1-6 moved into these buildings while Kindergarten and 7/8 remained in DeCharms Hall. The kindergarten wing was opened in 1980. The 7/8^th grades moved out of DeCharms in 1984. This was when the second of two additions were completed, connecting the two classroom buildings, the first coming in 1982. Together these additions spread from the faculty lounge to the Pastors Office. When more classrooms were needed, to have three sections of the primary grades, the upper unit wing was built in 1991. Construction was delayed and 7^th and 8^th grades began the year in the basement of the new building while the classrooms were being finished. There are stories of the students assembling the blue lockers. The trailer was added in 1999 when the class of 2004 reached 4^th grade. The trailer was temporarily added because the class was so large and needed spill out space while in the intermediate grades. It was scheduled to be removed after those three years. That removal has been delayed.

The society building was built in 1970, sixteen years after the first building on the campus. For many of those years the school day ended at noon and gym was just recess. The stage was built years after the original building. It was added in 1982. Before that, performances in that room took place on the floor or a temporary stage. The first 8^th grade play performed on the new stage in Heilman Hall was in 1983 as noted on the backstage wall. The first stage in the school, of course, had been the one in what is now the music room.

The date of the first Christmas program has proven difficult to track down. A notice in the 1980 Bryn Athyn Post seems to indicate that it was in 1979 or perhaps 1978. It was in Heilman Hall but this was before the stage was constructed. The students performed along the long wall and the parents sat in bleachers surrounding them. It later moved to the gyms but the stage was on the wall opposite to where it is now.