Grade Schools

What grade school did you attend?

Do you have any pictures of your grade school?

Please send these to us.

Here is a list of some we remember.

1. Plummer Street School (at left)

2. New Mills School

3. Pray Street School

4. Central Street School

5. Randolph School

6. Pittston School

7. West Gardiner School

8. South Gardiner School

9. Winter Street School

Central Street School

Our thanks to

Dawn Thistle

Assistant Director/Special Collections Librarian

Gardiner Public Library

New Mills School

Our thanks to

Dawn Thistle

Assistant Director/Special Collections Librarian

Gardiner Public Library

Pray Street School

Our thanks to

Dawn Thistle

Assistant Director/Special Collections Librarian

Gardiner Public Library

Old Randolph Grammar

Our thanks to

Robert Getchell

Old Gardiner High School

Our thanks to

Dawn Thistle

Assistant Director/Special Collections Librarian

Gardiner Public Library

Cony, Gardiner fight songs part of the rivalry

The bands have played on through tough weather and tougher results over the schools' long history of competition.

BY RANDY WHITEHOUSESTAFF WRITER

For decades, the Gardiner and Cony school fight songs have provided the soundtrack for the football season and all of the elements that come with it.

In 1997, Gardiner faced Bangor in a legendary Eastern A championship game known to locals as “The Snow Bowl.” Gardiner’s pep band followed the team up Interstate 95 to Bangor’s Cameron Stadium. Just as it had done all season, it was prepared to fire up the team and its fans with the school fight song, “Gardiner High School,” whenever the Tigers scored.

The snow and freezing temperatures couldn’t stop the Tigers, who upset top-seeded Bangor, 20-6. But it did ice the brass and woodwind sections of the pep band.

“The band’s instruments froze during the game,” recalled Rob Munzing, Gardiner’s coach at the time, “so all the fans and the band and cheerleaders hummed the fight song after those scores.”

Chilly, damp conditions nearly muted the Cony band at last year’s thrilling Class B state championship win over Kennebunk.

“The moisture in the air ruins the padding (under the keys) on the (woodwind) instruments, and a re-pad job is anywhere from $200 ts $500 per instrument, if the whole instrument needs to be re-padded,” Cony band director Maria Sleeper said. “We did sustain some damage to our percussion equipment because the moisture warps the heads of the percussion equipment.”

Yet there was no question that the band would play on as the Rams rallied to a 30-23 win and their first ever state title, Sleeper added.

“It was pretty amazing to be part of that,” she said. “The kids were really excited that they could be there. Any chance we got to play, we tried to.”

Whatever role their respective fight songs played in inspiring Gardiner and Cony to some of the most memorable wins in their history, the fact is those tunes are an integral part of the overall football experience at both schools.

Unless Rams fans decide to break out in an a cappella version of their fight song “Spirit of Cony,” only Gardiner’s alma mater will be heard at Hoch Field Friday night when the two schools renew their rivalry.

The Gardiner pep band hopes to play it multiple times over the course of the evening. Tradition holds that they break it out whenever the Tigers score, and after the game if they win.

Although some will sing along with the lyrics — “Gardiner High School, Gardiner High School, May we ever stand, Honest, faithful and courageous, Loyal to our Land,” fans usually clap along with the music, according to Gardiner High School music director David Walker, “People definitely recognize the melody, and we enjoy playing it as many times as we can,” said Walker, who has been at Gardiner for 21 years.

College football fans should recognize the melody, which was borrowed from “On, Wisconsin,” the University of Wisconsin’s fight song. High schools throughout the country frequently use the melodies of well-known college fight songs for their own school songs.

Walker learned in college just how much “On, Wisconsin” can boost the energy of the crowd. He was a member of the University of Maine pep band that followed the 1993 national championship hockey team to the Frozen Four in Milwaukee, Wis. With a large contingent of Wisconsin fans in attendance (the Badgers had been upset in the earlier rounds of the NCAA tournament), the band often followed its own signature song, the “Maine Stein Song,” with “On, Wisconsin” to get the locals on the Black Bears’ side.

“Little did I know I would come to Gardiner and be playing that song over and over again for many years,” he said.

Little is known about the origin of either Gardiner or Cony’s fight song. “Spirit of Cony” — which begins “We built our school upon a hill, And Cony is its name” — is believed to be an entirely original composition. But it was nearly lost forever. Former Cony band director Dwight Tibbetts once had to cobble together lyrics from various sources to put the complete song in writing.

“People knew the song by rote, but it wasn’t in writing anywhere,” said Tibbetts, who retired in 2012 after 32 years as a music teacher and band director for Augusta schools. “I wrote it out so the band could continue playing it.”

Fans get a copy of those lyrics with their game programs at Cony home games. Like Gardiner, Cony’s band plays the song as the team takes the field, after touchdowns and victories.

“I also will strategically place it somewhere if we’re down or there’s a time out. I might play it then to try to pump them up,” Sleeper said.

Students from both schools start learning their song in middle school, if not earlier. Members of the band, many of whom are athletes from other sports themselves, must learn the melody quickly once they join the band.

And don’t forget to bring the pep.

“We have a good time doing it,” Walker said. “The kids enjoy it and try to bring an element of energy to it to get the team going and the crowd going.”

And just like the players, the band loves to hear the crowd get involved.

“If they want to sing, it’s just icing on the cake,” Sleeper said.

Barring icing on the instruments, clapping along will be good enough.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33

Top 100 Hits of 1972/Top 100 Songs of 1972

1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack

2. Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O'Sullivan

3. American Pie - Don McLean

4. Without You - Nilsson

5. The Candy Man - Sammy Davis Jr.

6. I Gotcha - Joe Tex

7. Lean On Me - Bill Withers

8. Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me - Mac Davis

9. Brand New Key - Melanie

10. Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast - Wayne Newton

11. Let's Stay Together - Al Green

12. Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Looking Glass

13. Oh Girl - The Chi-Lites

14. Nice to Be With You - Gallery

15. My Ding-A-Ling - Chuck Berry

16. (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right - Luther Ingram

17. Heart of Gold - Neil Young

18. Betcha By Golly, Wow - The Stylistics

19. I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers

20. Ben - Michael Jackson

21. The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Robert John

22. Outa-Space - Billy Preston

23. Slippin' Into Darkness - War

24. Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress) - The Hollies

25. How Do You Do - Mouth and MacNeal

26. Song Sung Blue - Neil Diamond

27. A Horse With No Name - America

28. Popcorn - Hot Butter

29. Everybody Plays the Fool - The Main Ingredient

30. Precious and Few - Climax

31. Last Night I Didn't Get to Sleep At All - The 5th Dimension

32. Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues

33. Go All the Way - The Raspberries

34. Too Late to Turn Back Now - Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose

35. Back Stabbers - The O'Jays [Amazon MP3]

36. Down by the Lazy River - The Osmonds

37. Sunshine (Go Away Today) - Jonathan Edwards

38. Starting All Over Again - Mel and Tim

39. Day After Day - Badfinger

40. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time) - Elton John

41. Rockin' Robin - Michael Jackson

42. Beautiful Sunday - Daniel Boone

43. Scorpio - Dennis Coffey and The Detroit Guitar Band

44. Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens

45. The City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie

46. Garden Party - Rick Nelson

47. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash

48. Burning Love - Elvis Presley

49. Clean Up Woman - Betty Wright

50. Hold Your Head Up - Argent

51. Jungle Fever - The Chakachas

52. Everything I Own - Bread

53. In the Rain - The Dramatics

54. Look What You Done for Me - Al Green

55. The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A. - Donna Fargo

56. Bang a Gong (Get It On) - T. Rex

57. Mother and Child Reunion - Paul Simon

58. Where Is the Love - Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

59. I'm Still In Love With You - Al Green

60. Layla - Derek and The Dominos

61. Day Dreaming - Aretha Franklin

62. The Way of Love - Cher

63. Black & White - Three Dog Night

64. Sylvia's Mother - Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show

65. Hurting Each Other - The Carpenters

66. Coconut - Nilsson

67. Puppy Love - Donny Osmond

68. You Don't Mess Around With Jim - Jim Croce

69. Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

70. A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done - Sonny and Cher

71. Joy - Apollo 100

72. Anticipation - Carly Simon

73. Never Been to Spain - Three Dog Night

74. Kiss an Angel Good Morning - Charlie Pride

75. School's Out - Alice Cooper

76. Saturday In the Park - Chicago

77. Drowning In the Sea of Love - Joe Simon

78. Use Me - Bill Withers

79. Family Affair - Sly and The Family Stone

80. Troglodyte (Cave Man) - Jimmy Castor Bunch

81. The Witch Queen of New Orleans - Redbone

82. Freddie's Dead (Theme from 'Superfly') - Curtis Mayfield

83. Power of Love - Joe Simon

84. Ain't Understanding Mellow - Jerry Butler and Brenda Lee Eager

85. Taxi - Harry Chapin

86. Don't Say You Don't Remember - Beverly Bremers

87. Sealed With a Kiss - Bobby Vinton

88. I Saw the Light - Todd Rundgren

89. Motorcycle Mama - Sailcat

90. Day By Day - Godspell Soundtrack

91. Roundabout - Yes

92. Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne

93. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) - The New Seekers

94. Vincent / Castles In the Air - Don Mclean

95. Baby Let Me Take You (In My Arms) - The Detroit Emeralds

96. Speak to the Sky - Rick Springfield

97. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) - The Hillside Singers

98. Walkin' In the Rain With the One I Love - Love Unlimited

99. Get On the Good Foot, Pt. 1 - James Brown

100. Pop That Thang - The Isley Brothers

About Gardiner, Maine

Gardiner is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,961 at the 2020 census. Popular with tourists, Gardiner is noted for its culture and old architecture. Gardiner is a nationally accredited Main Street America community. It is included in the Augusta, Maine micropolitan New England City and Town Area.

The Gardiner Common

Originally known as Brunswick Square, this common is one of Maine’s earliest designed landscapes. Robert Gardiner, who donated the property in 1824, sought to provide a public walk and parade ground while increasing the property value of his land around the park. He also wanted to improve the appearance of the town founded by his grandfather, requiring in his will that the town maintain existing rows of trees, separate walkways from roads with an ornamental fence, and add no permanent buildings. Should the town not abide by these stipulations, the three-acre site would revert to Gardiner’s heirs.

Early improvements included footpaths that cross the common and a fence made of granite bollards with wooden cross rails, which remains intact today. A Shingle-style bandstand built in the 1920s was replaced in the mid-1970s. Numerous memorials have also been added, including a Civil War memorial from 1875, the 20-foot-diameter Palmer fountain, the Stimson drinking fountain, a memorial to poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, and a war memorial honoring those lost between the Spanish-American and Vietnam wars. During World War II, the town donated the Palmer fountain’s Neptune statue and the Civil War monument’s iron fence and cannons as scrap metal; the fountain sculpture was later replaced with a contemporary design in the 1970s.

Today the common is bordered by churches, Greek Revival-style homes, a school, and a small commercial business. It is heavily used with a contemporary children’s playground, a perimeter walking path, and open space for public events.

2010 Census

As of the census of 2010, there were 5,800 people, 2,487 households, and 1,550 families living in the city. The population density was 370.6 inhabitants per square mile (143.1/km2). There were 2,778 housing units at an average density of 177.5 per square mile (68.5/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 95.4% White, 0.3% African American, 0.7% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.0% of the population.

There were 2,487 households, of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.8% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 37.7% were non-families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.82.

The median age in the city was 40.9 years. 21.7% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.3% were from 25 to 44; 30.1% were from 45 to 64; and 14.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.8% male and 51.2% female.

Historical Population

• Census Pop. %±

• 1810 1,029 —

• 1820 2,053 99.5%

• 1830 3,709 80.7%

• 1840 5,042 35.9%

• 1850 6,486 28.6%

• 1860 4,487 -30.8%

• 1870 4,497 0.2%

• 1880 4,439 -1.3%

• 1890 5,491 23.7%

• 1900 5,501 0.2%

• 1910 5,311 -3.5%

• 1920 5,475 3.1%

• 1930 5,609 2.4%

• 1940 6,044 7.8%

• 1950 6,649 10.0%

• 1960 6,897 3.7%

• 1970 6,685 -3.1%

• 1980 6,485 -3.0%

• 1990 6,746 4.0%

• 2000 6,198 -8.1%

• 2010 5,800 -6.4%

• 2020 5,961 2.8%

Notable People

The Park and Palmer Fountain in 1909. Melted down for the war effort, the bronze statue was later replaced.

• Louis J. Brann, 56th Governor of Maine

• George Burgess, the first Episcopal bishop of Maine

• Henry Chadwick, journalist

• Charles R. Clason, U.S. Congressman

• Patrick Colwell, Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives

• Burton M. Cross, Maine's 61st and 63rd Governor

• Henry Dearborn, physician, and a veteran of both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812

• William Diamond, Maine State Senator

• Charles Dow, Maine legislator and businessman

• George Evans, U.S. Congressman and Senator

• Barzillai Gannett, U.S. Congressman

• Silvester Gardiner, physician and founder

• Robert Hallowell Gardiner, grandson of Silvester Gardiner and Gardiner's first mayor

• Gay M. Grant, Maine State Legislator and author.

• John W. Heselton, U.S. Congressman

• Horace A. Hildreth, ambassador and the 59th Governor of Maine

• Henrietta Hooker, botanist and educator

• Julia Ward Howe, social activist and poet

• Edward Hunter, army officer

• George Kenney, World War II general

• John Hiram Lathrop, educator

• Earle McCormick, Maine State Senator

• Alton Morgan, Maine state legislator

• William Clark Noble, sculptor

• James Parker, U.S. Congressman

• George H. Ray, Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly

• Chester I. Reed, attorney/politician

• Laura E. Richards, author and poet

• Robert Hallowell Richards, mining engineer and metallurgist

• Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet

• Arthur Sager, track and field athlete

• George Plaisted Sanderson, Civil War veteran

• Isaac D. Seyburn, Civil War merchant captain

• Albert Spear, President of the Maine Senate

• John R. Swanton, anthropologist

• Dorothy Clarke Wilson, author

• William E. Wing, silent-film screenwriter

• Henry Aiken Worcester, 19th century minister

Quimby Field

“The Quimby Athletic Field of Gardiner was enlarged to make a combination baseball and football field at a cost of $17,257.08 of which $1,368.50 was spent for material.

There were 11,700 cubic yards of earth moved and 300 cubic yards of ledge had to be taken out. All was done by hand.

Two grandstands 50 feet long were constructed from lumber salvaged at the Veteran’s Administration Grounds at Togus. They were roofed with metal roofing, painted with a heavy coat of asphalt aluminum paint. These stands will seat 300 people each. A dressing room was built beneath one and a lavatory and urinal installed. A concrete floor was built for possible installation of showers. A 200 foot water line and a 200 foot sewer line was laid from the stand to the city’s main line.

Two dugouts were built and painted, one made portable, it may be easily hauled off the grounds when football season starts.

This project was started May 4, 1934 and completed January 24, 1935. It employed an average crew of 40 men, but at the time of a strike at a local show shop 102 men were given work here for a period of 4 weeks.

The field is now in good condition and used most of the time by two baseball leagues, the Twilight League and the Junior League. Public sentiment can be easily judged by the large attendance at these games.”

According to the Quimby field Facebook page, the field continues to get a lot of use as a baseball field and a football field by the local Junior sport teams. When visiting the location, neither of the grandstands mentioned in the FERA report were there. The last mention of the grandstand was in a 1977 newspaper article. There is a toilet at the east side of the park but there is no indication as to the construction date.

Student Handbook

Did we have such a book when in high school?

Gardiner Area High School

• Grades: 9-12

• Students: 640 students

• Student:Teacher Ratio: 13:1

• Minority Enrollment: 5%

• Graduation Rate: 85-89% (Top 50% in ME)

• Overall Testing Rank: Bottom 50%

• Math Proficiency: 30-34% (Btm 50%)

• Reading Proficiency: 50-54% (Btm 50%)

• Diversity Score: 0.10 (Btm 50%)

Gardiner Housing Market

In February 2022, Gardiner home prices were up 35.3% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $223K. On average, homes in Gardiner sell after 22 days on the market compared to 25 days last year. There were 5 homes sold in February this year, down from 7 last year.

History

Located at the head of navigation on the Kennebec River, Gardiner was founded as Gardinerstown Plantation in 1754 by Dr. Silvester Gardiner, a prominent Boston physician. Dr. Gardiner had made a fortune as a drug merchant, with one apothecary shop in Massachusetts and two in Connecticut, and became a principal proprietor of the Kennebec Purchase within the old Plymouth Patent. He proved a tireless promoter for his development, which once comprised over 100,000 acres (400 km2).

Dr. Gardiner induced a gristmill builder, saw millwright, house carpenter and wheelwright to settle here, as well as a man he enslaved named Isaac "Hazard" Stockbridge. Houses, mills, a church and a blockhouse were built. Situated at the confluence of the Kennebec River and Cobbosseecontee Stream, which has falls that drop 130 feet, the location was recognized by him as ideal for water-powered mills. Gardinerstown, set off from Pittston in 1760, became center of the regional economy.

The wilderness toils of Dr. Gardiner would end, however, with the Revolution. Loyal to the Crown, he fled Boston in 1776 when the British army evacuated. But his settlement lived on without him, and in 1803 was incorporated as the town of Gardiner. From the early 19th century until the Civil War, shipbuilding and trade were primary industries. It would become a city in 1849, at which time ten large riverfront wharves served shipping. Lumber, in vast quantities, passed through Gardiner. Tanneries and shoe factories prospered.

The city became known worldwide for exporting ice. Each winter men cut large blocks from the Kennebec River, then covered the ice with sawdust in warehouses to keep it frozen into summer. It was loaded year-round on large vessels for shipment throughout the United States and world. Gardiner was noted for its pristine Kennebec ice, harvested at the furthest point upriver that deep-draft vessels could reach.

In 1851, the city was connected by railroad. One of the first workable steam automobiles in America was built in Gardiner in 1858. Beginning in the 1860s, paper mills flourished, as did the commercial ice industry between the 1880s and 1920s. By the 1960s, however, many mills declined and closed, sending Gardiner's economy plummeting. The former mill town is now largely a bedroom community for people who work in Augusta, the state's capital, as well as Bath Iron Works in Bath. Some residents commute as far as the Portland area. The city is endowed with a great deal of antique architecture, much of it beautifully restored. In 1980, the entire downtown historic district became one of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Kennebec County, Maine.