The old Murch School after modernization. Remember the trailers that used to sit here?
As DCPS students head back to school today, Murch School students are heading into brand new classrooms at their old location, 36th and Davenport Streets.
For many, it won’t be their first glimpse of the fully-modernized school. Students got a chance to drop off school supplies and meet their teachers last Friday. And on Saturday, August 18th, Mayor Muriel Bowser presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration with Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh, DCPS and DGS officials, and Murch staff.
Today, we cut the ribbon on the fully modernized @murchschool with @MayorBowser and celebrated the start of a new school year with food, fun, and games. Congratulations on your new building Murch Mustangs! pic.twitter.com/muTAy8F86y
— DC Public Schools (@dcpublicschools) August 18, 2018
@murchschool officially enters the modern era! Major props @MurchPrincipal @MurielBowser @marycheh & 100s of parents, kids, teachers, designers, contractors,& officials who made this moment possible after 89 years incl 7 years of SIT meetings! pic.twitter.com/BR3TWvRVs6
— Laura Fisher Kaiser (@laurafkaiser) August 19, 2018
Over the course of the two-year renovation, workers completely gutted and modernized the 1929 building, plus built an addition that more than doubles the school’s footprint. It’s designed to comfortably house more than 700 students, many of whom had ended up in overflow trailer classrooms prior to the renovation.
The new main entrance on Davenport Street.
Artwork in Murch’s renovated older wing.
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Sandy Fitzpatrick says
I am a Murch Mother who had three sons educated at Murch….Michael, David and Benjamin Fitzpatrick.
The Murch Moms were formed in the early 70’s with Sally Jane Heit (Schwartz)….we were a Chorus Line. Sally Jane was Washington’s Queen of Cabaret…a great songtress.
We still have a group of Murch Moms who meet twice a year for several bottles of wine….Peggy Fleming, Sandy Fitzpatrick, Anadel Rich, Louise Sullivan, Merna Guttentag. We continue to tell the
same stories over and over….teacher’s strike (I had a classroom in my house), Miss Kaufman wheedling and politicking for teachers to transfer to Murch, the Great Mary Alice Jackson who as an African American taught her mostly white 6th graders tolerance and community, and our many many Spring Bazaars.
Liz Shannon (her husband, Bill, became US Ambassador to Ireland in 1976) was President of the PTA
and I was Vice President. One of our major jobs was inspecting the heads of every Murch student for
lice.
Finally, Russell Baker who was the NYTimes Columnist and humor columnist, had children at Murch.
He wrote a famous column in the Times entitled What is a Ben W. Murch?
One of the reasons we all loved our neighborhood was because we didn’t have a definable name like Cleveland Park … we were simply the Murch neighborhood.
So many Cheers for the new school.