Touring the School Grounds

Bundle up. The forecast for this week is showing highs in the low 30's and low's in the low teens. We're touring the old school grounds and it's cold out there. For the non-intrepids who prefer a virtual tour, start by downloading the map we put together for Powwow 2000. Thank you, Jackie Fear-Segal for designing and thank you Dickinson College for publishing this map.

For those brave souls willing to walk along, let's go.

We are headed up Pratt Avenue towards the main part of the original campus. Our first stop will be at the bandstand straight ahead. Pratt Avenue comes to an end here - now we are on the western border of the campus. As you look to either side of the campus, this quad forms a rectangle bordered by buildings and sidewalk which surround the green lawn. The bandstand is not on the perimeter, but at a location more central to the campus. See it? If you're a recipient of the weekly INDIAN HELPER newspaper's I've been sending out, you may remember reading about the MAN-ON-THE-BAND-STAND. Nope, it's not Pratt. In fact, it's not even a man. The MOTBS was the persona taken on by the editor of those weekly newspapers, Marianna Burgess.

Let's go have a look.

This gazebo is not the original bandstand, but rather a replica. The one that stood here in 1879 was a little smaller, but similar in design. The white picket rails and cupola shape with two sets of steps approaching the platform are all reminiscent of the original structure. We can go up now. Standing here, you can see why this was a perfect spot from which to watch the comings and goings of the school children.

A hundred years ago, you would have noticed how this campus was segregated....girls to the south (on our right) and boys to the north. This certainly would have been the case in the earliest days while Pratt was here. Later on, after Pratt left, the discipline was more relaxed and the children might have mingled more (boys and girls).
The grounds here are the parade grounds where the boys had their drill practice every evening. They marched in companies in their uniforms - military style. The girls also had drill practice, but not every day.

On Sunday afternoons, concerts were given here at the bandstand. The Indian School
Band was well-known and sometimes travelled with the famous football teams during the later years of the school. When they had concerts and parades here, people from town came to enjoy the performances. Dennison Wheelock (Oneida)was a Carlisle graduate who became the bandleader. This replica bandstand was dedicated to him, and bears his name - hence the "Wheelock Bandstand." Carlisle Indian School Band.

Look at the building just to the right of us. Those are the Coren Apartments where the teachers lived. That's our next stop.