South Portland’s Memorial Middle School. Sean Murphy / For The Forecaster
Memorial Middle School is holding a celebration to say goodbye to the building on Tuesday, May 16, from 5 to 7 p.m.
A consolidated middle school is being built that will open in the fall. The new school replaces Memorial Middle School and Mahoney Middle School, both of which are to be destructed. A Final Assembly at Mahoney will also be conducted on June 1 to say goodbye to that school.
Alumni and staff of Memorial Middle School, as well as community members, are invited to the campus on Tuesday to say goodbye to the building and celebrate its history.
“Memorial was built in 1967,” said Ellen Benson, JMG teacher and alumni of the school. “It was built because they wanted to do two middle schools in the city … because I think Mahoney was getting too big and too crowded.”
“We’re inviting all past alumni and former staff and really it is the last time the building will be open for the community to come in,” Benson said, “… anyone that really wants to come in and get one last look.”
A special ceremony for the school will be held from 6:15 to 6:30 p.m. Memorial’s first principal Terry Christy will be in attendance. Christy is 84 years old, having taken the job when he was 27. John Daly, a principal and staff member who worked for the school for over 20 years will also be present. Additionally, Martha Blake, a beloved teacher who started at the school in 1967 and retired in 2010 will attend as well.
“We’re going to have a lot of history here,” Benson said.
The event will include music, building tours, alumni band performances, and a silent auction. The auction will be for some of the items in the building including old steins and a giant letter M from the gym.
There will also be a historical timeline and memorabilia walk.
“The real cool thing that my students are working on is we’re gonna do a live — a giant timeline that is going to be on the walls going from 1967 to 2023,” Benson said. “It is going to have teachers that have been here years or more, it’s going to have facts about the building that people didn’t already know, it’s going to be really cool.”
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