Happy (Belated) 100th Birthday, Greens Farms El!

Uh oh — we missed it!

Last year, Greens Farms Elementary School turned 100 years old. That’s quite a milestone.

The original school.

Fortunately, Suzanne Sherman Propp was on it.

The longtime (and much loved) GFS music teacher commemorated the centennial with a small book of history. And, of course, songs.

Published privately, it honors the tens of thousands of students and teachers who have passed through its classic halls.

Suzanne Sherman Propp’s book. 

Propp’s book will be on display today, in the auditorium.

Westport’s elementary schools are celebrating Culture & International Day. With the theme “Together We Belong,” GFS students and staff are invited to bring a poster or artifacts representing their background.

Propp will present a slide show, with info from her book. (Culture & International Day continues this evening, for parents and families.)

Bulletin board display, for today’s event.

Here’s some of what students and others will learn: The school was built on land originally occupied by the Paugussett Native American tribe. It later became the Bumblebee Hill onion farm.

From 1713 to 1905, a small school sat on that site, or nearby.

All of the land in the area became the property of John Green — hence the area’s name, Green’s Farms.

(Propp notes that there is “much debate about the appropriateness of the apostrophe.” Interestingly, she calls it Green’s Farms School — but the Westport Public Schools website refers to Greens Farms Elementary School.)

The main part of the building was designed by architect Charles Cutler, in a Tudor Revival style. Built to accommodate 200 students, the original entrance was the brick arched doorway facing the Post Road and softball field.

The original entrance.

In 1935 — 10 years after the school opened — artist Robert Garrett Thew crated artwork, to enhance the entrance.

With Works Progress Administration (WPA) money, he designed a fountain, with a bronze statue of his daughter Robin dipping her foot in the water, and metal gulls flying overhead. Today, that area is called “the Fountain Room.”

The fountain area, today.

In 1950 — as Westport’s post-war population boom began — the school was renovated to serve many more students and staff. The entrance was moved to the current site, facing Morningside Drive South.

In 1983 — as the student population plummeted — Greens Farms was closed. Two much newer elementary schools — Burr Farms (built in 1957) and Hillspoint (1960) were also shuttered.

In 1986, GFS was repurposed as the Westport Arts Center. Classrooms became studios for dozens of painters, sculptors and musicians.

The gym was turned into a state-of-the-art auditorium, dedicated to pianist Heida Hermanns by her husband, Artur Holde.

In 1991, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Six years later, with enrollment rising, the town reclaimed the building as a school. Artists — unhappy at losing their studios — moved the WAC to Riverside Avenue.

In 1999, the “new” Greens Farms opened. Renovations included 25 new classrooms, an auditorium, gym, art room, music rooms, offices and meeting spaces. Students came from the Long Lots and Kings Highway districts.

Greens Farms Elementary School, today.

Propp — who was hired by principal Angela Wormser, after a long career in the music industry, when she answered a request to write a school song, then performed it in the pouring rain — includes that tune, and others, in her book.

The reopening was a chance for the school to create new traditions. They created a new mascot: a giraffe. (Surprise! Many people expected a bee, in honor of “Bumblebee Hill.”)

Suzanne Sherman Propp.

Traditions are important, Propp says. There were 400 students that first “new” year; every fall, 80 new ones enter.

All 2,500 youngsters since 1999 have learned the Greens Farms school song (“Plant the Seed”); the “GFS Rules!” tune; “Patches” (about the mascot, who took an imaginary trip around the world); “Kindness” (written by students with their music teacher, to celebrate the life of a teacher who died shortly after retiring), and “In Wonderful Westport” (composed by 2nd graders studying the town’s history).

Suzanne Sherman Propp (center, in back) with young Greens Farms Elementary School singers, in 2018.

Greens Farms students also learn “It Makes a Difference.” That song, celebrating diversity and empathy, was written for Diversity Day at the request of late assistant principal Beth Heroux.

The “new” Greens Farms Elementary School — now 27 years old — already has plenty of traditions.

They build on a 101-year legacy.

EXTRA CREDIT: Propp dedicated her book to the Greens Farms principals who, since the reopening, have “helped students navigate their young lives, as they pass through the hallways”: Angie Wormser, Dan Sullivan, John Bayers, Kevin Cazzetta and Brian Byrne. She also honors all those who came before.

(“06880” regularly covers Westport schools, history and residents — and, like today, their intersection. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)