Spring Garden Clean-up at Woodhull School

Woodhull Intermediate School’s fifth grade dual language students recently put the valuable lessons they learned through the Learners Who LEAD initiative into action by participating in a spring cleanup event in the courtyard.

This student-led project, with support from their teachers, involved cleaning the pond, weeding, planting new flowers and spreading mulch in the garden beds.

The Learners Who LEAD program, which launched this year at Woodhull, is dedicated to teaching students the importance of community service, with a focus on addressing the needs of both the school and the broader community.

“Through this initiative, our students are gaining a deeper understanding of how service can positively impact the places where they live, learn and grow, as well as the profound sense of accomplishment that comes from contributing to the world beyond themselves,” Woodhull Principal Stephanie Campbell said.

Woodhull celebrated its 58th anniversary in January. The building was erected on a site that had been purchased more than 15 years earlier and once was considered as the location for the new high school that was ultimately constructed on what were once the grounds of the sprawling H. Bellas Hess estate.

The Huntington School District purchased 23 acres of undeveloped property south of the Village Green School on Park Avenue for about $700 per acre in 1949. The parcel was later enlarged to 24.9 acres.

When officials determined a new high school was needed the site was evaluated and rejected. It was later looked at as the possible location of a third junior high school. District executives concluded it would suffice for that purpose with the addition of six acres to the south. However, before the plan was ever adopted, another site on Greenlawn Road was ultimately acquired and J. Taylor Finley Junior High School was erected upon it.

The Woodhull Road property had long been considered acceptable for an elementary school. The time for construction on the site finally rolled around in 1965/66. The district knew the aging Roosevelt Elementary School on Lowndes Ave in Huntington Station was badly outdated and in need of replacement. Known as Lowndes Avenue School when it opened in 1913, it was renamed in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1927 when a large addition effectively doubling its original size was dedicated.

Roosevelt School fell within the town’s Urban Renewal zone and district officials struck a deal to have the town acquire the building for more than $400,000 and demolish it. The town then acquired about 10 acres surrounding the original three acre site through eminent domain proceedings. A new elementary school largely funded by federal Urban Renewal funds was then erected on the now 13 acre property to the north of where Roosevelt School once stood. The building is today known as Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School.

Nathaniel Woodhull Elementary School opened on Monday, January 30, 1967. Its entire student body had previously been attending Roosevelt Elementary School.