At the talk held at the Library I had the chance to meet Stefani, Kat, Richard, Len and others (I'm awful with names so my apologies for not naming everyone!). While there I had a wonderfully entertaining conversation about the old Durfee High School on Rock Street, (renovated and now used as a court house) and whether or not there was a tunnel connecting the High School to the Durfee Tech building directly across Rock Street to allow for students to go from one building to the other.
I have not yet had the chance to pop into the school and ask questions and hopefully poke around but a friend of mine who attended Durfee in the early 1940's told me that the students crossed Rock Street to go from one building to the other. I guess that would suggest no tunnel exists. Unless a smaller tunnel exists or existed for custodial staff or maintenance.
Old Durfee High and Durfee Tech (Now Kuss Middle School)
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Lefty
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GilC
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I graduated from Durfee in 1969 and there wasn't a tunnel for students. My understanding is that the tunnel between the buildings was for the Tech building to supply heat to the Durfee building.
As a side note, the term Durfee Tech in Fall River refers to the former Bradford Durfee College of Technology (forerunner to UMass-Dartmouth) that was located at 64 Durfee St. The present Kuss Middle School was called Fall River Technical High School when it was a separate school, and just the Tech building after the schools merged. I think for a short period like a year or so the combined school was called Fall River High School. Oddly enough when the city built a new high school in the 1970s the School Committee voted to call the new school Fall River High School. Once again Durfee alumni rose up and had a referendum placed on the ballot to have the name Durfee included in the new school. That produced the mouthfull formal name of B.M.C. Durfee High School of Fall River. Of course, it is referred to as the old school was "Durfee".
As a side note, the term Durfee Tech in Fall River refers to the former Bradford Durfee College of Technology (forerunner to UMass-Dartmouth) that was located at 64 Durfee St. The present Kuss Middle School was called Fall River Technical High School when it was a separate school, and just the Tech building after the schools merged. I think for a short period like a year or so the combined school was called Fall River High School. Oddly enough when the city built a new high school in the 1970s the School Committee voted to call the new school Fall River High School. Once again Durfee alumni rose up and had a referendum placed on the ballot to have the name Durfee included in the new school. That produced the mouthfull formal name of B.M.C. Durfee High School of Fall River. Of course, it is referred to as the old school was "Durfee".
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Lefty
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Thanks Gil,
I've gotten a little confused on my Durfee Techs!
Although, I'm sure my friend referred to the Tech Building as Durfee Tech, I wonder if perhaps it was more commonly referred to as Durfee Tech before The Bradford Durfee Textile School changed its name to Bradford Durfee Technical in 1946?
I've gotten a little confused on my Durfee Techs!
Although, I'm sure my friend referred to the Tech Building as Durfee Tech, I wonder if perhaps it was more commonly referred to as Durfee Tech before The Bradford Durfee Textile School changed its name to Bradford Durfee Technical in 1946?
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Shelley
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The Kuss school has some magnificent painted murals all around the top of their auditorium on the lower level. The faces on some of the characters portraying scenes from the history of the area are said to be real life models. I was fortunate to find the custodian available, who kindly took me down in the elevator and turned on the lights so I could snap a few photos. Fall River, I find, is full of little hidden treasures.