The Williamsport Athletic Field, on Cherry Street

On July 4, 1890, the Athletic Park Association held a dedication ceremony for Athletic Park , on Cherry Street. [Today, the Cochran School is built on those grounds.] 

It was common years ago, to combine grand openings and dedications with the 4th of July holiday.   For this event, there were baseball games, bicycle races on the race track circling the field, music and  of course, a fireworks display.

The Amateur Athletic Park Association was formed in January of 1890.  A chartered organization, it was capitalized at $15,000 [roughly half a million dollars, in todays money]

The Athletic park was to be laid out on the Packer Farm Tract, and was expected to be ready in time for the "coming season."

According to the Williamsport Sun Gazette, 25,000 attended the 4th of July Festivities in Williamsport in 1890. There as a parade 5 miles long, with an "industrial exhibition beyond precedent in Northern Pennsylvania.".  There was a "magnificent gathering in the public Square to share the eloquence of one of the great orators of the South; and the opening of the Athletic Park, were essential feathers in the Fourth of July Celebration."

"Bells and whistles ushered in the day...  Cannon, crackers, and rockets, and flaming fires were the benedictions of dismissal late in the night. "

 The Amateur Athletic Park Association had a grand time yesterday and dedicated brand new $15,000 headquarters with a hurrah. Thousands participated in the event. The weather was just the thing, couldn't have been finer, and the people thought so too for the enclosure was a throng at the afternoon matinee and a great, overwhelming mass at night when the big display pyrotechnics and the call.

The park is undoubtedly one of the for the purposes intended, to be this State. An ample grand stand seating 1,200 persons, with neat reporters stalls in which the reporters had a time getting yesterday.

A quarter mile race course and driving track laid out in excellent style with only enough pebble to clinch hoofs as their owners tear around for a record; a diamond smooth and  level enough to suit a king, and a delightfully shady grove through which part  of the course passes are the business and pleasure appurtenances.."

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The  Athletic park was home field for Williamsport school baseball teams, exhibition games for major league teams including the As, Phillies, Giants and Pirates, and it also hosted Negro Leagues.

The field was also used for high school and college football, as well as horse and bicycle racing.  

The first night game played on the field was  in 1902.

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1903

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The Cochran School, Constructed in 1928.

The land was donated by by the family of Senator J. Henry Cochran, pioneer lumberman, banker  and philanthropist. The deed specified that the land be used only for  school and recreation purposes. 

[How the land went from Athletics field, to being owned by Cochran, I do not know.  The last mention I found of the Williamsport Athletic Field was in 1909.]

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1894

1894

1903

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The History Of The Cochran School

From: 

THE WILLIAMSPORT SCHOOLS THROUGH THE YEARS 

FEBRUARY 1958 

PRINTED BY STUDENTS OF THE GRAPHIC ARTS DEPARTMENT 

WILLIAMSPORT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE 

A Division of th« Williamsport School District 

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In the spring of 1928 the Center and Vallamont schools were closed due to lack of space and other conditions within each building. Henceforth pupils from these attendance areas would be enrolled in the new J. Henry Cochran Building. 

This school was to be erected on a plot of ground deeded to the  Williamsport School District in April, 1927. The land was received from  the School District of Loyalsock Township, which had been given the plot  by the family of Senator J. Henry Cochran, pioneer lumberman, banker  and philanthropist. The deed specified that the land be used only for  school and recreation purposes. On this plot was built the original portion  of the present J. Henry Cochran Elementary School.

Not long after acquiring the land, the School Board of the City of Williamsport began planning for the construction of the new school. It was to be a consolidation of the Center and Vallamont schools, providing better facilities for the children of the area. Within two months the Board had awarded contracts totaling $157,377.00. The new 15 classroom building was completed and dedicated in 1928. 

By the time the Dedication Exercises were held, Mr. Earle W. Phillips and his faculty of eleven teachers had had underway a busy schedule of instruction for their four hundred and thirty-nine pupils. This enrollment made an average teaching load of thirty-six pupils per teacher. First grade teachers were Miss Dorothy Plank and Miss Eleanor Fisher. The second grades were taught by Miss Phoebe Bloomfield and Miss Ocie Drick. One third grade and one fourth grade were instructed by Miss Olive Ramsey and Miss Edna Miller, respectively, while Miss Carmen Probst taught a combination of third and fourth grades. The fifth grade teachers were Miss Ida Hays and Miss Ellen Young, and Miss Zella Pepperman and Mr. Phillips were instructors for the sixth grade. 

Twenty-three years passed, and Cochran found it necessary to expand to meet the demands of larger enrollment and new and increased activity. 

In 1951 the Board awarded contracts totaling almost $416,000.00 for an addition to the original structure. This wing, completed in 1952, is approximately the size of the "old" section, and adds 16 classrooms, a gymnasium-auditorium and a cafeteria to the school. 

Two kindergartens were opened in the fall of 1952. However, as far back as 1928, it is recorded that there was a strong demand for a kindergarten in the new Cochran building! 

During the first year, 1928, the foundation was laid for the J. Henry  Cochran Parent Teacher Association to become one of the largest and strongest in Williamsport. The officers for this new association were nominated by a committee made up of representatives from the Center P. T. A. and the Vallamont P. T. A. These officers were duly elected at the first  meeting held on September 28, 1928. 

Many important projects are undertaken each year by the P. T. A. 

The Cochran P. T. A. established and maintains a Student Loan Fund. This project was an outgrowth of a similar one at the Vallamont School. In 1928 Cochran's Library Fund was set up, and each year an appropriation is made for Library Expenditures. 

"My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of mv life there." 

These words by Charles F. Kettering express the feeling of the two organizations vital to the continued growth and development of the J. Henry Cochran School.