The School I Went to as a Kid in South Paris is Being Turned Into Elderly Housing

The former elementary school in South Paris that I spent my first three years of learning at is being a converted to elderly housing and it's likely that many of the new residents will have sat at desks in the very same building they will call home.

Mildred M. Fox school was built in 1885 on East Main street in South Paris and served the community for over 100 years. Originally called "The Brick School," it was later renamed Mildred M. Fox after the teacher and principal who served there for many years.

After a new elementary school was built, the building was leased to the Oxford Hills Christian Academy, but according to the Sun Journal, boiler issues forced them to relocate and a new use has been found for the building as elderly housing. With so many Paris students passing through the doors of this school over the years, there's no doubt that some of these new residents will actually be living in the building they went to school in.

I remember my first day at the Fox School in 1976. I wore my brown leather jacket, plaid pants and carried my Scooby-Doo lunch box to hop on bus 11 to take the short ride to the Fox School to meet my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Cyr. I promptly threw up within the first 10 minutes of class. The janitor threw some sawdust down on the floor, and we moved on.

The playground was paved. Yep. Pavement under the monkey bars, swings and merry-go-round. If you fell, not only were you getting a bruise, but a pretty good road rash too.

The look of the building has changed very little since I went there, and the plan is to keep it that way. Hopefully the Mildred M. Fox School sign that has hung on the building for as long as I can remember will remain and I hope its new residents will feel right at home in the place where they grew up.