If Project Learn Walls Could Talk

By Jamie Polson  

Early PLS before the two buildings
merged.

In 1970 the ribbon was cut on Project Learn School, 43 and a half years ago.  What you might not know is that Project Learn originally had a different location in a church nearby. But what was the 6525 Germantown Ave building before it was a school?  PLS’ building used to be a pill factory, with apartments on the third floor.  This is according to Donna Allender, one of founders of Project Learn School, and a teacher of the Journalism class at PLS.  Karyn Johnson, the early care teacher at PLS, remembers, “You could smell the pills from the school.  The pills were made and then taken to the drugstore, next door.”   

   When the building was for sale, the community put together money to pay for the building. It ended up being more than they collected so they needed to get a mortgage.  Ten of the original families guarantied the mortgage by putting their homes up for collateral.    

    The first rule at PLS was created when the first kids entered the building. They were the kids of the founding teachers who came to clean the building. The first thing those kids did was to slide down the banister on the third floor to the first floor -- when the banister was still weak, creating the rule if you slide down any banister you are automatically sent home.  

    In the early years PLS students would go to the drugstore (which was next door) to get candy during lunch or after school.  The candy was pretty cheap. Dr. and Mrs Riebstein owned the drugstore, which is now the Community Room.  The Riebstein’s lived on the second and third floor above the drugstore.  When Dr. Riebstein died, Mrs Riebstein sold the building to PLS. There were lots of renovations that had to be made, that’s how the bridge was built between the two buildings.  

    Richard Finch was the builder at the time, and was the son of Sue Finch, the school’s secretary.  Peter Fox, who had been a student at PLS, was the architect for building the bridge and connecting the two buildings, and the son of Fran Fox, one of the founding teachers.  

    PLS has had a long, interesting history and hopefully it will continue with a long future.