Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

LEWIS :099 1:1:2
of course went into the first grade; I was just a little
under six years old, but I went. And then in February my
people moved in Roland Avenue in what was then the 200
block, which is now the 3500 block. Then I transferred to
55 school; I went to #55 school up to the fifth grade and
when I passed into sixth grade was when they started the
Baltimore advanced schooling. When you went out of that,
you went into the second year of high school. That was
located at Oak Street and 24th Street, which is now H6Ward
and 24th. And I went there up to 1917 when I quit school when
World W ar I1 was on. And then after that I went to work.
But the schools those days were a lot different than
they are now; at the old boarding house we had a nice play-
ground located between the millrace and the falls. And we
had nice teachers and close to home. when we came over to
55 school the lot there was full of gravel stone lot to play
on, and where Paiine Street is now, formerly was Connecticut
Avenue - that was a little swamp in there and marshy. And at
that time - just about that t ime Mr. built the
stucco houses on 36th Street running from just east of Elm
Avenue over to what is now Paine Street. He buflt them, and
of course when I left 55, why the old lot was still rough
like it is now.
Of course, when we went down to 52 school on 24th
Street we didn't have no playground, but Oak Street them days
was paved in cobblestone; wasn't much traffic. Across the
street between the Chesapeake Baking Company and the