Building History: Henry C. Lea Elementry School

http://dmambu.blogspot.com/2010/11/henry-c-lea.html

http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/0319419e40

This is the Henry C. Lea Elementary School. The school was named after a Philadelphia historian, civic reformer, and political activist Henry Charles Lea. The Building is located on the corner of 4700 Locust Street PA.  The school was build in 1914 two years after West Philly High school was built. The school cost a lot to be built. The total cost of the school and full construction and instillation of the heating, ventilation, plumbing, and electrical was added up to 190,090.00 dollars. It may not sound like a lot of money now but back then that was a lot of money. Then they had to pay for the classroom. Each classroom cost 6,554.80 dollars. There were 29 classes built in the school. When the school was first build it was about 926,724 cu. Ft.  It cost $.205 per cubic foot. The designer of the building was Henry deCourcy Richards and the superintendent J. Horace Cook. The land was first donated June 19, 1873 to Thomas C. Price and his wife Susan T. It was there thatThomas C. Price School was build. On May 4, 1911 John R. Drexel bought the land for $27,108.53 and three years later Lea was built. Now there has been some changes to the school since the school was built. There are more classrooms added on, security camera, and two playgrounds.  But by looking at the picture’s I found at phillyhistory.org you can get a idea of the changes since it was built.