3-011-667 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New free school, Holburn-Street, Aberdeen, 1864. 'Mr. James Ross, of Cuparstown...left a large sum of money for the purpose [of building the school], and also for its endowment...the cost of the building will amount to about £2500. The centre building is entirely devoted to a school-room, made to accommodate upwards of 300 scholars of both sexes, and is so constructed that it may, when required, be divided into two rooms. It is 62 ft. long by 28 ft. wide, and 30 ft. high to the apex of the roof. The main timbers of the roof form a Gothic arch, the space between each being plastered on the rafters. On each side of the school-room there are class-rooms for the boys and girls respectively, 28ft. 6 in. and 14ft. high: communicating with these are the master's and mistress's rooms. At the entrances, on each side, are passages to the playing-grounds, at the back of the building. In the tower are rooms for the keeper of the school, a clock and bell chamber in the roof, and a furnace-room and coal-cellar in the basement. The school-room and class-rooms are heated with Perkins's hot-water pipes. The whole of the walls and other mason work are of blue Aberdeenshire granite. The architect was Mr. J. Russell Mackenzie. Aberdeen'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.