DANDENONG Primary School is calling on the community to help celebrate its 140th birthday.
The school will mark the milestone with activities on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 May and is already working on preparations.
The first Dandenong state school was built at the corner of Robinson and Foster Streets and officially opened its doors on 4 May 1874.
It moved to its present site on Foster Street in 1881 and welcomed about 200 students.
The Gothic-inspired building took nine months to construct and at the time its ornate style was considered to add significantly to the township’s architecture.
It had three rooms – one for boys, one for girls and a gallery – and modern fittings for the day including a porch, a hat rack and ventilation.
But not everyone was pleased with the new school.
Joseph Harris, the St Kilda MP at the time, said that although the building was pleasing, he felt the expenditure on school buildings in the colony was too lavish.
He said that if more unpretentious buildings were erected, surplus finance could be used to open schools in more sparsely-populated districts.
Today the school is among the most distinctive pieces of architecture in Greater Dandenong.
A classroom, head teacher’s office and lavatory were added in 1901 and another four classrooms were completed in 1909.
Further classrooms were added in the 1940s and 1950s to cope with expanding enrolments, which topped 760 pupils in 1960.
The school today has 320 students from families representing 45 different nationalities.
Anyone interested in getting involved in preparations or subscribing to the school’s mailing list to keep up to date with the plans can call 9792 2743.
