Tomlinson Middle School

Tomlinson Middle School
Address
200 Unquowa Road Fairfield, Connecticut USA
Information
Type	Public
School district	Fairfield Public Schools
Principal	Anthony Formato
Grades	6-8
Gender	Coeducational
Number of students	775
Color(s)	Red and Black
Mascot	Thunderbird
Newspaper	Thunderbird
Magnet School	No
Charter School	No
Year-round schedule	No
Website	Tomlinson Middle School

Tomlinson Middle School (TMS) is a secondary school located in Fairfield, Connecticut. TMS serves 775 of Fairfields students in the middle school age group. Its current principal is Mr. Anthony Formato.

By 1914, 78 adolescent Fairfield students were attending high school in Bridgeport and Westport with Fairfield paying the bill since the town offered education through grade eight only. In February 1914, the Board of Education asked Fairfield residents to make contributions towards the creation of a high school. The School Board voted to establish the first year of a high school course. The forty-six freshman students operated out of the basement of the new brick and concrete Sherman Elementary School (built on the current site of the town's gazebo), a gift to the town from Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Wheeler replacing the old cupola topped wooden building that stood before it. In 1915, a second class was added on with the forming of a tenth grade.

In November 1916, Miss Annie Burr Jennings, prominent "outstanding" citizen and the first lady of Fairfield, bought the Brown Estate on Unquowa Road and donated the building to the town of Fairfield to be used as a high school. The old wooden house had twelve rooms and six acres of land. It had porches on the front and street sides with a cupola on top, (Jennings Beach was also 'Miss Annie B'—as many called her—property which she gave to the town.

The Brown Residence was referred to as the "Little Red Schoolhouse" by the students for many years. By this time a third class, the eleventh grade, was beginning and in 1917 the fourth class of twelfth graders was added.

After appropriate renovations, the 'Little Red Schoolhouse' consisted of two long rooms separated by a wide hall, both downstairs and up with restrooms in the basement. Two small rooms off both the east and west rear were used; One was the office of the principal, William E. Smith, who also taught classes in math and music. The other room (formerly the kitchen) became the library and history room. The attic rooms were used as science labs. A small room on the second floor front was the teachers' room where they often ate lunch.

Students enjoyed the porches and school grounds which included a latticed gazebo on the front lawn. Classes were held from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. with a half-hour for lunch and sometimes one study period. Two to three hours of homework were required. Students from Southport and Stratfield came by trolley car and Greenfield Hill students came by bus.

Graduation exercises were first held in the American Legion Hall on Reef Road. The first graduates in 1918 were required to take college entrance exams, but after that, Fairfield High School students were considered to be so well prepared that they were accepted to all Ivy League Colleges by certificate alone.

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Wikipedia