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Karl R. Josker | all galleries >> Buffalo >> The Schools Of Buffalo > PS 54
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29-MAR-2006 Karl R. Josker

PS 54

2334 Main St. Buffalo

Canon EOS 20D ,Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
1/160s f/8.0 at 27.0mm iso200 full exif

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Beth Taylor 21-Jun-2020 21:19
Beth Taylor ( Liz Ludwig) I was in the 1961 graduating class at the old bldg. I have many fond memories of that school and some bad ones ( Mrs Kimball). She reduced me to tears when I didn't "get" fractions. Guess what - I was in the accounting field for years and loved it. Still in Buffalo after a period of time living in AZ.
Robert J Setlock 08-Feb-2020 20:54
I also went to PS 54. Yes Inez Parker Principal, then Matthew Duggan, the saddist whobest our fannies ti a pulp, even for having a bad report card. I remember Mrs. Kimball, and Mayola Adcock( she was a neighbor of mine ) her son, Joe Adcock was a professional Major league Base ball player. Ooh, tge bats, balls, gloves and jerseys she gave me thru the years.
Ok, I remember walking next door to the Hagen Dairy,putting 2 cents in the tray and taking glass bottles of chocolate milk. Also walking on the other side of school build
and going to Van Johns store buying penny candy. I coukd nit pass up thise red pistachio nuts. I also remember going for lunch a few doors down Main St to Parkside Candy, where I alwsys had Turtle Soup, A hamburger, fries and a coke, when I had a few nickels in my pocket. The owner named Ted, knew me very well, by name. For some reason, when I was in deep thought or looking the other way many times a plate with various candy pieces would appear.Great man, I miss him! Oops! sonetimes I would go next door to a bakery, and buy a bag of day old pasteries, only 2 cents each.

Many times I travel thru that area, and really get depressed at what that whole area became, how it looks, and what kind of people live there.

Right out of my 72 year noggin, I remember students like Jeffety Kadel, Bruce Theilking, Roberta Roberts, Linda Chittenden, Don Winters, Dave Stasinski and a host of others. I was one of the fortunate ones, who moved out of the area ( Pittsfird, NY ) went to Jr. AND Senior High There and avoiding Bennett High and the full circke decline.

Gosh, I could write a book.
Sophia C Salonikis 11-Aug-2018 01:48
I went to ps#54 from K -2 1953-1955 . It was the old original building. the girls entered from one door in the front and our playground was a fenced in area right out front. The boys had their own entrance with their playground right out front. Each day during our lunch time they would walk us next door for our milk carton. single file to what looked like an old stone house, however, it was a dairy.I have wonderful memories of those few years. Wish i had a real photo of it. I did find a portrait of it however, from a postcard. Steve Chichon who is a buffalo historian had it in one of his publishings.
Guest 20-Oct-2011 08:28
krompass i remember you my name is mike harmon we lived on crescent ave we all were in love with miss m god along time ago
guest 02-Jul-2010 05:30
There's something very haunting about school 54. It would be cool to have a video to catch all the changes in the sky. The street behind the school is lower, so all you ever see over the school is tree tops and sky.
Albert Mark Krompass 22-May-2010 07:37
I too went to PS #54 where I first attended in 1960, this is not the same building of course. I have nothing but great memories of this school. I think that even though I've been very happily married the last 30 years that I'm still in love with my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Moncarsch. The spelling is wrong I'm sure, but I sure loved her as a kid.It is great to look at my old home.I've been in Houston Texas 30 years and I truly love Houston. Ntot as much as my "hometown though".Larry how do you remember this stuff????
George Olshevsky 16-Oct-2007 04:29
Boy, it's tough to keep the typos out of these comments! Larry's last name is spelled with a "c" in it: Marschall.
George Olshevsky 16-Oct-2007 03:52
I attended PS #54 from September 1957 through June 1959, Grades Seven and Eight. In the summer of 1957, our family moved from the West Side to the Central Park area, so I had to switch from PS #16 to #54. In those grades, we no longer had a single teacher for all subjects, but instead filed from room to room as needed, changing teachers throughout the day. My homeroom teacher in Grade Seven was Miss Adcock, my homeroom teacher in Grade Eight was Mabell Kimball. In Grade Seven I also had Mrs. Raymond for English; Miss Kimball taught math, and Miss Adcock taught science and social studies. In Grade Eight we had the same teachers for those subjects, except for science, for which we had newcomer Charles A. Parlato ("CAP"). I believe he was the first male teacher I ever had, except for gym and shop classes. I can't remember the names of my numerous gym and music teachers at PS #54, whom we students must have driven crazy with our misbehavior in their classes. I think one music teacher was a Miss Palmatier, and another was a Miss Bollinger. For shop both years we had Richard Fisher.

In Seventh Grade the principal was Inez Parker, and in Eighth Grade the new principal was Matthew J. Duggan. Mr. Duggan used to whack us in the ass with his belt from time to time to keep us in line. I doubt he could get away with that now, although I think it was just what we needed.

The PS #54 building in the photo is not the building I attended. I attended the "old" PS #54, a large, three-story-plus-basement brick building in the old Buffalo-school style that was demolished a few years after I graduated and replaced by the more modern-looking building seen here. The old PS #54 used to really dominate the intersection of Main and Leroy Streets.

One of PS #54's better-known graduates was Laurence A. "Larry" Marshall, who was a year ahead of me. Mrs. Raymond was always holding him up to us as a shining example of a smart and scholarly student. He was his class valedictorian in 1958, and when he graduated four years later from Bennett High School, he was valedictorian there, too. His pal Michael Ferber graduated with him from PS #54 as salutatorian, and four years later was also salutatorian at Bennett. In time, Larry became a chaired professor of astronomy at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, whence among other things he presently writes the book review column for Natural History magazine. (Indeed, today [10/15/07] I received my subscription copy, the November 2007 issue, and he has written a bit about his Buffalo roots in his column.) Michael Ferber went on to become one of the anarchist anti-war, anti-draft protesters arrested along with Benjamin Spock in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and a fugitive. I have no idea where he is today, though I imagine he eventually was given amnesty. Small world!

After graduating from PS #54, I went on to Bennett as well.