Pawtucket West High School

About this Property

#Current Events

Such an odd but beautiful school building. The prominent words that adorn the facade are both charming and brutal — it is strange to see seven vices appear on equal footing as only six virtues. The presence of the vices at all seems like they could be demeaning. Imagine walking into a doorway with the word “INSOLENCE” inscribed above it five days a week.

Inscribing “inspiration” into the building itself was not a new idea — classical Greek structures would often include words of encouragement that reflected the actions carried out within. Still, the vices are particularly strange to see.

Despite this, the building is still a gem. The large floor plan seems approachable and human-scaled while also feeling large and spacious. The colored brick, tiles, and decorative work throughout shows how much the community cares to give its students a place to find inspiration. It is sad, though, that Pawtucket schools are lagging behind other schools in the state according to test scores.

We have not been able to verify whether the new central high school, set to begin construction on the site of the former McCoy Stadium, will replace Shea High. We expect it would, since the new school is set to accommodate up to 2,100 students. Therefore, the future of Shea as a a high school is uncertain.

Even though the news story below speaks of a renovation in 2021, we noticed netting over portions of the facade positioned to keep crumbling stonework from falling on students. Mt. Plesant High School photos show similar netting in place.

Photos of the interior can be found on a personal blog called Art Deco RI. Historical photos can be found at the Pawtucket Library on Flickr, Shea, Charles collection.

#History

From the individual National Register nomination form, 1983

The Pawtucket West High School building, an imposing Art Deco design of 1938-39, sits well hack from East Avenue on a terraced lot carved out of the north eastern slope of Oak Hill. Some widely spaced rows of recently/planted shade trees may someday soften these terraces, but currently the grounds are dominated by a monumental cast-stone staircase. This staircase, rising from East Avenue on the building’s central axis, branches out on the lower terrace into three separate walkways leading to the three principal entrances in the main facade. Cast-stone parapets and balustrades line these walks; the solid parapets are liberally covered with inscribed adages and quotations intended to benefit the passing students.

The High School building proper is laid out somewhat in the form of a capital “E”, with its back placed toward the street and treated as the principal facade. Standing three stories and a basement high under a flat roof, the steel-framed building is sheathed in yellow brick, with extensive decorative accents of cast stone, green glazed brick, and cast iron. A central, cast-stone pavilion breaks through the building’s cornice line to mark the building’s major entrance; lesser, yellow brick pavilions repeat the effect on the eastern facades of the northern and southern classroom blocks.

The exterior envelope of the High School building is heavily ornamented with stylized, low-relief detail so beloved by Art Deco designers. Fluted, cast-stone pilasters, three-stories high and bearing stylized foliate caps, mark each important facade division: Cast-iron grilles and plaques of stylized foliate design are centered in spandrel panels of green glazed tile. Panels of low-relief sculpture are spaced within the rudimentary “frieze”, each panel illustrating the particular virtue or vice (wisdom, endurance, achievement, carelessness, fear, ignorance etc.) carved in the architrave below. Capping the frieze is a cast-stone cornice of typical Art Deco design. On the central, cast-stone entry pavilion, a pair of stylized eagles flank a central panel bearing the inscription “Take fast hold/of instruction/for she is thy life” over the two-story entry portal. Above and behind this portal, the pavilion displays the seals of Pawtucket and of Rhode Island to either side of a stylized owl — the symbol of wisdom.

The most striking features of the building’s interior are the central, split-level lobby and the auditorium which occupies the central arm of the “E” directly behind it; both are lavishly detailed in the Art Deco style. […] A sweeping Art Deco open staircase remains in the lobby, but the lighting fixtures there appear to be replacements. Neither the seats nor the present linoleum floor of the auditorium appear to be original, but the space as a whole remains marvelously intact.

The exterior of the high school has suffered one major alteration: the original windows and doors have all been removed and replaced by glass block and aluminum sash windows and indestructible windowless doors. The exterior fabric, otherwise, remains virtually untouched.

Significance

The Pawtucket West High School is architecturally significant as an important Rhode Island example of the Art Deco style of the 1930s, and is particularly notable in this regard for its highly ornamented lobby and auditorium. It is architecturally and educationally significant for its highly unusual and very extensive use of architectural sculpture and inscriptions for didactic purposes. Politically, the building is significant as one of several major building projects which Mayor Tom McCoy succeeded in securing PWA [Public Works Administration] construction funds for during the great depression of the 1930s. […]

Pawtucket West High School was constructed in 1938-39 from the designs of the Providence architect, John F. O’Malley. (O’Malley had also designed the new Pawtucket City Hall, similarly Art Deco in style, just a few years earlier.) Funding for the project was obtained by Democratic Mayor Tom McCoy through the Federal government’s Public Works Administration. McCoy proved to be quite adept at applying for these federal recovery funds and, with them, he managed to erect a new municipal water and filtration plant, the new City Hall, and a new municipal stadium (now renamed McCoy Stadium) as well as the new Pawtucket West High School, during the years of the 1930s depression. […]

From the Society of Architectural Historians by William H. Jordy

[…] This cast stone parapeting provides surfaces for what may well be a record number of inspirational and exhortatory quotations — so numerous that inscription approaches graffiti. More messages are scattered on the building, together with charming reliefs of student life around the entrance and under the cornice — while across the frieze the five virtues of Determination, Ambition, Effort, Activity, and Endurance seem unfairly pitted against the six vices of Disaster, Insolence, Indifference, Lawlessness, Carelessness, and Fear. […]

#In the News

‘These walls are filled with love’: Alumni flock to Shea for walk-through before renovations

by Melanie Thibeault,
Valley Breeze | June 29, 2021 (abridged)

The outpouring of support for Shea High School was overwhelming last Wednesday as hundreds of alumni and their guests walked the halls of the school, reminiscing, taking photos, and catching up with old friends, during one last chance to see the building before renovations begin soon.

Shea High School, located at 485 East Ave., will be the latest school to undergo renovations as part of a $220 million bond for funding school rehabilitation projects approved by voters in 2018. Supt. Cheryl McWilliams told The Breeze Monday that the project is still in the design development stage and construction is slated to begin in January.

At last Thursday’s School Committee meeting, members voted to study having a phased construction that would allow students to still be in the building, as well as to further explore alternate housing for Shea students after officials from the Rhode Island Department of Education said that splitting in-person and virtual time between Shea and Tolman students at Tolman High School wouldn’t meet the state’s required 180 days of in-person learning.

In an event titled Remember the Times, hosted by the Shea Alumni Association, groups of 10 to 12 were led on walking tours through Shea last Wednesday, June 23, by members of the newly re-chartered Key Club program. After their tours, alumni could stay for a party located outside behind the school, featuring Hot 106’s DJ Halfpint, a Shea alum, as well as food and ice cream trucks and tables with Shea merchandise, including yearbooks from various years and Shea gear, for sale. Proceeds will benefit the Key Club program and help students fund activities for the next school year.

A long line of alumni waiting to sign in in front of the school never wavered between 4:30 and 6 p.m. Shea Principal Jacqueline Ash told The Breeze that approximately 660 alumni had registered and along with their guests, the total number was about 1,100.

“It’s such a community,” she said of Shea. “These walls are filled with love.” […]

Jack Richer, who served as principal of Shea from 1998 to 2003 and who coached the hockey team from 1973 to 1984, said he supports the renovation. “It’s nice to finally know they’re giving (the building) what it deserves.” […]

— Accessed 10 March 2025 from https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/these-walls-are-filled-with-love/article_fcd2f3e7-848b-540a-afee-e5c5c9f66d97.html