The rich imagination of Charles Dickens created the ever-knitting Madame Defarge for his famous novel “A Tale of Two Cities”. Recently, Buzzy Davis, retired Revere School employee, and Helen Tetzel Freeman, Revere graduate, combined their knowledge to compile the events of another tale which describes the union of the Bath and Richfield school districts. Using their archival-like memories, Buzzy and Helen recorded many of the facts and dates which are provided in this article.

Those of us from the Revere High School class of 1952 will understand much of this information because we are a significant part of this history. More than fifty years ago, our parents, teachers, and community leaders paved the way for the events described below.

Although many Revere graduations have followed over the years, the current graduating students many not fully sense the origins of their school or the building. Our class was there for these beginnings and remembers them well. Thus, this is our tale to share - the tale of two school districts uniting to benefit the coming generations of students.

January 1949  Discussions begin in the communities of Bath and Richfield regarding the consolidation of the two school districts. 

October 11, 1949  In unofficial votes, both communities vote favorably for consolidation. In Richfield, the vote was 272 for and 187 against the consolidation. In Bath, the vote was 258 for and 79 against.

November 14, 1949  The Summit County Board of Education officially authorizes consolidation and designates this system as the “Bath-Richfield Local School District”. The first school board for the merger was appointed by the County Board and consisted of Rice Hershey, Carl Dietrich, and Magaret Mettler from Bath and Melvin Rand and Virgil Hawkins from Richfield.

Early 1950   The Bath-Richfield School Board supervises the purchase of 28 acres for the site of the new school at the intersection of Revere and Everett roads. The land survey is done by Clarence Hough. W. Boyd Huff is named the school architect. A well is drilled by Lumen Cranz of Ira.

September 1950  Partial commuting of students begins for special classes between the two high schools. The football team is combined, the basketball teams remain separate for the coming season.

October 5, 1950  The Bath-Richfield Board of Education selects “Revere High School” as the name for the new building. Later in October, the approved plans for the new school are placed on display in the Richfield School Building.

November 13, 1950  Red, white, and blue are voted the Revere school colors by the students at Bath and Richfield.  

May 1951   Separate graduations occur for the last classes at Bath and Richfield High Schools.

June 17, 1951  Ground breaking by school administrators and board members is carried out at the Revere High School property.

August 1951   Construction of the new school begins. Faranacci Construction of Akron is selected as the general contractor, Sweeney and Wise of Cleveland for plumbing and heating, and Brock Electric of Akron for electrical work.

September 1951  Awaiting the finish of construction, all four high school grades commute between the two existing high schools. The juniors and seniors from both schools are at Bath in the morning and at Richfield in the afternoon, whereas the freshman and sophomores are at Richfield in the morning and at Bath in the afternoon. Publication of the Revere Lantern replaces the Bath Hi-Spy  and the Richfield Echo with co-editors from both former schools. There is complete union of all school activities, functions, and faculty. Roy M. Pugh is the first Superintendent and Harold Schweisberger the first High School Principal.

November 6, 1951  Elections take place in the two communities of a five member School Board for the Revere District to replace the first appointed Board.

February, 1952  First alma mater Revere Revere is chosen. The music is composed by Professor David Plank, a former Bath resident, who is head of the music department at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa. The words were written by his mother, Mrs. Eulalia Plank.

May 29, 1952  Graduation of the first Revere High School class is held in the Richfield School auditorium.

January 27, 1953  All high school students move into the new school.

March 7, 1954  Dedication of the new High School takes place with a final tally of school statistics presented in the Dedication pamphlet.
     
     Cost of classroom section ................................ $443,891.32
     Cost of gymnasium and auditorium ............   153,846.00
     Cost of equipment ...........................................     80,000.00
     Cost of site .......................................................      9,000.00
     Present enrollment ......................           210
     Seating capacity of gymnasium ..         650
     Seating capacity of auditorium .....       362

 The chronology will stop at this point. The tale should be continued by those who followed during the intervening years - there are more dates and names to put in the “stitching”. Let us hope that the end of the tale will be as satisfying for others as the beginning was for us.