This is gonna be in a couple parts, because 1) I took a lot of pictures and 2) I have a lot of memories.

As I mentioned previously, every school I attended in Morgantown is gone, at least as a school. The first school I went to, Second Ward, is now an apartment complex (I have three pictures of it in my Flickr set) but the school for which I have the fondest memories was Second Ward Annex. It opened in 1939 as the Second Ward Negro school, but after desegregation, shifted to an annex to the main school.

I went to second and third grade there, and walked there and back every day.

This is the first view of the school, if you’re walking down White from Wilson (which I did).

Here is the second flight of steps up to the school.

Here is a glance into what would have been my second grade classroom. The doors between the second and third grade classrooms are partially open. This school is possibly in worse shape on the inside than Central was.

But of course what I remember the most clearly (probably because I was able to visit it for years after) was the playground.

The merry-go-round may be rusted looking, but it still works smoothly.

But then we have the jungle gym. Even as a kid I knew this was a strange jungle gym. The fact there is now a tree growing through it makes only more surreal.

If you look closely, you’ll see it is pieced together from pipes in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen elsewhere. (There are a couple other pictures if you click through to my Flickr set.)

Here’s the view looking towards Morgantown, down White towards Wilson. You can see the Engineering building in the far distance.