Dr. Carl C. Giannotti School

COLLECTION HISTORY

The people behind the place.

Dr. Carl C. Giannotti School occupied the former West Haven High School at 278 Main Street. The National Register nomination identifies the building’s earlier and later names, while its photograph of the entrance records the spelling GIANNOTTI on a sign presented by the class of 1965. Gianotti, with one n, occurs in later summaries and remains a useful search term, but it should not replace the spelling on the school’s own sign. This collection follows both the physical building and its later junior-high identity. [WH-GIA-008] [WH-GIA-003]

The building answered pressure on an expanding school system. West Haven’s high-school pupils had previously attended Union School on Center Street. The 1940 town history says that the high-school course developed in stages, becoming three years long in the 1890s and four years in 1909. Its account of the earliest two-year course contains an internally contradictory date, so that detail is not adopted here. The book dates the start of construction of the new Main Street high school to November 11, 1925, and its opening to 1927, with 596 pupils. [WH-GIA-002]

The National Register supplies the precise move-in day: February 7, 1927. Architect Roy W. Foote designed the school, and C. W. Murdoch, Inc. was the builder. The main block dates to 1926–1927; the auditorium and gymnasium followed in 1929. Its grand portico and classical ornament conveyed the civic importance attached to education. The later junior-high occupation therefore did not begin with a new schoolhouse on an empty site; it reused an established public landmark. [WH-GIA-008]

Enrollment soon outgrew the original expectations. By the time the 1940 history was written, it reported 1,832 students and double sessions. It also recorded a graduating class of 327 in 1934. Seth G. Haley had become principal in September 1919, before the Main Street move; the history credits his period with an expanding athletic program. In 1933 he became superintendent and D. Webster Belcher succeeded him as principal. The surviving printed photograph shows the building while it still served the high school, with mature trees partly screening the facade. [WH-GIA-002] [WH-GIA-009] [WH-GIA-001]

After the high school moved to its later campus, this building was adapted for junior-high classes and named for the physician who had served the school community for twenty years. The nomination dates that transition around 1964 and records closure in 1983. The exact 1963–1964 naming sequence needs further confirmation. The Historical Society reports holding Giannotti registers, and later yearbooks offer valuable leads, but neither access to a record nor a posted photograph establishes permission to reproduce it. This initial collection therefore pairs a cleared period building image with documentary evidence and clearly identified research leads. [WH-GIA-008] [WH-GIA-007]

The Main Street building’s 1927 opening and later Giannotti identity describe successive educational uses. The later adaptation reused a civic landmark rather than creating a schoolhouse from an empty site. The entrance sign supplies direct evidence for the Giannotti spelling, while contemporary records are still needed to settle the exact renaming sequence. Photographs and yearbooks can restore pupils and staff to this building history when their dates and rights are established. Closure in 1983 is another milestone, distinct from later property reuse. [WH-GIA-008] [WH-GIA-003] [WH-GIA-002]