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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, January 12, 2013, pg. 7 It sits there exposed, deteriorating before our eyes more and more each year: Dalrymple School. There are no funds available to demolish it, as we learned at a recent Albion City Council meeting. Although our abandoned factories in town have been demolished, our abandoned schools have not. They sit there as eyesores reminding us of times past when Albion was burgeoning in the 1950s with people, and our schools were overflowing with students. Dalrymple School was named after Albion’s longest serving school board member (39 years), Charles Wylie Dalrymple (1838-1907). Dalrymple was a local dry goods merchant who also was Albion’s postmaster during the Civil War. The school was built on land that was owned by the family and purchased by the school board. Construction began in September, 1916, but the building was not completed until the end of 1917. Classes opened on January 2, 1918. Mark that date, because when Dalrymple opened, the West Ward School then became an all-black school. For the historical record, that is how the timing worked. As Albion’s population increased significantly with the opening of Corning Glass Works in 1950, so did the number students enrolled in the Albion Public Schools. Voters approved bond issue on April 20, 1950 by a vote of 468 to 124 which included a $268,500 addition to Dalrymple School. At Dalrymple, six classrooms and a gymnasium-auditorium were added, along with a kitchen and a new heating plant. The new addition was opened on April 8, 1952. As a youngster who attended Dalrymple beginning in the fall of 1958, I distinctly remember attending school in the new addition, as well as participating in programs in the auditorium. We also had fluoride applied to our teeth in the back of the gymnasium during a clinic held for that purpose. Why do I remember that? It’s because the "Dixie cup" they gave you to wash out your mouth was so small there was very little water in it, and I ended up with fluoride paste in my mouth until I could get to a real drinking fountain. Dalrymple School was closed in June, 1982, and the structure was used for storage for many years, before being sold for $1.00. As we all know, that custom that was repeated in the future. From our Historical Notebook, we present a winter, 1952 photo of the spiffy new Dalrymple School addition located on the west side of the original 1918 building. The kindergarten classes were held here on the west end. How many of our readers attended Dalrymple School?  The 1952 Dalrymple School addition All text copyright, 2026 © all rights reserved Frank Passic | Artwork copyright Maggie LaNoue © 2026
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