Perusing the Bradley school yearbooks from the early 1950’s can be interesting in more ways than one. Besides the people around whom most of the yearbook is centered, there are pictures of the campus at that time which reveal features and views no longer there. Because most of these pictures are little more than candid shots, appearing in the yearbooks as part of a collage taking up an entire page, many are rather grainy.
The picture below, from the 1953 yearbook, was apparently taken from a window on the second floor of the south side of the old high school building, or possibly from the top of the slide on the elementary school playground.
It looks southeasterly, in the direction of what most of the students of my generation would remember as the house of J. W. “Buck” Camp, Sr., and family. On the left side of the picture is a small portion of the goldfish pond that once adorned that part of the campus. A better view of that pond is shown below in a photo also taken from the 1953 yearbook. The yearbook does not identify the young lady sitting in front of the pond. The street (7th Street) behind her goes to the Bradley Baptist Church and on further east to the railroad right-of-way.
Below is a photo of the old gym (now auditorium) apparently taken from the second floor of the west side of the old high school building. Judging from the number of students on the merry-go-round in the foreground, it must have been a busy day on the elementary playground.
The photo below, from the 1951 yearbook, shows the seesaws on the elementary playground, and looks north toward the Meek residence, which is now the home of Joe and Darlene Middlebrooks. This picture would have been taken almost a full decade before part of this view would have been obstructed by the 1960 elementary school building on the north border of the campus.
The photo below of the baseball field, also taken from the 1950 yearbook, shows the rather substantial stands which once were located on the third base side of the field.
And, finally, I find the photo below, also taken from the 1950 yearbook, most interesting of all. It shows Miss June Colvin, appearing as F. F. A. Sweetheart. What is so interesting, however, is that there appears to be an elevated water tank in the distance behind the vehicle on the right side of the picture.
This photo also offers an good view of the west side of the old high school building.
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