Not surprisingly, attention 67 years ago was focused on the building’s amenities, not its appearance. There was a music room, an art room, a sewing room, a manual training room, a 500-seat auditorium and two gymnasiums – one for boys and one for girls. In those days of limited ancillary services in schools, Harlan had a ‘speech-correction’ facility.

An interesting feature was a circular ‘mud room’ where children could shed and stow rainwear and muddy boots – and ordinary outer garments on clement days. It is now the library.

Most significant, perhaps is that its capacity was 1,200 students although initial enrollment was just 682 in grades one through six. No wonder. North Wilmington – then more commonly known as the city’s Ninth Ward – was the up-and-coming place to be, even in those darkest days of the Great Depression. Its growth was assumed to be assured.

A largely Jewish population in the Washington Street corridor was committed to education. These were mostly families headed by the sons and daughters of immigrants from eastern Europe. Their parents had established themselves in the business and commerce of the city enabling offspring to move from the proverbial ‘flats above the store’ in downtown neighborhoods. They, in turn, sought better for their children, most frequently in law, medicine and other professional callings.

The process by which such goals were pursued, however, was friendly and personal.

"There was a spirit that affected everybody," the late Helen Bayliss, Harlan’s second principal and the one who served the longest, told me several years ago. "We had a school fair every spring and all the families turned out. It was wonderful. That’s how it was in those days. It was a close-knit neighborhood."

Sixth-grade students competed for the honor of being on the four-member squad which came early to school to raise the flag and got out of class a few minutes early in the afternoon to reverently lower it.

Miss Bayliss told of the time she called in the parents of a fifth-grader who has gotten a little out of line. They were deeply apologetic for what they called his repeated misconduct. The principal was surprised about that because it was the first time she recalled having a disciplinary conference with them. After they left, she checked the records. Sure enough. They had also been called when the boy was in first grade.

stepping stone to attending prestigious Pierre S. du Pont junior and senior high schools. It was a prototype of that building, he said. Even its so-called skeleton keys worked the door locks at P.S.

Harlan did not spring up in isolation. It was the successor to Public School No. 23, which had stood at 30th and Madison Sts. on what is now a city playground. It was built in 1907, replacing the former Eastlake Presbyterian Church building acquired by the Wilmington Public Schools in 1895 when the city extended its boundaries from the Brandywine to Shellpot Creek.

Five years earlier, Florence V. Manley had established a private school for girls – actually six of them -- in her home in the 2900 block of Madison Street. Those schools were common at the time. The Tatnall School in Christiana Hundred is the only remaining direct descendent of one.

Miss Manley was hired as the teaching principal of P.S. 23 and served in that capacity until her death in 1929. Sally Devine succeeded her and later became Harlan’s first principal.

The present Harlan building was designed by architect E. William Martin. It was built by Cantera Construction for $425,805. The 3.75-acre campus on which it stands was purchased for $40,489. To initially equip it, the school district budgeted $29,000. The first faculty had 24 teachers.

By 1945 – just before the suburban exodus and the baby boom – Harlan enrollment had grown to just under 1,000. It had 28 classroom teachers and five ‘special’ teachers of art, music, gym and library.