Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 18: PUBLICATIONS RELATED
Adele Brandeis (1885–1975)
Louisville Courier Journal Article
“Pine Mountain Settlement School: A Study in Mountain Progress”
Fundraising Brochure

PUBLICATIONS RELATED 1951 Adele Brandeis Pine Mountain Settlement School a Study in Mountain Progress

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TAGS: Adele Brandeis, Pine Mountain Settlement School history and progress, article from The Louisville-Courier-Journal, fundraising brochure, Harlan County School Board, Berea College, Golda Pensol, teachers, Grace Rood, Mary and Burton Rogers, one-room schoolhouses, consolidated elementary school, list of school needs

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Adele Brandeis (1885–1975), a journalist, artist and writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal came to Pine Mountain in 1951 and she found in the institution a program that seemed to her perfectly aligned with her interests and her aesthetics.  Prompted by  Barry Bingham, on the  Board of Trustees, her generous article, written in 1951 captures the day-to-day activities at the School but filtered through the arts — her specialty.  As an art administrator, she had been introduced to settlement work through her participation in the WPA Federal Arts Project during the Great Depression years. Her work centered on the Index of American Design, which was a comprehensive recording of American material culture. In Kentucky, she made sure that Shaker art and craft were foregrounded through her attention to the history of that dying community. Her efforts largely saved the culture and its artifacts from oblivion. It is not surprising to find that Pine Mountain Settlement School shared a special place in her art interests — as it did with Barry Bingham, owner of the Courier Journal.  Brandeis was the Director of the Louisville Art Association in 1937 and in 1945 she became a regular contributor to the Louisville Courier-Journal , for which this article was written.

Brandeis was the daughter of Alfred Brandeis, the brother of United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, and Jennie Taussig.

CONTENTS: ADELE BRANDEIS Pine Mountain Settlement School 1951 Article

Page 1

Pine Mountain Settlement School
A study in mountain progress
From The Louisville-Courier-Journal
By Adele Brandeis

Photograph: Children around dining room tables in Laurel House eating a hot lunch. “Milk and butter for dining room come from the school’s own prize herd.”

“I didn’t know that so much could be done through whole-souled, imaginative co-operation among county officials, two schools organized to help mountain children, private funds and faith, as is done in this tiny, secluded valley.”

The author describes the location of the school and its history. Describes the former boarding high school and its change to a consolidated elementary school.

Page 2

Photograph: Children at blackboard with teacher (Miss Golda Pensol) looking on. “Music appreciation period in class.”

The idea of a move from boarding school to a consolidated elementary school was backed by the Harlan County School Board and Berea College. The author explains the relationship of Berea College to PMSS and the administration of the consolidated school.

“High-school students could go either as boarding students to the Foundation School at Berea or by bus to the county high school at Loyall. The resources of Pine Mountain, aside from the hospital, clinics and outpatient nursing services, could then be devoted to educating children of the pre-high-school age.
The five one-room schoolhouses in a 10-mile radius would shut down, the county would pay the equivalent salaries of the teacher to teachers at Pine Mountain, and also for two busses and the drivers to take the children to school. Later it was also arranged that a rental approximately equal to the cost of maintaining the five schools should go to the settlement for use of the school building.“

Brandeis, Adele, “Pine Mountain Settlement School.” The Louisville Courier-Journal, 1951. Reprint.

The author notes the number of students and the enticements for the children to attend the school, such as a “warm, pretty, modern schoolroom, an interested teacher and the certainty of a good hot lunch.” Also, the playground at recess.

Two new teachers this fall are Miss Ruby Yocum and Mrs. Leonard [Edith] Roberts, both Berea College graduates. The author lists other teachers along with their prior experience: Miss Gladys Hill, Atha Stahl) and Miss Golda Pensol.

Page 3

Photographs:
“Nurse Grace Rood gives a pupil a checkup.“
Line of children on Little Laurel Creek road “Going to meet the Pine Mountain bus” on Greasy Creek Road.

“Berea, now that the number of children is increasing so rapidly, is helping out in a most practical fashion, sending seniors majoring in education to work for a short time as assistant teachers, thus giving them practical experience.”

The author describes the need for donations of material for the library.

“Under the guidance of Burton Rogers, director of the school, and through the health and nursing service of the modernly equipped and staffed hospital, and the out-patient work of Miss Grace Rood who is now employed by both the county and the school, parents are increasingly drawn into it.”

The author tells of her night at the “lovely old log house with its memories of Katherine Pettit and its present hospitality of Mary and Burton Rogers.” The article ends with a quote from William Creech.

Two-page spread of pages 2 and 3.

CONTENTS: Fundraising Brochure

Photograph: Two buildings on a mountainside, one a home and the other a “one-room school near where Big Laurel and Greasy Creek Roads meet. It is now used once a week for movies and church services.”

Photograph: Mountain scene with branch of fir tree in foreground.

“Urgent and Pressing Needs — Our fiscal year closes on June 30 and we are facing a deficit of $10,000.” A listing of the cost per month of health services, hot lunches, materials and visiting specialists for the school program, agricultural needs, community extension centers and recreation and maintenance of 23 buildings and administration.

List of specific needs: road-grader and terrace-builder, child-size library chairs, librarian’s reference books, jeep station wagon expenses for medical use, staff members’ trips to lead community Sunday schools and stain for weathered buildings.

GALLERY: ADELE BRANDEIS ARTICLE Pine Mountain Settlement School 1951 &  Brochure

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See Also
DEAR FRIEND LETTERS Index

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