Mary McTamaney

Three evenings a week during the 1920s and 1930s, dozens of immigrants filed into the old Washington Street School at the corner of Washington and William Streets and willingly settled into the small desks. They knew those elementary school rooms were part of their passage into a better life in America.

The adult students were all struggling to work and advance their situations in our small city that was so different from the hometowns of their births. They needed better language skills. They needed to understand the rules about how life would be managed in a new country under a new government. They desired citizenship in America and needed to learn enough about this country to pass rigorous tests. Every era has waves of immigration, but the early twentieth century saw thousands leaving impoverished areas of Europe, places devastated by the World War or troubled by political turmoil as old empires broke apart.

Newburgh attracted hundreds of these newcomers who came upriver from Ellis Island to join relatives or seek entry-level jobs in this industrial city. It wasn’t an easy journey to a new life in America. The Great Depression hit in October 1929 after the crash of the American stock market. By 1930, Newburgh’s plants were laying off workers not hiring them. Newcomers found living space with relatives or families known to them in “the old country.” They often began their life as Newburghers in this city’s many rooming houses.

Churches and clubs often started outreach programs to help new families supplying clothing and basic household goods. That immediate intervention extended to longer-term help as Newburgh got to know its newcomers. The Italian Reformed Church on Mill Street turned its earlier church building into The Italian Institute and the congregation began teaching many skills in addition to the English language.

Newburgh was known for garment production and so operating a sewing machine was one of the first classes offered in the institute. A Hungarian mission grew within Saint Francis Church on Benkard Avenue where services were offered in that native language. Hungary had suffered great political upheaval in the 1910’s. As old European monarchies fell, America was taking in the victims of those uprisings.

A central institution on Newburgh’s southside – the traditional neighborhood for immigrants – was the big public school built there in the 1870’s. Washington Street School must have seemed immense and impressive to so many folks coming from small villages overseas. The school’s teachers and an additional cadre of volunteer instructors met the challenge. As classroom teachers welcomed children into their rooms during the day, others welcomed their parents during the evening. They all called it their Americanization School. Everyone was studying for their citizenship test while learning all they could about American life. As a practical tool, The Newburgh News sent stacks of each day’s newspapers over to Washington Street School for the newcomers to look through, and decipher the stories and the news of their new hometown and take the paper home to share with others. The teachers displayed the students’ carefully written essays for visitors to admire.

An article in the News from April 1930 described one Americanization class receiving their diplomas. Over sixty adults completed their training that Spring and were ready to take their citizenship tests.

Together, they sang “America” and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It was touching to read what they brought to class that evening in thanks. Some home-baked treats of course. But also some delicately crafted tablecloths, handkerchiefs and dresser scarves, each embroidered and dedicated to a favorite instructor. How many of those hand-made gifts have survived down the generations and how many folks today know their origins and the gratitude they represent for a long-ago chance at a new life in a welcoming place?