Building and Grounds

One of the first million dollar schools happened to be built in the little town of East Greenbush.  A lot of people said that Genet would never be able to get it filled with students, but yet people from all over came here to work or go to school,  One of the farthest towns that people came from was Nassau.  The building of Genet had a lot of publicity because it was frequently mentioned in the newspaper and in magazine articles.  In these articles the reporters often talked about the magnificent parts of the school such as the auditorium and gym, but also in these articles they talked about how Genet was built.

The stages for building Genet were very hard.  The first stage of building Genet was the mapping and sketching.  The architects that were hired did this.  The next stage of building Genet was framing it.  The windows were framed with wood, and today they are framed with plastic.  The materials used to frame the school were: wood, concrete, metal and cement.  The very last stage was adding the finishing looks of Genet.
The carpets were put down, and in the kindergarten rooms  the rugs had ABC's on them. 

Some of the other last stages were the brick covering, the cinder block base, and the marble floors.  To get the marble, bricks, and all other materials to the second floor, cranes, rock lifts, steam shovels, and pulleys were used.  Genet was built in about a year. Before Genet was organized to be built, the Elliot and Eldridge families owned the land.  The East Greenbush Central School District and taxpayers currently own the land.  Where Genet was built there was a house which the Romer family bought for $200 and moved to where we now have the track. They bought that section of the land, which is now called Romer Field.  The land was flat, with a lot of trees, there  was also a driveway leading into the Romer's house.  There was a cornfield in front of their  house.The land was mostly used for farming.  The animals that were kept on the farm were: cows, sheep, horses, and everybody had a chicken.  The town board could have bought a lot more land to build Genet, but they decided not to.  Now there is a True Value hardware store on the property that was open for Genet to buy.  The town board didn't purchase any of the land to be used as athletic fields until after the school was built.   
            There were no additions added to this school after it was built because the walls were too thick, and they couldn't knock them down.  Today, Genet is still being used as a school and hopefully for the many generations to come.

Genet today, with new courtyard and playground.