Mary A. Conlon

Mary A. Conlon (1870–1936) was an American elementary school principal who served as the first principal of Walton High School in New York City.

Education

Conlon graduated from Hunter College and did graduate work at multiple schools including Columbia University, New York University, and Fordham University.[1]

Career

In the early 1900s, Conlon worked with Julia Lathers to establish the Bronx Day Nursery, first called the Abby Day Nursery, which was located at Abby House on East 142nd Street in New York City. She had noticed that some of her students had to miss school to take care of their younger siblings when unexpected events arose; Conlon realized that a nursery would allow her students to attend school more regularly if their parents had to work.[2]

In 1922, Conlon was part of a group of educators that examined the patriotism of history texts in schools books being used in New York City classrooms.[3] She also investigated schools in Gary, Indiana, Detroit, and Chicago.[1]

Conlon was principal of the elementary school Public School 30 (P.S. 30) in the South Bronx.[4][5] She started a junior high school for girls, and an evening school that was called the Evening Industrial High School,[1] and 1914 was principal of the Evening High School in the Bronx.[6] In 1923 she was named principal of the Walton Senior-Junior High School, which was divided into separate schools for junior high and senior high school in 1930.[1] The Walton school is named after Mary Walton, the wife of Lewis Morris, a U.S. Constitution signatory.[7] The school was first established in P.S. 30 next to the churchyard where Mary Walton and her husband are buried.[8] The first graduation took place in January 1926 with 126 girls.^[citation needed] From 1930 Conlon spent two years supervising the construction of a new building on Jerome Avenue and West 195th Street to house the school.^[citation needed] In 1932, Conlon started as principal of the newly-opened Walton High for Girls school.[7] While serving as principal, she testified before a 1930 United States Congress investigation into communist activities, and Conlon shared details about students at Walton Junior-Senior High School taking unexcused absences to celebrate May Day, also known as International Workers' Day.[9] She also brought Greek into the classroom at Walton High School, the first time it was offered at public high schools in the Bronx.[10] She served as principal of Walton High School until her death in 1936.[1][11]

Conlon died on November 17, 1936, and the New York Times obituary described her work on schools in New York, the founding of the Abby Day Nursery, and her involvement in the High School Principals Association.[1]

References

1. "Miss Mary Conlon, school head, dies". The New York Times. 1936-11-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
2. Wells, James Lee (1927). The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. New York, The Lewis historical Pub. Co., Inc. pp. 639–641.
3. "SUSTAINS CHARGES AGAINST HISTORIANS; Board of Education Finds Them Guilty of Belittling American Patriots.FAVORABLE TO THE BRITISHCommittee's Report Censures Textin Ten School Books--Revision Urged". The New York Times. 1922-06-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
4. Historical outlook : a journal for readers, students and teachers of history. Vol. 12. Harvard University. Philadelphia, Pa. : McKinley Pub. Co. 1921. p. 250.
5. New York (N.Y.). Board of Education. Committee to investigate the Charges made against certain history text-books in use in public schools of the city of New York (1922). Report of the history textbooks used in the public schools of the city of New York. The Library of Congress. [New York, Stillman appellate printing company]. p. 8.
6. "Education Notes". The New York Times. 23 August 1914. p. X6.
7. "BRONX SCHOOL DEDICATED.; Walton High for Girls Is Formally Presented at Ceremony". The New York Times. 1932-12-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
8. Green, Harry Clinton; Green, Mary Wolcott (1912). The Pioneer Mothers of America: A Record of the More Notable Women of the Early Days of the Country, and Particularly of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, by Harry Clinton Green and Mary Wolcott Green ... G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 131.
9. United States Congress House Special Committee to Investigate Communist Propaganda in the United States (1930). Investigation of Communist Propaganda: Hearings Before a Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States of the House of Representatives, Seventy-first Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to H. Res. 220, Providing for an Investigation of Communist Propaganda in the United States. June 9 and 13 1930. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 41–45.
10. The Classical Journal. Classical Association of the Middle West and South. 1925. pp. 576–577.
11. "Walton High School gives 339 diplomas". The New York Times. 26 June 1927. p. 18. Retrieved February 1, 2022.