BEVERLY — The once bare grounds at Briscoe Middle School were spruced up with colorful flowers, blooming bushes and towering trees by volunteers from across the city.
Kids and adults spent their Saturday getting dirty. They raked and dug, mulched and planted, watered and weeded, and created a landscape meant to live up to the classic elegance of the aging school.
"I think it's fabulous," said School Committee President Annemarie Cesa. "It's a beautiful building, and a great idea of coming together to make the outside match the beautiful architecture of the inside."
With a new high school under construction, plans to restore the 86-year-old middle school seemed far off. So parents and staff at Briscoe decided to do what they could with what they have now.
The landscape mirrors the original design plans from when the school was built in 1923, said mother Kathy Whitehair, one of the volunteers leading the effort. Through fundraisers and donations, they were able to plant everything from Virginia sweetspire shrubs, which turn a deep scarlet in the fall; to Kousa Dogwood trees, which bloom creamy white flowers in the summer; to hardy, dark green boxwood bushes.
The highlight, Whitehair said, are six American elm trees planted along Colon Street. They were each donated by all five of the elementary schools and McKeown, which closed last year as an elementary school and reopened as an alternative secondary school. The line of trees has been named "Elementary Way."
The next step is to bring in new granite planters, benches and more attractive trash cans, and to install nicer-looking bike racks. The landscaping project is only the beginning.
"It will build spirit and pride," Whitehair said. "And people can take ownership in their middle school."
Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salemnews.com.
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