By Cate Lecuyer
BEVERLY — You might have expected a paw print instead of a ship.
Although Beverly High School students are known as the Panthers, you'll be standing on top of a different logo when you walk through the main entrance of the new academic building when it opens around Thanksgiving.
An image of the Hannah, known as the founding vessel of the U.S. Navy, is meant to represent all students, not just the ones who play sports.
"There are people that translate that to athletics," Superintendent James Hayes said of the traditional panther. "What about the rest of the kids?"
A 5- to 10-foot picture of the Hannah, or some version of it, will be embedded in the floor of the main lobby. The ship, which set sail from Beverly in 1775, is considered the first naval vessel of the American Revolution and marked the beginning of the U.S. Navy.
"We wanted something that conveys community, that will stand up over time," Hayes said. "The Hannah, that's an important part of our heritage, and that timelessness is what shaped this."
That timelessness is also important when it comes to installing a large, circular design in the floor. The School Committee discussed the issue at a meeting Monday. Although Hayes and the committee are on board with the Hannah drawing, the detail doesn't quite transfer onto a terrazzo floor, made out of marble chips.
"Whatever you do is in that floor for the next 50 years," Hayes said. "You better be sure it's attractive. And for me it doesn't replicate what we set out to do."
Hayes commissioned a professional artist from California to create the drawing. It shows a ship under full sail, in the school colors of black and orange, leaving a white wake as it battles the ocean waves against a cloudy sky.
The elaborate image is surrounded by an orange circle with "Beverly Public Schools" written inside and a paw print on each side. The paw print is often used as the athletic symbol, although there's never been an official design.
"There's been panther bodies, panther heads and panther paws," Hayes said. "But there's been no real logo."
The $35,000 cost of putting a logo in the floor was included as part of the original high school bid, Hayes said. But when the company sent a sample of what it would look like in terrazzo, the School Committee thought the colors were muted, the shapes plain and lacking detail.
"The image in terrazzo did not do justice to the picture," said committee Vice President Maria Decker.
Now, they're looking at other options, like creating the image in vinyl or some other material that captures the colors and intricacy, and covering it with protective glass.
And the drawing itself may start showing up in other places — like it did last month on the front of a brochure advertising for the open superintendent position.
"The logo itself, we own," Hayes said. "We have the right to do whatever we want with it."
Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salem news.com.
