The Benjamin Harrison School in

Cayey Cayey (), officially Cayey de Muesas, is a mountain town and municipality in central Puerto Rico located on the Sierra de Cayey within the Central Mountain range, north east of Salinas and north of Guayama; south of Cidra and Caguas; east o ...

is a school in the Puerto Rico public school system.

Location

Now named Benjamin Harrison Vocational School, it is located on

PR-14 Puerto Rico Highway 14 (PR-14) is a main highway connecting Ponce to Cayey, Puerto Rico. The road runs the same course as the historic Carretera Central. The Ponce-to- Coamo section of PR-14 was built under the direction of Spanish engineer Ra ...

, José de Diego Avenue in Cayey.

History

After the occupation of the United States in Puerto Rico and identifying illiteracy as one of the main problems in the island, the government developed a program for the construction of schools among other projects. The Benjamin Harrison School was finished by October 23, 1902 with a total cost of $8,600.00 invested in its construction ($315,300 2024 dollars).

Architecture

The original design of the school was a two-floor building in a rectangular shape with a

gabled roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its roof ridge, ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The roof pitch, p ...

, similar to Washington's Graduate School from

Guayama Guayama (, ), officially the Autonomous Municipality of Guayama (), is a Guayama barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean coast of Puerto Rico. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

. It had four classrooms, a basement, and an attic. The attic was built in order to get the best of the space beneath the gabled roof. In the front, it had two stairways providing an enormous balcony connecting two upstairs classrooms. The first floor had a carcade (corridor) or a hallway that connected the front yard through four stairways. The school had an enormous backyard and its sanitary facilities were a latrine.

Notable alumni

* Gloria E. Baquero Lleras * Danny Ortiz (baseball) *

Miguel Pereira Castillo Miguel A. Pereira Castillo (born September 26, 1947) is a Puerto Rican politician, attorney, and public servant. Throughout his career, he has served in various government positions like Director of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, Superintenden ...

* Joseph O. Prewitt Díaz

References

{{Coord, 18.114167, -66.169587, display=title Educational institutions established in 1902 Schools in Puerto Rico Cayey, Puerto Rico 1902 establishments in Puerto Rico