By 1961, Longmeadow was in the middle of a transformation. Once a quiet agricultural community along the Connecticut River, the town had developed rapidly in the postwar years into a classic suburban community, with nearly all residential construction taking place after World War II. The school-age population was surging, and the town needed facilities to match.
The new junior high school answered that demand directly. The 27-classroom building was designed to serve Longmeadow's growing middle-grade population with a full complement of educational spaces: an auditorium gymnasium, cafeteria, library, and shops. Alderman & MacNeish, the West Springfield firm that designed the building, had built their practice around exactly this kind of project, specializing in public school design for more than 50,000 students across Massachusetts, from Beverly to Williamstown. The result was a well-organized, single-story building with generous glazing and clean mid-century lines that fit naturally into Longmeadow's residential character.
Fontaine Bros. completed the project in 1961, delivering a program-complete school on a tight budget for a community that needed every dollar to go to work. The building went on to serve Longmeadow students for decades as Glenbrook Middle School. Fontaine Bros. also built the town's second middle school, Williams Middle School, which has served alongside Glenbrook for generations.
More than sixty years later, Longmeadow has again turned to Fontaine Bros. The firm is currently under construction on the new Longmeadow Middle School, a consolidated facility that will bring together the student populations of both Glenbrook and Williams into a single modern building. The community that trusted Fontaine to build its schools in 1961 is trusting Fontaine to build the school that will replace them.
That kind of relationship is not a coincidence. It is the result of work done right the first time, and a track record built over generations.
