Amherst Wayback Machine
History

Amherst Public History

Throughought the years the Amherst Public has changed a lot, here you can see a brief history of the school.




Saturday March 17, 1928. A group of robbers came to town in the afternoon, supplied with stolen property from local hardware stores and driving a stolen car. Not long after they arrived in Amherst, the call rang out that the school building was on fire. Although the entire town was involved in fighting the fire, the building was a total loss and the school district sustained a financial loss of between twenty and twenty four thousand dollars. All the school records were lost. The National Bank of Amherst was robbed immediately after the school building was on fire, the robbers headed west but were caught several days later in Denver. The three men involved served time in the State Penitentiary in Lincoln.



Since there were still several months left of the school year. the high school classes resumed in three rooms above Belschner store and the grade school classes were held in the churches. A bond was passed less than one month later to build a new school which was dedicated in December 1928.

Information from the Amherst Centennial Book





The 1928 building as seen from several angles




The new elementary school building and all-purpose gymnasium with full kitchen.



Construction of the new Amherst School continued this week as a workman is shown working on blocks on the new gymnasium. The new school building is in the background.


Construction work on the new Amherst Public School continued with the good weather this week and good progress being made. This photo is looking north from the east edge of town.


The newly constructed building


Some newspaper articles detaling the move from the old to new school.