Coleman Place Elementary School

Coleman Place Elementary School was opened on January 25, 1925, in what was then Norfolk County. The school was named for the area of the county in which it was located. It began in the two-story building with one hundred and thirty students, eight classrooms (four on the 1st floor and four on the second floor), and a small auditorium on the second floor. There was no lunchroom, but a group of mothers put tables in the downstairs hall and served soup and sandwiches daily. There were three teachers and a teaching principal. During World War II, the school served 1,400 students in quasit huts on the field behind the old building. In April 1945, four classrooms and an auditorium/lunchroom were added, but not connected to the original building. Later that year, additional classrooms were added to the new building, giving a total of 17 rooms. A library was added in 1946. In the early 1950’s an annex connecting the two buildings was built, this provided six additional classrooms. In 1955, the city of Norfolk annexed Norfolk County and Coleman Place Elementary became a part of Norfolk Public Schools. In 1966, the present lunchroom and recreation building were built. Mobiles were added as needed due to increases in enrollment. In 1987, a fire destroyed the annex section that connected the two buildings and a new air-conditioned building replaced the damaged section. The entire school was air conditioned in 1993. Coleman Place has traditionally been a neighborhood school where generations follow in each other’s footsteps. During cross-town busing, Coleman Place Elementary shared students with Tucker Elementary. The community has become more mobile and serves many military families, single parent families, and extended families; hence Coleman Place Elementary has an ever-changing population. Under the serving principal Dr. Callie Richardson (2013) in the fall of 2007 a new two story building was open to students. The structure cost approximately $20 million to construct. The new school holds approximately 800 students in grades Pre K – 5. It has state of the art technology and instructional climate. The school has a parent meeting center for the community/parents to use and an expanded Pre K program. The school is also used by the community when school is not in session, hosting community and sporting events, along with a community dinner program.