History of Whittemore School
Whittemore students wanted to know about Henry Whittemore. This is what they found out:
Henry Whittemore was born on July 23, 1844 and died May 6, 1931.
He was the seventh of twelve children. He went to Hopkinton High School and on to college. While at college, he joined the Massachusetts Fifth Infantry where he had an attack of typhoid fever.
After college, Henry Whittemore attended Bowdoin Medical School. He wanted to become a physician but got sick because of overwork and was warned he would never have the physical strength to become a doctor.
Henry Whittemore decided to become an educator. In the 1870's he became a principal and then Superintendent of the Westboro Schools.
In 1883 he became Superintendent of the Waltham Schools. He did that for fifteen years. Then he accepted the principalship of the Framingham Normal School. He retired in 1917.
In 1926, the Waltham School Committee voted to build a 32-room schoolhouse "to be named 'The Henry Whittemore School', in honor of Henry Whittemore, soldier, educator, public spirited citizen of Waltham, honored and beloved by the people of our city."
August 2008 Whittemore moved into a newly renovated and expanded building.