Overbrook School for the Blind



The Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was established in 1832. Its present site, in the city's Overbrook neighborhood, was acquired in 1890. Along with the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children and the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, it is one of four state-approved charter schools for blind and deaf children in Pennsylvania.

History


The Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind opened in March 1832. A few years later, on October 27, 1836, a new building was dedicated on the northwest corner of Schuylkill Third (now Twentieth) and Sassafras (now Race) Streets on what is today the site of the Franklin Institute in the Logan Square neighborhood of Philadelphia.

The school's founder, Julius R. Friedlander, died on 17 March 1837, after years of poor health. At the time of his death, he was not quite 36 years old.

During the early 1900s, the school offered athletic programs for its students. In June 1907, Overbrook's track and field team members defeated their rivals from the Baltimore School for the Blind in the annual intercollegiate competition held between the schools.

That same month, Professor Olin H. Burrit became the new superintendent of the school. He had previously been employed as the superintendent of the New York State School for the Blind.

In December 1907, the school's forty-member choir performed at the dedication of Philadelphia's Grace Baptist Temple.

The school was renamed the Overbrook School for the Blind in 1946, expanding and growing over the next decades. The school building suffered a fire in 1960.

The building began to experience leaks in 2012 and a complete roof replacement was undertaken that same year. The building's Ludowici tiles were replaced with new ones produced by the original manufacturer.

Notable people
Anne V. Ward (1877–1971) was both an alumna and a faculty member of Overbrook.

Elisabeth Freund (1898–1982) developed a Touch and Learn Center for the school that was a model for other blind centers internationally.