No one remembers how to sing the alma mater. No one remembers the clang of the morning bell, the creak of the wooden floor, the chatter of the hallway or the screech of the blackboard.All the classmates have graduated from this life.Jennings School was a significant building in Akron history that is completely forgotten today. Visible for miles on a hillside that no longer exists, the two-story school stood for nearly 50 years on the north side of East Mill Street between Summit and Prospect streets.Its alumni included prominent citizens, among them a U.S. senator, a Summit County prosecutor and two rubber barons.The school was named for the Rev. Isaac Jennings (1822-1887), pastor of Akron’s First Congregational Church. Known as the founder of Akron’s school system, Jennings led an 1846 campaign to finance public education and was a charter member of the school board.The brick building replaced a wood-frame structure that had served since 1847 as the first high school in the canal town of more than 3,000. Gen. Lucius Bierce was master of ceremonies at the cornerstone-laying ceremony on Aug. 8, 1851, and delivered “an appropriate and felicitous address to the concourse assembled on the ground,” according to the Summit County Beacon.Construction took longer than expected. Walls didn’t go up until August 1852, and the building didn’t near completion until August 1853. The entire project cost $9,250 (about $417,000 today).“There are more expensive buildings in the state, but not one we think more complete in all its appointments than the Akron high school building,” the Summit Beacon reported. “Good taste is displayed on every hand. The comfort of the scholars has been consulted. Room has been carefully husbanded. A lesson of neatness and order will be imparted by the school room itself; and a laudable pride will be fostered — a pride in what is good and proper.”Summit County Prosecutor Sidney Edgerton, former chief justice of Idaho and first governor of the Montana Territory, presided over the dedication ceremony on Oct. 13, 1853.Jennings School was 50 feet wide and 70 feet tall with two large chambers connected to smaller recitation rooms. A rooftop cupola contained a heavy bell whose loud peals jarred the town each morning.The school had 260 pupils, but could accommodate 300. The second floor had high school students, the first floor had intermediate grades and the basement held primary grades.During its first decade, Jennings was a spectator school in which board members, citizens and other interested parties could observe classes and question pupils on studies. Courses for upper classes included algebra, astronomy, bookkeeping, botany, chemistry, geometry, grammar, history, physiology, philosophy and trigonometry.The first superintendent was Samuel F. Cooper, formerly of Youngstown Grammar School. Teachers were Miss Annette Voris, Miss Elsie A. Codding, Miss Mary Gilbert and Miss Rosetta Prior. The women earned about $3.50 a week, and faced dismissal if they dared to get married.The school board was pretty persnickety about its instructors. According to its qualifications for teachers: “The board as a general rule has determined to employ no teachers but those of ripe age, ample experience, successful tact, a fine education and an ample fund of general knowledge.“The teacher must also have great goodness and kindness of heart, indomitable perseverance, good common sense, and last but not least, the qualities of a military general.”Students were expected to be on time, dress neatly, be courteous, follow instructions and mind their teachers.Pamela Goodwin was the first to graduate from Jennings. The school’s famous alumni included U.S. Sen. Charles Dick, Summit County Prosecutor George W. Sieber, Akron Mayor William Sawyer, Chicago Alderman George Walker, canalboat captain Albert W. Hall and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. co-founders F.A. Seiberling and C.W. Seiberling.F.A. Seiberling, known to classmates as Frank, recalled composing a poem for a literature class at Jennings:The raccoon has a bushy tail,The possum’s tail is bare;The rabbit has no tail at all,But a little bunch of hair.The teacher was not amused. Frank had to stay after school.In another infamous incident at Jennings, schoolboys sneaked into the belfry after midnight one night and rang the bell. The noise woke up the town. As citizens ran to the school in search of an emergency, the mischievous boys disappeared into the night.Space was a constant problem at Jennings. Superintendents Samuel Findley and Elias Fraunfelter, both of whom later inspired the names of schools, had to cope with a growing student body. The school added two wings in 1867, built a two-room frame annex in 1883 and another annex in 1885.In 30 years, the school’s seating capacity had doubled to more than 600 students.As Akron’s population raced toward 27,000, the board decided to construct a school to replace Jennings.Akron High School, later renamed Central High, opened in 1886 on South Forge Street between Union and College streets. The $101,393 building had four floors and covered 55,000 square feet.Nearly 400 students graduated from Jennings, but its era was over. The building stood vacant for 14 years and became a public eyesore as vandals took turns defacing it.In 1900, the derelict property was sold for $17,000 to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which hired an Akron contractor to demolish the building.The railroad company leveled the hill, added tracks and built a freight station and warehouse. Today, it’s a parking lot next to the Mill Street viaduct.In 1915, another school honoring the Rev. Jennings was built on Tallmadge Avenue in North Akron. It housed the original North High (which moved to Gorge Boulevard in 1931) and served as a junior high, middle school and elementary. Today, a community learning center bears the name.Alumni from the old Jennings School held annual reunions to reminisce about the good old days and sing songs of youth. The gatherings initially attracted hundreds of aging Akron residents, but the number dwindled each year.“Boys and girls, isn’t it fine for us to meet again tonight?” Bessie Voris Sawyer, president for life of the alumni group, told a 1931 group of former classmates in their 70s and 80s. “May the Jennings School Association never die.”C.W. Seiberling made a surprising confession at the 1933 reunion. He recalled how childhood chums once climbed the Jennings belfry, pulled a rope and woke up the town.“Well, hell,” he said. “I might as well admit the truth. I did ring that old bell.”Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send email to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.