Former Fleetwood Student Shows Town’s Change

Who exactly is Caroline Elizabeth Baum Steitz?

For starters, she is a Fleetwood Area High School of 1931. Through her and her family, students and community members can understand the history of Fleetwood and how times have changed since she was a student.

The first motion picture house in Fleetwood was built on 30 West Main Street in 1920. Admission at the time was only five cents!

Fleetwood Area High School at the time was much different too. The high school and the elementary school were in the same building.  The physical education teacher offered students 50 cents if they would walk to school each morning and, unfortunately, took advantage of the deal.

Among the items Steitz left behind upon her death, one in particular meant a lot to her. It was a Fleetwood Area High School graduation pin from 1931.

“It seems to be a standard pin, possibly one that you still use today,” Joanie Perciballi, daughter of Caroline Steitz, said.  “It is an oval with a runner on it and gives the name of the school and the year it was founded. It has a chain with the number 31 for her graduation year.”

Extracurricular activities were still present in Fleetwood during the time–most importantly, music. There were music programs offered, some of which Caroline Steitz favored.

“The girls played marches for the students to pass into assemblies several times a week,” Perciballi said. “Part of the focus on music may have come from the fact that there was a wonderful young woman music teacher who the girls greatly admired.”

Caroline Elizabeth Steitz passed away last July; however, through her family members and the items she left behind, FAHS staff and students are able to learn a lot. They can now see how far Fleetwood has come since the early twentieth century and how life itself has changed since then.