School Histories

Argonner ES History

Opened: 1982
Closed: 2008

Argonner Elementary School was located on the Main River approximately fifteen miles east of Frankfurt in Hanau, home of the famous Grimm brothers, authors of fairy tales. The school was located about two miles from the city of Wolfgang. Argonner Elementary was formerly known as Hanau Dependent School which became Hanau American Elementary School. Even though the name and location was changed, the community considered Hanau Elementary and Argonner to be one and the same.

The elementary school consisted of grades kindergarten through six. The main building was in the Old Argonner Housing Area. A new building was occupied in the spring of 1982 to replace several substandard facilities that had been Hanau Elementary School. The faculty, staff and students moved from the previous facility to the new building.

The school colors were red and black, and the mascot was the Wildcat. The school published an annual yearbook and several issues of the school newspaper, Argonner Times. Student field trips included visits to locations in Hanau and other German cities like the zoo, museums, castles, markets, and other historical places. The school held a yearly Volksmarch that became a Walk-a-Thon as the enrollment diminished. Students celebrated Black History Month, Native American Month, Hispanic Heritage, Week of the Young Child, Red Ribbon Week, Dr. Suess Day, and American and local holidays.

In the mid-eighties, the faculty consisted of four administrators, two counselors, sixty-one classroom teachers, five host nation teachers, two librarians, two learning development specialists, four special education teachers, two reading improvement specialists, a school nurse, two speech therapists, a music teacher, an English as a Second Language teacher, an art teacher, and a physical education teacher. The student enrollment was about 1,200 students.

By the 1989-90 school year, there were three administrators for a student enrollment of 950 students. The enrollment continued to drop and by the 1994-95 school year was just 500 students in pre-school through fifth grade.

The last yearbook included a history of the school:

The school, called Hanau #1, was built in 1951 as a school (not as a hospital, as the immortal rumor would have it!) A tiny Hanau #2 school was on Pioneer Kaserne.

The upper floor was the junior high (JH) section with the JH Principal, nurse and dentist all in the rooms by the library. The elementary school (ES) consisted of kindergarten through sixth grade. Grades two through six occupied the ground floor and kindergarten and first were in Bldg. 454. We had 2, half-day kindergarten classes daily. The high school students were bussed to Frankfurt.

The present music room was the JH band room. The ES music, art and PE teachers were itinerants whose offices consisted of table space in the faculty lounge which is now the main office. From 1972 on, there were two full-time host nation (HN) teachers. One HN teacher had a tiny office, the other shared the faculty lounge.

Around 1972, Mr. Harr, the principal of the complex, strove to have a high school built to make room for the increasing ES population. Hanau #2 had expanded from Pioneer Kaserne onto the Sportfield area in Quonset huts.

In 1976 the JH moved to the new high school building, leaving behind the lockers. The rooms were quickly filled, as the school continued to grow. By 1980 we had 1800 ES students. The students were squeezed into the current building including the basement, the Quonset huts at Sportfield, Roseland Club located at the Wolfgang PX area, Bldg. 454 and Bldg. 409 located on Old Argonner.

When Sportfield Elementary School was being built, in the early 1980's, the Quonset huts had to be pulled down. For about two years, Argonner rented six rooms each, in German schools in Bruchköbel and Erlensee. The classes had to follow a German schedule, starting at 7:30 a.m. and going till 1:15 p.m.. When the new Sportfield Elementary School opened in 1982, our school officially became Argonner Elementary School.

Initially teachers had an hour for lunch and many ate at the Officers' Club which later became the Five Pfennig Playhouse. There were no security checks and both gates were open. Many teachers lived in BOQs or base housing.

Children from Old and New Argonner would go home for lunch, except for the "bussers" who ate in the cafeteria which is now supply room. The hamburgers and chili dogs were prepared at 8 a.m. in the adjoining room, now the OT/PT room, making everyone salivate as they entered the school, not expecting the rubbery pieces of meat available at noon. Ice cream and donuts were also on sale and often bought with "hamburger lunch money". Some interesting situations arose for the principal, when working mothers, who lived on base, hoped their children could also eat school lunch.

The Hanau Middle School opened in 1989 and the sixth graders moved over the bridge reducing our total school population. In the 1990's, when all students were to be allowed to eat at school, a portable was added as an extra cafeteria. In the late 1990's three classrooms were renovated to provide a cafeteria with a kitchen. The portable was then used for other purposes and is now the TAG room. Many renovations to the building occurred in the 1990 such as the library, various classrooms and the gymnasium. A kindergarten wing was added in the early 2000's.

In 2006 Sportfield and the surrounding communities closed leaving Argonner the only elementary school in the Hanau area. In the spring of 2007 it was announced that the Hanau military community would close in 2008. The last school bell rang on June 6, 2008 after 57 years of educating thousands of children of the Hanau military community.

School Administrators

Information from DoDDS School Information Guides and school yearbooks