The Hidden Hallways of DHS: Beneath Us
By Finn B. Radner
March 1, 2023
The crawl space under the C-wing.
In my three-and-a-half years at DHS, I have found myself persistently curious about parts of the school not seen by students—about locked doors and strange hallways that carry a mystique of inaccessibility. And then, after months of research and investigation, I got called down to the Main Office on a normal Thursday with no warning. When I arrived, Mr. Forrest and Scotty were standing at the desk speaking. Scotty asked me if I was ready to go on a tour. And so, after years of curiosity and intrigue, I can finally share with you the mysterious secrets that reside under the school.
For starters, there lies a network of interconnected crawl spaces under the school. These areas, which serve a variety of functions, are accessible through a number of locked doors around the school that give access to spaces rarely seen by those outside of the maintenance department.
Up until that tour, my only image of the crawlspaces came from a 2016-17 maintenance report showing the vast area with a chair for scale to demonstrate that the “crawl” space was much closer in height to a full-size basement.
The Crawl Space as shown in the 2013 DHS School Facility Condition Assessment.
The "furniture graveyard."
Behind a set of locked doors under the E-wing is a basement area referred to affectionately as the "furniture graveyard"—a place where old furniture goes to die so their parts can be salvaged if needed. A field of old chairs covers the floor of this room and, in other areas, used trash bins and boxes of old school supplies can be seen.
The entrance t0 the furniture graveyard.
Old boxes in the furniture graveyard.
Old bins in the furniture graveyard.
However, this was not the only accessible crawl space under DHS. Under the C-wing, behind a metal plate secured to the wall, lies a similar crawl space. This one is barren and empty compared to the furniture graveyard, only housing a singular metal tank to store waste chemicals from the C-wing.
The C-wing chemical tank.
More crawlspace past the chemical tank.
The door to the crawlspace in which the chemical tank is located.
Also on this tour, I got to see a location that I had spent three years of my high school career wondering about: the B-wing basement. While I had seen the small Delta storage room visible through windows in the door, I knew that more lay around a bend based on the blueprints revealing a full corridor on that floor.
While I could not go into this corridor, I could clearly see what lay beyond the glass doors that led into it. This area is used primarily for storage for the maintenance department and houses a few important systems as well as walls filled to the brim with storage.
The door to the B-wing basement.
A view into the B-wing basement.
The maintenance tunnel in the B-wing basement.
The door to the B-wing basement.
This also clarified for me the reasoning behind the cemented over staircase that lies at the other end of B-wing. In the stairwell at that end of the wing is a way down that has since been covered in cement for unknown reasons. A date in the floor clarifies that this took place in November of 1975, just eight years after the B-wing was built. From underneath, it can be clear this staircase would’ve offered nearly unlimited accessibility to this hallway—an area difficult to supervise and control.
And, at the other side of the room was another door to the crawl spaces that lay beneath the school. This one, like the others, housed important systems. Quite notably, I found out what happened to all the old analog clocks when the school transitioned to digital clocks during the tenure of Principal Ron McCarthy.
Old analog clocks in the crawlspace under the B-wing.
Crawlspace under the B-wing.
Lastly, I was shown the crawlspace that lays under the A-wing—another basic crawl space filled with pipes and essential systems. This area includes access to an electrical generator that could be essential in case of a power outage. This generator is connected to the large diesel generator outside.
The A-wing crawlspace.
A door to the A-wing emergency generator.
The A-wing emergency generator from the 2013 DHS School Facility Condition Assessment.
However, the crawl spaces and basements are not the only areas that lie under the school. Near the woodshop is a boiler room that is essential to powering the school. I spoke with Mr. Haluska about this room. He allowed me access to take a few photos.
Lastly, on our tour, we explored a room confusingly labeled as the “steam room” on blueprints. This room, behind a strange cutout in the walls of the food storage area, is only accessible from outside and produces hot water for the kitchen staff to use.
The boiler room.
The "steam room."
The waste storage tank in the steam room.
These countless areas are often not as interesting as people may expect them to be, simply holding essential infrastructure and old storage. And yet, it has always been a fascination of mine what lay behind those locked doors—those rooms that students do not get to see and those that still serve essential functions. I was never expecting to find anything exceptional or shocking, and while my expectations turned out to be true, it was still a wonderful experience to get to see these areas and share them with the world.
Meet the Writer!
Finn B. Radner, Class of 2023, is the opinion editor for the Dedham Mirror. He is the President of the DHS Math Team, Editor-in-Chief of ECHO Magazine, and a member of the DHS Science Team.
Investigative team member William Scace also contributed to this story.