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NEW BEDFORD — The South End’s new elementary school will be called the Congdon-DeValles Elementary School when it opens, which is planned for January 2027.
The School Committee considered a long list of suggestions from the public before voting Monday to use the names attached to two elementary buildings that will retire when the new construction finishes. The DeValles name honors Fr. John B. DeValles, the courageous World War I chaplain from New Bedford known as the “Angel of the Trenches.” And Congdon honors James B. Congdon, the abolitionist and politician often referred to as a founding father of New Bedford.
Mayor Jon Mitchell, as chair of the School Committee, spoke about Congdon’s founding of the city library and authorship of the city charter, and DeValles’ international awards for courage, such as the French Croix de Guerre and American Distinguished Service Cross.
“Continuing to have their names is fitting and appropriate,” Mitchell said. “It’s as much about honoring [them] as it is setting an example for folks in the future. Especially children.”
The current Congdon and DeValles buildings are both over 100 years old. Replacing them has been a long-stated goal of both Mayor Mitchell and Superintendent Andrew O’Leary. In total, eight New Bedford schools are older than 100 years, and the district has submitted bids to the state to replace several of them. Last year, New Bedford received $70 million to build the Congdon-DeValles school, but none of the other projects have been officially awarded — so naming processes have not begun.
How the new school got its name
New Bedford residents, teachers, and school staff submitted a list of more than 75 name recommendations to the School Committee.
In the committee’s deliberations, members Colleen Dawicki and Melissa Costa, the only women on the seven-member committee, spoke about the possibility of naming the new school after a woman. Dawicki said there was a disappointingly small number of schools named for women, and noted that it was “reflective of the gender disparity of the committee.”
Ultimately, the committee voted for the name, Congdon-DeValles Elementary.
While Monday’s vote ensures that Congdon and DeValles will remain prominent in the city’s memory, other suggestions offer a glimpse into what New Bedford residents most hope to honor, and what stories about their hometown they most hope to memorialize.
Many recommended keeping the Congdon and DeValles names. It’s not the first time that the city has named a school after two honorees. In 1975, the Knowlton-Clifford School was replaced with a new building under the I-195 overpass, named Hayden-McFadden for two former school superintendents, Dr. James R. Hayden and Ruth B. McFadden.
Over a dozen submissions suggested naming the new school after Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist, orator, and publisher who escaped slavery in Maryland and lived in New Bedford for three years. It was here that Douglass first began to preach, launching a career that would ultimately make him among the the most famous men (and the most photographed person) of the 19th century.
Douglass was one of only two figures to outnumber “Congdon-DeValles” in the public suggestions. But, “Frederick Douglass has already been taken, so it’s not realistically an option,” said Mayor Mitchell. Alma del Mar, the charter school network, named its second campus after Douglass in 2019. Melissa Costa said, “I think that was a missed opportunity for us.”
The city paid Douglass homage in 2023 with a statue in Abolition Row Park.
The second-most suggested name was Margery “Ruby” Dottin, the first African-American woman to serve on the New Bedford School Committee and a longtime education and anti-poverty advocate in New Bedford. Dottin, who passed away in 2020, was the director of Upward Bound at Southeastern Massachusetts University (now UMass Dartmouth).
“I can’t think of anyone else more deserving than Margery Ruby Dottin to have a school named after and for students from all racial backgrounds to be proud of attending a school in her name,” wrote Jeanne Costa, one of the people who submitted Dottin’s name for consideration.
Other names on the long list of suggestions included many prominent community figures. Some of these were William “Bill” do Carmo, the civil rights organizer; Elizabeth “Piper” Ensley, educator and suffragette with ties to New Bedford; teachers and principals including Gwendolyn E. Todman, George Heath, Laurinda Andrade, and Dr. Herbert R. Waters; organizing or political figures such as Mary Barros, Lee Charlton, and Rosalind Poll‐Brooker; and little-known historical figures, like inventor Lewis Temple.
Several of New Bedford’s former mayors also were suggested as possible names, including Rosemary Tierney, John Bullard, and Fred Kalisz. Jon Mitchell himself was suggested twice.
Others sought to honor the city’s nautical heritage with suggestions like Bay Side, Whaling City, Harborview, or Herman Melville. One suggestion was “New Bedford Light,” which the suggestor explained had to do with the city’s seaside lighthouses, not this news organization.
At least one suggestion was for “Goodyear,” the former tire manufacturer that long occupied the site of the new school.
Mitchell thanked the public, saying, “I really appreciate all of the input that we’ve heard.” He clarified that the new school name will include a hyphen. “But we can revisit that,” he said. “We have time.”
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
