East Providence committee declines possible renaming of Orlo School

Will continue to recognize Orlo Hobbs, who owned and donated land at the site

By Mike Rego
Posted 6/13/19

EAST PROVIDENCE — Those in attendance last week and a few if not all of the elected officials on the body recently received a history lesson about one of the buildings owned by the East Providence …

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East Providence committee declines possible renaming of Orlo School

Will continue to recognize Orlo Hobbs, who owned and donated land at the site

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — Those in attendance last week and a few if not all of the elected officials on the body recently received a history lesson about one of the buildings owned by the East Providence School Department, something which was welcomed and appreciated.

Putting to rest any thoughts to the contrary, the School Committee, at its Tuesday, June 11, meeting, tabled entirely and ruled out any possibility of renaming the Orlo Avenue Elementary School in the honor of the recently deceased, revered city native Dr. Kenneth Walker.

The committee did so based upon the urging of the family of the man in whose name the building is already indirectly named: Orlo Hobbs.

Represented last week by his great-great grandson Scott Breault, a graduate of the school system who just this past spring served as the volunteer assistant for the East Providence High School golf team, the descendants of Mr. Hobbs expressed their desire to keep his name on the building.

Before Mr. Breault spoke, Ward 1 member and School Committee chair Charlie Tsonos made it known a decision to honor Dr. Walker in another manner had already been made.

“The item for the Orlo School is being tabled and in my conversations with the initiators of that request there will be no name change at Orlo School,” Mr. Tsonos explained. “Their request to honor Dr. Walker will be directed elsewhere. But the Orlo School, named for Orlo Hobbs, will not be changed.”

Mr. Breault’s remarks were tempered with that knowledge, though he still passionately expressed the position of his family. He noted the land was once a farm operated by Mr. Hobbs and the original house on the property is still owned by the clan through the Breault family. His parents, if fact, reside there to this day.

“Orlo Avenue School was actually named after somebody, my great-great grandfather, Orlo Hobbs,” said Mr. Breault to begin his remarks. “He used to own all the land in that area and donated the land to build the school.”

He continued, recalling the background of how Orlo Avenue School came to be, “When the first elementary school was built, they wanted to name it after him. But being the modest man that he was, he didn’t want that honor, didn’t feel he deserved that honor. He suggested they name it after his friend, William Bliss, so the original elementary school there was named Bliss for his friend.

“When they built the new school and the playground, they decided to name it after the street, which was named after him, which was the only thing that he kind of allowed them to name. So they named it after him in a round-about way to name the school after him.”

Paying respect to the memory of Dr. Walker, Mr. Breault added, “We have nothing against Dr. Walker. From everything I’ve read, he was a great man. We just wanted to preserve our little piece of history that’s not very well known in the city.

“We just want to continue that family history, that little part that not many people know…Being the humble man who he was, a lot of people didn’t know about his generosity.”

The Breaults initiated contact with the committee to express their opinion and also posted information on social media to make the community aware of the lineage.

At-Large member Joel Monteiro said he appreciated the outreach because, “as an Orlo student, I didn’t know.”

The descendants of Mr. Hobbs suggested, and the committee unanimously seemed to support, a plaque be placed somewhere at Orlo School denoting the history of the location.

“It’s great because if you don’t contact us, sometimes the information gets lost after years and years and years,” said Mr. Tsonos, who also noted because of the loss of historical records due to the City Hall fire back in the late 70s, “there are gaps and missing information.”

Ward 4 committee member Jessica Beauchaine said she not only backed the idea of recognizing Mr. Hobbs, but thought it would be appropriate doing something similar at other buildings throughout the district.

“It might be important for all our schools named after people to have plaques, so that people who aren’t from here know why they’re named after them. I think that’s a good idea,” Ms. Beauchaine said.

At the end of the meeting during a further discussion on the topic, Mr. Tsonos said it was the policy of the committee to allow those seeking to honor others the chance to bring forward to the body any potential naming declarations. He said it's policy that “a request appears on the agenda, but that doesn’t mean it’s a done deal.”

Added Mr. Monteiro, “Charlie, wouldn’t you say that the process worked perfectly in this situation? Because I don’t think any of us knew about this stuff. It was publicly noted and we became aware.”

Saying “many buildings in this city are named after people,” Mr. Tsonos concluded, “I even had people say to me don’t put which building and who it’s going to be named after (in the public domain), and I said, ‘That’s not how this committee works.' We will be transparent. There’s no such thing as a surprise. The policy is the name is publicly stated before the discussion, and we’re going to be transparent. If nothing else, we’re going to be transparent. And this takes nothing away from Dr. Walker.”

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Mike Rego

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.