As Germantown Elementary School turns 75-years-old, Patch.com takes a look back at the school's early beginnings.

Germantown's oldest elementary school is a far cry from its humble roots 75 years ago. According to the unofficial resident historian Ellen Horbatuk, the old Germantown Elementary School was a one-room school house flanked by stables for the horses some students rode to school.

Parents regularly passed the hat at PTA monthly membership meetings in 1930s and 1940s, often raising less than a dollar and a half to meet the school's financial obligations.

The first music teacher was hired in 1943. She visited the school twice a month for lessons and in preparation for her arrival, the school piano was tuned at a cost of $ 3.50. The school served lunch only during winter months and a cart of books in the hallway was the designated library.

Almost 50 years later, Christie Cole's family moved to Germantown and she was enrolled in the second grade. There was a better library and separate classrooms for students from kindergarten to sixth grade. She said the school provided hot meals all year round and students even had desserts available for purchase at the lunch counter. Somewhere between fourth and fifth grade she decided to become a teacher.

Almost another twenty years later, Cole came back to the elementary school for a job interview. She said apart from the walls dividing the different classrooms and the computer laboratory, little had changed from her student days; not even the smell of disinfectant or Friday lunch pizza.

 "I could not believe it," she said. "When I walked back in here it had the same smell as when I was a child."

Gregory Brill does not want anything to change either. He has been a parent at the school for six years and will have another child starting next year. He has seen the school grow move from portable classrooms to permanent structures and is happy with the school the way it is.

It is a small community," he said. "Teachers know everybody and everybody knows everybody."

Amy Bryant has been the school principal going on to eight years. She said the 75-year mark is not the only cause for celebration. She started when the school was "severely overcrowded," housing an estimated 500 students. Student numbers have decreased since a new elementary school opened and she said as a result, she has seen flourishing academics and improved discipline among the students.

Bryant is not planning a big party, but will instead work the school's 75^th anniversary into different activities in the 2010-2011 school year by inviting former students and employees to talk to students and parents.

 "We wanted to start out small and build then build into the school year," she said.