The Newton TAB published my article about the historic Allen School in West Newton, Massachusetts, in its July 5 issue

One of my favorite parts of many history documentaries is when a vintage image of a location appears on screen, and slowly fades to reveal how that place looks today. It creates a connection between then and now that we rarely make in our fast-paced, in-the-moment world.

I was recently struck by a past image of the Allen School in Newton, Massachusetts. The photo, which is in the archive of Historic Newton, features students at the forward-looking West Newton institution that, beginning in the mid-19th century, pioneered mixed-race coeducation and introduced many innovations into the curriculum.

The photo is not dated, but, according to Historic Newton Archivist Sara Leavitt Goldberg, it was likely taken during or just after the Civil War.

The students are seen posing in the driveway in front of the home of the school’s founder and principal, Nathaniel T. Allen, a prominent educator, abolitionist and social reformer. The image shows some 25 students spread out in front of the house, located at 35 Webster Street in Newton, staring into the camera.

Although the students aren’t smiling (photographs were a serious affair back then), they radiate a kind of joy and quiet confidence. It’s almost as though they’re saying, “I’m so glad to have this chance to develop my talents to improve the world.”

A trio of young men dominate the foreground: On the left is a sportsman, wearing a rakishly tilted bowler hat and leaning on a bat. In the middle there’s a boy in a fisherman’s cap who looks like he just came back from work. Finally, on the right is a young man in a straw hat standing ramrod straight, looking like he might be about to go boating.

A Black student in the middle ground leans nonchalantly against a bat. His stance and relative prominence seem to say, “I belong here.”

A group of young women, looking positively glowing in their hoop skirts and fashionable hats, can be seen on a strip of lawn behind him. Some mischievous boys have climbed out a second-story window and sit on the roof of the entryway, and a seemingly shy young man at the extreme left peeks out from behind a trellis.

The students had much to be proud of in their school, called the West Newton English and Classical School. It was located at the site of the current Unitarian Universalist Church in West Newton Square, according to Goldberg. Founded by Allen in 1854, the school quickly became a model for progressive education.

According to a history of the Allen House and School on the Historic Newton website, not only did the school provide equal opportunities for both girls and boys in racially mixed classrooms, but it also housed one of the earliest kindergartens in the country and was the first to include physical education in the curriculum.

By the end of its 50-year life span, the school had some 4,000 alumni hailing from all 50 states, Europe, Central and South America, and Asia, according to Historic Newton documents. Graduates went on to careers in education, medicine and law.

Among the school’s alumni were Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree. Graduate Mary Anne Greene received a law degree from Boston University and was admitted to the Suffolk County bar. She was the first woman to publish in the American Law Review and to argue a case before the Rhode Island Supreme Court, according to Stanford University’s Women’s Legal History Biography Project.

The school touted alumni accomplishments in annual catalogs and other publications now archived at the Jackson Homestead and Museum on Washington Street in Newton. It also invited former students back for regular reunions. Greene – an 1873 graduate – returned for the 1893 reunion and encapsulated her school’s philosophy in an address subsequently printed in “An Illustrated Biographical Catalog” of the school published in 1895.

The development of character was the school’s “truest education,” Greene said, adding, “Distinction of age, sex or race cannot exist upon this broad foundation. It is what the scholar is capable of as a free agent, with the help of God, that determines eligibility to membership in this school. … For those of any race who desire to develop the good that is in every human being, there is a hearty welcome.”

She also said “there should be nothing bold or unnatural about a woman doing the work for which she is best suited, not even though the work lies in a field chiefly occupied by men.”

The legacy of the innovative Allen School helped enshrine the value of education in Newton, according to Historic Newton’s Goldberg. The school building itself is long gone, but the Allen House still exists as a monument to the work of its founder. The graceful structure, with its distinctive tall columns, is a West Newton landmark. It is currently home to the Newton Cultural Alliance.

There is a way you can still see the scene depicted in that long-ago photo. Go to 35 Webster Street and stand at the end of the driveway. Look toward the entryway. If you squint just right, and use your imagination, you’ll be able to make out those students, standing tall and proud, gazing over your head toward the future.