Start on the lower right hand corner of the photo. Seventeenth Street is in front of you heading into downtown Altoona. If you were driving right to left on 17th Street, the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center (formerly Altoona Voc-Tech) is on your right.

Make a right turn on Sixth Avenue (Route 764 North). The Altoona Area Public Library, one of Pennsylvania's few public libraries owned by a school district, is on that corner on your right. As you travel along Sixth Avenue, look to your left.

Where Roosevelt Junior High School once proudly stood is a new athletic field with a Trophy Turf artificial surface. This field will be primarily used by Altoona Area Junior High School students for physical education classes, interscholastic athletic events and band practices. Seating for spectators is on the Seventh Avenue side of the field which is lighted for use at night.

When you get the the 50 yardline area, look back to your right to see the Mt. Lion statue standing proudly in the mall area. In case you've forgotten, Heinz Warneke, creator of the Penn State Nittany Lion, was hired by the Alumni Association in 1974 to create a bronze Mt. Lion sculpture.

Progress a few more feet along Sixth Avenue (which is still one way) and the AAHS auditorium is on your right. It stands where the old brownstone was located and is attached to the 1927 annex - the "newer" section of the school if you graduated before 1972.

Look to the left. In 1988, the school district received a significant donation from the family of the late Blair County judge, Bertram Leopold, to build five lighted tennis courts, two volleyball courts and two lighted basketball courts. The Bertram Leopold Recreation Center is used for physical education classes, interscholastic tennis matches and community recreation.

The Leopold Center is next to the AASD Power Plant. Yes, it's still there and functioning!

As you approach 14th Street, look to your right and you'll see a bridge that students use daily to walk from Building-B (the '27 annex) to Building-A, which houses classrooms, the library, two cafeterias, the planetarium, the fieldhouse and the natatorium.

Many of you have toured the school with me over the past 23 years when you attended your class reunions.

As you pass the fieldhouse glass doors on your right, a second artificial turf field stretches on your left to 13th Street. This field was first turfed in 1989. It too is used by AAHS students and community members. A walking/jogging track is quite popular with local residents.

Get in the left lane. As you make a left turn onto 13th Street, don't miss the AASD Special Education Office at the corner of Sixth Avenue at 13th Street across from AAHS. AASD psychologists and special education supervisors have offices there. This building was constructed in 2002. (An Altoona firehouse once stood on this corner.)

As you stop at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 13th Street, the state-of-the-art Altoona Area Junior High School, which opened in the summer of 2008, stretches down Seventh Avenue back towards 17th Street.

I'm sure you'll agree that the campus has changed dramatically since the redevelopment project began in the early 1970's.

I often feel most local taxpayers take our facilities for granted. I thought you'd enjoy this somewhat "virtual tour" - especially if it's been awhile since you visited with us!

THE MOST-ASKED REUNION QUESTION...

Of the hundreds of tours of AAHS I've given since 1987, the most-asked question has always been, "Where was Charlie's?" (For you good boys and girls who NEVER skipped class to go to this small store, it was on 15th Street right across from the brownstone fairly close to Fifth Avenue.)

Maybe we should place a nice historical marker there!


On, Altoona!