There's also a Mr. Bonds, who seems to have been a coach, and Mr. John Feathers, a white-haired man speaking at a lectern, who on the back of the photo is identified as "The Head Master."
"There's also a painting of him in the cafeteria," Beck said.
But that's about it for photos with ID's. The rest are generic school scenes - a basketball game against Carver, volleyball matches, a relay race. There are pictures shot in hallways, in the gym, on the field. They were probably yearbook pictures, many have been stamped on the back with the page number and position.
One tennis team photo has "1976" written on it, and given the hairstyles and the fact that there were still white students at what had become a predominantly African-American school indicates many of the pictures date to that time, Beck thinks.
In the cavernous, dark and cold building - the heat has been turned off - the school seems particularly ghostly on this cloudy winter day. The old Southwestern is disappearing by the day - already, construction equipment is clearing ground on which a dorm will be built, and SEED staff are going through applications to select their first class, 80 sixth-graders who will start this fall at what eventually will be a sixth-through-12th-grade school.
And yet amid the flurry over the future, Beck wants to respect the past.
In addition to the pictures, there is a big case filled with sports trophies, largely for wrestling and track. There is a videotape, carefully labeled "Southwestern High School 29th Senior Graduation June 9, 2002 videotaped by: Cordell Chambers." There is Shawn Manning's ID card, issued on 12/11/97. There is a banner from the Class of '83, announcing that its members "hold the key to success." There are LPs, mostly spoken word, featuring everyone from Langston Hughes to H.L. Mencken. And there is whatever might be in some file cabinets that remain locked.
Cecelia McDaniel, Southwestern's last principal, said she thought the school had been emptied of all its memorabilia - and there was a lot of it.
"You found things you didn't even know existed," she said of clearing out the 37-year-old school. "We had an activity for alumni, and we had all the things displayed.
"We had people come in who were graduates of the first class. We had kids whose parents who went to the school come," she said "We gave away T-shirts, trophies, yearbooks. You hate to see any of that go in the trash."
McDaniel is calling around to see if she can find any former staff or alumni who might be interested in part of Southwestern's past. Beck is checking to see if anyone is interested in archiving the photographs.
"We hate the idea of ditching all this as debris," Beck said. "We want to just not dis the history."
jean.marbella@baltsun.com
For more photos from Southwestern High, visit baltimoresun.com/southwestern
