Overbrook School for the Blind

showing the Twentieth and Race (then Sassafras and Schuylkill Third) Streets building The Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind opened in March 1832. A few years later, on October 27, 1836, a new building was dedicated on the northwest corner of Schuylkill Third (now Twentieth) and Sassafras (now Race) Streets on what is today the site of the Franklin Institute in the Logan Square neighborhood of Philadelphia. The school's founder, Julius Reinhold Friedlander, died on 17 March 1837, after years of poor health. At the time of his death, he was less than 36 years old. In June 1907, Overbrook's track and field team members defeated their rivals from the Baltimore School for the Blind in the annual intercollegiate competition held between the schools. That same month, Professor Olin H. Burrit became the new superintendent of the school. He had previously been employed as the superintendent of the New York State School for the Blind. In December 1907, the school's forty-member choir performed at the dedication of Philadelphia's Grace Baptist Temple. The school was renamed the Overbrook School for the Blind in 1946, expanding and growing over the next decades. The school building suffered a fire in 1960. The building began to experience leaks in 2012 and a complete roof replacement was undertaken that same year. The building's Ludowici tiles were replaced with new ones produced by the original manufacturer. ==Notable people==

Students • David Abrahams (b. 2001), American swimmer and paralympian • Genevieve Caulfield (1888–1972), American teacher and philanthropist • Sebastian Demanop (1928-2022), Thai-American blind activist • Matthew A. Dunn (1886–1942), American congressman • Martha Louise Morrow Foxx (1902–1985), American educator • Ward Marston (b. 1952), American audio transfer engineer • Anne V. Ward (1877–1971), Scottish-American educator who both was a student and faculty member of OBS. Staff • James G. Blaine (1830–1893), American congressman who taught science and literature at the school in the 1850s • Robley Dunglison (1798–1869), English-American physician • Alfred L. Elwyn (1804–1884), American physician, philanthropist, and founding member of the school • Joshua Francis Fisher (1807–1873), American writer • Elisabeth Freund (1898–1982), German-Jewish educator who developed a Touch and Learn Center for the school that was a model for other blind centers internationally. • Julius Reinhold Friedlander (1803–1839), Founder of the school • Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883), American psychiatrist and Vice President of the school from 1884 until his death • John Vaughan (1756–1841), American wine merchant and former school President ==References==