4. The Town Hall

The first school in Kalamaria operated in 1921-22, with students from Pontus, Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, and southern Russia. Lack of facilities and funds forced the students to attend classes in a dilapidated shack. In 1925, the students were transferred to a wooden hut near XEN Kalamaria. The building became known as the “red school” because the exterior had been painted red. Five years later, a modern school was built on a plot next to the Metropolis. The building follows the basic principles of neoclassicism, expressed particularly clearly in the austere organisation of the elongated windows. Finally, in 1995, the school moved to a contemporary building at 1 Papagou-Kallidou Street.

Teaching conditions in the early years were almost inhumane. Most of the refugees arrived in Kalamaria destitute. Finding work was extremely difficult. Students went to class without books, stationery, or winter clothes. The “red school” was essentially four large halls of planks that rested on a raised concrete foundation. The wood was painted red to protect it from rot (it is unclear why the authorities chose this particular colour). Many students were forced to drop out of school early to work, and school principals were often seen roaming the streets looking for their missing students. Others ended up in the wrong class. For example, a student who left Asia Minor as a third-grader suddenly found herself in fifth grade when she arrived in Kalamaria as a refugee.

Today, the school building houses Kalamaria’s city hall. The Municipality of Kalamaria was created on 1 January 1943 and had a population of 10,500 residents. Until that time, Kalamaria was administered as part of Thessaloniki. The occupation of Greece by the Axis powers meant that elections were out of the question, so the Ministry of Interior appointed the merchant Dimitrios Pavlidis as mayor. Seven councillors assisted the mayor. The first elections were held in 1951, and the retired gendarme officer Stavros Karatzas was elected mayor. For many decades the town hall occupied multiple rented buildings. In 1997, the municipality renovated the historical Primary School to house the mayor’s office and various financial and administrative agencies. Today, the city of Kalamaria has a population of one hundred thousand residents.

The tragic conditions that prevailed in the refugee schools are evident in the fact that, in the 1920s, almost 36% of the students in the Primary School of Kalamaria said they were orphans when asked about their parents’ profession.