The heritage and the history of ELM Fabricius School

Here is the glorious timeline of ELM Fabricius higher secondary school which has been serving for more than 175 years since its inception in the neighborhood of Purasawalkam and its service to the field of education is immeasurable and commendable.

It was in the year 1849, Rev. C. F. Grammer founded a primary school in a rented house at Tana street with 48 students (31 were girls) and 3 teachers and this was the humble beginnings of ELM.

After functioning there in the rented house for about a decade, it was shifted to the building south adjacent to Lutheran Adaikalanathar church which was built in the year 1858.

Rev. C.F. Gramer remained the school’s manager until 1866 and the medium of instruction had been both in English and Tamil. Also the school had special facility for the girls to study separately.

Rev. R. Handmann, a German missionary succeeded Rev. C.F. Gramer. He worked tirelessly for the development of the school and by his vigorous hard work and dedication, the school was bifurcated in the year 1866 to have a designated school for girl students.

In the year 1882, the school met all the regulations set by the state educational department to get upgraded as a middle school under the dynamic leadership of Rev. Handmann. Following the up gradation, the school was christened by him as ‘Lutheran Mission Middle School’.

The discipline of the students was at par excellence and praiseworthy, even the then Inspector of schools, Mr. Garthwaite was astonished at the good conduct of the students and he had specially mentioned about it in his inspection records.

The Rev. Handmann’s glorious stint as the manger came to an end in the year 1887 and he returned back to Germany, his home country. Subsequently, the German missionary, Rev. Kabis took charge of the school from Rev. Handmann. It was through his zealous and steadfast efforts, the school gained its reputation as a renowned and an illustrious school and on the other hand the count of the students multiplied rapidly.

In order to commemorate the service of the German missionary Rev. Fabricius who had served during 1741-1791 in Vepery, the school was renamed as Fabricius School by Rev. Kabis.

A need for the school to be capacious was felt after it had substantial number of students. Therefore, Rev. Kabis proposed a plan of buying a piece of land to build a new school building, for which he tried hard to buy an old house which situated on the Purasawalkam high road but unfortunately, he could not succeed in his attempts.

After then, in the year 1892, Rev. Kabis went back to Germany on a long vacation and Rev. Naeither was placed in charge of the school and it was he who actually bought the place for the school building which Rev. kabis desired to purchase. The purchased land had three old houses and the total area was 21,295 sq. ft.

In 1893, Rev. Kabis retuned back to Madras and took over the school from Rev. Naeither and he toiled a lot to build the school and the blue print was designed by him.

On the 21st of November 1893, the foundation of the school was laid by the mission director Mr. Von Scrwartz and the building was built by a catholic civil engineer who generously volunteered his service for gratis, without taking a penny.

The construction was completed within a short span of seven months and the school was dedicated on the 12th of July 1894. The day of dedication was the shifting of the school from Tana street to the new premises which was celebrated like a fete and many dignitaries, prominent people, merchants, local residents attended the dedication ceremony and among them was the German Ambassador Mr. Gerdes.

For three decades since 1894, the school remained as a middle school and in the year 1914, it got upgraded to have Form IV (9th standard). Mr. M. T. Manickam, an alumni of the Lutheran Mission primary school served the school as its headmaster during the years 1923-1943 took measures in upgrading the school as a high school in the year 1930 and in the year 1978 it again upgraded to be a higher secondary school.

During 1998-99 the school was renovated with the aid received from the German Lutheran churches and celebrated 150 years of educational service.