After the commemoration ceremony of Professor Pourdavoud ended, of the founding of Firooz Bahram High School and art/technical school, Mobed Hormozdyar Khosraviani, the school’s religion teacher, invited the participants to have a tour of the high school and told the history of the year of construction, restorations and other works done. He explained to the participants about the changes made in the past 90 years.
The lot that starts from Mirza Kuchek Khan Street right till the alley behind it, was purchased in 1285 (1906), which was initially the property of Ghavam-ol-Saltaneh. In 1293 (1914) the foundation stone of Adorian was laid, and behind the fire temple building which becomes the north part of Firooz Bahram high school, a high school for girls, named Iraj after Iraj Shah was built. A year later Iraj School started functioning, but the fire temple took some years to be completed. Finally, in 1296 (1917) it was inaugurated. The stone facade of Adorian as is now seen was built in 1345 (1966). Before that, in the Mozafari period, its facade was built of narrow bricks; in 1966 the stones were built on the bricks.
In 1311, it was decided to build a high school for higher grades on this property. At first, this was intended for boys, but since there was no high school for girls, when the high school was opened, in 131Enghelabe Ave. (Shah Reza), and the girls were transferred from this place, now the high school became boys’ high school. In the hall where we are standing right now the middle part did not exist, but there was an open space from the beginning to the bottom of the hall; next to the wall, there was a corridor, about 1.5 to 2 m wide, which was used for commuting to the classes that were located on both sides of here.
If you stand in front of the stand, there are several classrooms on your right and left, with a corridor in the middle. Later, this area was roofed and the end part became classrooms, laboratory and workshops. I don’t remember the exact date of this work, but it was done 15-20 years after opening of the school. 30 years had passed and the school looked worn-out; a discussion was held with the family of Iraj shah, and they were asked if they would like to rebuild Iraj School. They said this was not their plan, so their permission was sought to demolish the school, which was done, and now a few building have been built on this piece of land, namely, the reception hall, Yeganegi library, Yoga clinic. Iraj School was demolished and three buildings were built instead. A door next to the stage leads to the lower floor which is named Esfandiar building, with a staircase.
On the west side of the high school, there is a 2-story building with four rooms, which was built in 1325 by Ardeshir Azargoshasb in memory of his son Esfandiar who passed away in an accident at the age of 14, to be used for the education of students.
This building is called Esfandiar Building, which is now a part of Firooz Bahram High School and is attached to it. The structure of this building is cube and rectangular. This school’s stairs and corridor were named after Mr. Manshani in 1383 (2004) took the present shape, in the name of Mr Manshani. On the wall can be seen the photos of Arbab Fereydoon and Mehraban Zartoshti, both of whom had paid for the full expenses of the reconstruction of the whole school, in 1377 (1998). Next to their photo frame, there is a photo of Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh, the first representative of Zoroastrians in the National Assembly, and Bahmanji Bikaji who founded the school in memory of his deceased son, Bahramji Bikaji. The story of the construction of this school is as follows: Bahmanji decided to build a school in Kabul in the name of his deceased son, Bahramji, but Mr. Keikhosrow, who was the chairman of the Tehran Zoroastrian Association at that time, talked to him and told him to come and build a school in your own country. He accepted and the land next to the fire temple was given by the Zoroastrian Association to Bahmanji, who built it with his own funds. The building was built by an experienced mason, more or less at the same time as the Melli Bank building located on Ferdowsi Street. In memory of his late son, Bahmanji named the School Firooz Bahram High School.
When we went to the lower floor Mobed Khosraviani said: “Now look above your head; you can see a difference in the ceiling that clearly shows which part of the ceiling is new that is the floor of the hall above, that was added later, and which part is the floor of the old corridor. At the end of the lower corridor, the Esfandiar building is right next to the Firooz Bahram high school building, which is separated by a door between the two. But now, only three sides of the building are open. The Esfandiar building has only four classes, and if you look in the daylight, from inside the courtyard, at where the two buildings meet, the difference in the brickwork and the height of both buildings is visible. At the entrance to the school building, there are two white marble stones, one of which has the year of its foundation written on it, which is 1311 (1932), and right in front of it is another marble stone, which shows the date of renovation of the building, which is 1377, that is, 66 years after its construction. This building was rebuilt with the donations of the two Zoroastrian brothers.
In the yard, right in the part of the wall that is between the fire temple and the high school, anything interesting thing appears. If you look at the thick wall, the type of brickwork and the type of wall construction clearly show that the upper part of the wall is different from the lower part, which is because this wall was first built in the form of several semi-circles with the crescent-shaped open part facing upwards and separated from each other by columns with a chalk-colored ball above each column. There is also an entrance door that in the past allowed students to go to Adorian and pay homage. There is a balcony in front of the principal’s window, which used to be lower than it is at present, and because it was in the way of the students’ coming and going, it was elevated during the renovations and brought a little higher. Students and school officials use this balcony for morning ceremony or lectures. Before completion of renovations in 1377 (1998) the restrooms were located next to the wall of the yard, which gave an unpleasant look to the yard. So, they were removed and rebuilt in the basement of the building. In this way the yard got more space plus it looks better. Another renovation also took place during the reconstruction: the tiling which was done on the upper part of the building, dating back to 1312 (1933), was carried on right upto the bottom, and if Mobed Khosraviani hadn’t pointed out to this change we thought that the full tiling was done in one period. This renovation was a contribution of Ranjbar Tehrani.
