Yep. Elementary schools typically still have stages in the cafeterias. Middle schools’ stages are usually in the gym, and high schools have separate auditoriums. I don’t think I’ve been in a single public school building since having children over the last 18 years that didn’t go by this model.
They do. At my son’s elementary if you came to eat lunch with your kid, yall all got to sit on stage to eat (it sounds weird but it wasn’t like we were on display, that was just the “family eating area”, and you were never the only parent there that I can recall)
Same only it was grades 1-8 , kindergarten was only half day when I was in elementary school, the tables were on the stage portion unless we were having a special event like school wide thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and then tables were placed on the gym floor. Being chosen to eat in gym was the biggest prize!
Yeah, I remember that name. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it, but it perfectly fits the setup at my kid’s school, which looks like OP’s picture and is connected via an accordion wall to the gym classroom, so sometimes the same room is a cafeteria, an auditorium or a gym.
,main room during Scholastic drives, site of larger game room for off hours carnival type events....it was like this big room that had multiple purposes!
My high school was built in the 80’s, so they had one of these bad boys (the stage + cafeteria) despite I am not a Gen X / Xennial, but I am Gen Z, but heavily influenced by others in my family (regardless of closeness / immediate) who are Xennials / Gen X themselves! As a Gen Z person, your music is amazing! 🥲💕🎶
Also, Gen Alpha’s “new” vocabulary makes me want to (metaphorically & sarcastically) bang my head against a brick wall until I black out, since their slang is so mind boggling! 😓
We were even a bit above that. The parish ended up moving locations almost a century after it was founded to keep up with the town expanding, the school was built first (finished the year after I was born) with the actual church going up when I was in like third or fourth grade so we had a good decade or so of mass in the gym/cafeteria.
You made me actually go read the church's history. I never realized the church I went to was actually the second church because the original one had burned down from stray sparks off of a train.
I always wondered why the cemetery was like 4 miles away from where the church and elementary school are now.
We did too. I remember having gym class after lunch - we’d get there and the cafeteria people would still be rolling the tables back into the wall, the place would smell like whatever was served that day, and we’d have to dodge random peas on the floor when running laps.
Mine too, there was also a rotunda with a large circular bench and skylight where all the vending machines were. Out school was also joined directly to the town rink, rec center and library. It was a pretty decent place to go to high school. I have a few good memories of school dances, concerts and movie night fundraisers in the cafetorium.
They still buildin' em like this new in Texas. My kids' elementary school is only about as old as they are, and I watched 'em all cross the "cafetorium" stage to get their 5th grade diplomas.
Yep. I remember having pizza on Friday sometimes, but that may have been once in a blue moon. That school closed in 1990 so memories are fuzzy about the pizza, but otherwise it was lunch brought from home.
My school had it the other way around. The cafeteria WAS the stage. On one side was the kitchen and the serving line and the opposite wall opened up to the gym. There was 4-5 steps down from the cafeteria to the gym floor (which was of course carpeted). So when there was any kind of performance, the stage and backgrounds had the entire cafeteria to work with and the audience sat in the gym.
I guess I went to fancy schools (Chicago), none of the schools I went to had combo use rooms. It took moving to KY to see them in the wild; my children's schools all utilize the 'gymatorium' model.
I assumed this was a newer thing because I never had this but all of the newer elementary schools where I live do. In fact the new schools all have those round center areas with curving stair cases and balconies like I used to see in movies. My schools were never that nice.
Our 6th grade school had this. Just outside of it, we had "the commons," which had the canteen and was where we took recess since our school was built in a swamp.
My class (1998) ended up being almost twice as big as the other classes, so they were scrambling to find room for us. My French class was held on the stage, while beginning band was in the cafeteria part. Half of our gym was for PE class, and the other half was split into 3 "classrooms" with portable chalkboard as walls. Our teachers had everything in plastic totes, and they had to move our classrooms against the wall whenever we had an assembly. They definitely didn't pay those teachers enough.
Mine looked a lot like the first photo, except instead of what appears to be a white wall in the back of the stage, it was just curtains because the other side of the curtain was the gym. I could literally walk from lunch room to stage to gym in jsuta few steps.
This is my elementary school and funny story also. Years later the school closed down, then partially torn down. Then in 2018, part of the school that was still standing was made into the function room(s) and fitness center of some luxury apartments (they had proms and corporate events there, place was done up really well from being a school gym). My grandparents moved into there and we had both my grandfather's 80th birthday and my grandmother's funeral memorial services in that gym/functions room. Both were a wild nostalgia trip from going to school there.
We don’t have those in the school districts in New York that I’ve lived in. Every school has an auditorium. But also, most of our school buildings are older.
I grew up in the suburbs of buffalo and now live in the rural suburbs of Albany.
Cafegymatorium here too. There was a foldable wall that they would sometimes unfold to separate the gym & cafeteria, if there was an assembly going on during lunchtime or gym class during lunchtime. If there was an event after school the “wall” was opened
My elementary school was one of those big brick schools that was built around the turn of the 20th century and was originally the town's high school. It had a separate cafeteria in the basement, which would flood if the river got too high in the spring, and the stage was in the gym.
It's been about 25 years since they built the new elementary school and it has the multipurpose gym/auditorium/cafeteria now.
Not just grade school. My high school had a caffetorium with a bit fancier stage than in the OP's pictures. The school only had 500 students, so an independent autotorium didn't seem warranted when that stage or the gym were fit for all assembles.
My high school had this. I attended Catholic school until high school. Hot meals were given to us in the gym/kitchen/assembly room, lunch room was a 1950s bomb shelter.
In 8th grade I went to a newly built school with a cafeteria just like this. We also briefly had a jukebox in there that played the same 5 or to 6 different records on rotation every day at lunch. To this day, I smell tater tots whenever I hear You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Elvira or (Keep Feeling) Fascination .
I grew up in coastal Southern California. I thought indoor cafeterias were a myth for the longest time because I only ever saw a hunch of wood tables on a blacktop.
I always thought this was the height of classy education meant only for tv and films
My high school also had a cafeteria and auditorium mix. Our cafeteria tables and benches folded out of the wall. They would fold them back into the wall and wheel in auditorium seats for performances.
Just seeing this picture instantly fills my olfactory senses with the smell of the public school pizza. I don’t know how you can make pizza (bread + sauce + cheese) smell so horrific, but even my 6 yr old self was like, “Nope!”
My ES had a stage in the DFAC, and we asked about that the teachers denied it and told us we need to pay attention to our lunch instead of looking around, and they just denied and denied that it was there
Is that not normally a thing anymore or something? My kids' school is like that and I had to do look around several schools for work a few years ago and there were several I saw in the area that still had it as well.
We didn't have a cafeteria in grade school. We had a "multi-purpose room." Tables for lunch were folded up and became part of the wall the rest of the time. Assemblies, we sat on the floor.
When I went to my nephew's holiday recital in 2022, they held it in a similar "cafetorium", so I'm guessing yes. But seeing the slideshow made me nostalgic.
I noted elsewhere that the two elementary schools had the same layout, but they're more or less a mirror image. Now I'm curious as to how many schools had that design.
Los Angeles schools call it MPR for short. We only eat there if it's raining. The regular, outside eating area is sometimes called the dining pavilion.
Yup. Elementary and middle school. Then my Jr High didn't have anything, so everything was done at the gym. Only my high school had a proper auditorium, which was still fairly small.
Our elementary school gym had a wooden stage that would fold up like bleachers. It was also the cafeteria. That room was always busy and almost all the classrooms were connected to it. So we heard everything going on in it from our classrooms.
Cafetoriums came after my time. Our school was an older building that had a big nice auditorium that community groups would rent out for pagents, plays and debates.
Elementary, middle school, high school all had these. In HS we also had a stage in our auditorium/gym building. And another separate gym building. So many activities. I thought we had a lot of students then but now the outdoor courts are full of portable classrooms. The joys of being in CA with an ever growing population. 🙃
Both elementary schools I attended looked similar to the first pic as well. My area grew rapidly in the 60s and 70s so I imagine it was much more feasible to build a bunch of schools using the same exact floor plan.
Our school, the ISS kids had to eat lunch on the stage away from everyone. I think it was for public shaming, but it hilariously awesome. You couldn't talk to anyone, but you could give a finger gun and wink to the fans cheering you on.
We didn't have anything like that at my school, but at my daughter's school the cafeteria is the stage to the gym (it's elevated and looks like the picture here). They have a curtain track that makes most of the lunchroom into "backstage."
I think I made my solo (then duo) guitar debut in the fifth grade on a stage like this. It was called the all-purpose-room which was probably a cafeteria plus 5 gym rooms with foldable dividing walls. Over 600 kids, somehow, I didn’t chicken out.
I actually didn’t have a stage in either of my cafeterias (K-8, 9-12). The cafeteria was next to the parish hall/basketball court. We had a full sized stage there. In high school, our cafeteria was in the basement of an extension they added to the building. It was above the gym, which is where the stage was. We also had a small stage in the basement of the initial building of the school. That was called the Green Room.
My elementary school had a gym / stage / cafeteria room.
School lunches where not cooked on site. They where made at the district main school 2 miles away. So the stage was also the food prep area. We would walk into a door that lead up onto the stage, gather our tray with food, then walk down the opposite side to sit in the main area with those classic white double long folding tables with benches attached.
Lunch smelled of BO. Afternoon gym smelled of lunch.
I didn't see an actual school kitchen until 6th grade.
No, the stage was in my gym. When we had gym class, the curtain was closed, and the basketball hoop was down. In stage mode, the basketball hoop was cranked up to be parallel with the floor, and the curtain was open and folding chair chairs were placed to make aisles in the gym on the floor.
We had a cafe-gym-itoroum! And when it was gym class time, we threw the dodge balls up at the ceiling and made the popcorn asbestos ceiling snow on us.
Ah yes, how can I forget that yearly performance where a salesman would dangle trinkets on stage and said they could all be ours if we sold our neighbors a bunch of crap.
Maybe that was an upper crust thing. This wasn't a thing in my experience at 2 elementary schools, middle school, or high school; however, this is 100% a thing at my kid's elementary and now middle school both.
That first one looks exactly like my 1st and 2nd grade school’s cafeterium. Our school was k-8. The first time I saw break dancing was on that stage in 1988. Some 8th graders did a performance for the talent show.
Ours had a gigantic moveable wall separating the cafeteria and the Assembly Hall. When it was a whole school assembly, they would move the wall to the side. Surprisingly, it wasn't used that often - possibly because there were over 2000 kids at the school, and you couldn't even fit half of them in the Hall at the same time.
My son's elementary school was built in the early 2000s and had a cafetorium. His high school had a room like this they called the multi room. But they had a main cafeteria attached to the kitchen and a separate gym, to capture all the sweat in one place!
I never saw this in any of the 10 schools I went to in Canada or the US. All the schools I went to had a dedicated theatre or shows were just put on in the gym (which also typically had a stage). This is wild to me.
Before the pandemic and crowd restrictions. My wife and I found an old school converted into a wedding venue. And the reception area was this exact situation. We were bummed when we had to back out.
We Kindergarten - 12th grade we ate outside year around (Los Angeles) and both schools had a separate building with stage and seating, and a separate gymnasium.
Going to auditorium was always exciting and a special event for me.
This looks identical to my kindergarten cafeteria (shout out to Cimmaron Elementary in Crosby, TX).
That was the only school I attended that had it like this, though.
Now my son's schools, every one of them, had a similar setup. He went to a private school for middle school, and they had a full-size gym with retractable bleachers and everything. That's where they had lunch, where they did sports, where they did after school care, where they did plays, and where they did Wednesday morning church service.
Brings back memories of appearing in many holiday recitals or plays in the late-80s/early-90s. If there were ever any VHS tapes they disappeared years ago.
statistacktic@reddit
Elementary school.
ThimbleTycoon@reddit
Multi-purpose room.
TiggersTeacher@reddit
The classic “Cafetorium”. I remember it well. Cafeteria, Gym, and Auditorium…all in one!
pavilionaire2022@reddit
It's like a shitty Chuck-E-Cheese.
OlDirtyJesus@reddit
they don’t still do this ?
kinetic_cheese@reddit
I work in a school built in 2008 and it has one
Jclark36816@reddit
My kids school was built in 2021 and has this
OlDirtyJesus@reddit
always amazed me how small a footprint the folded up tables took up
FormalMarzipan252@reddit
Work in one built in 2007 and also has one.
FormalMarzipan252@reddit
Work in one built in 2007 and also has one.
Elenakalis@reddit
My son's elementary school was built in 2010 and had one.
OlDirtyJesus@reddit
does your sons look more like pic 1 or pic 3 ?
Elenakalis@reddit
Pic 3
blackhorse15A@reddit
I mean - we haven't gone around tearing down all those schools and plenty of the schools we went to are still there, so... yes.
DaisyRage7@reddit
I went to visit my niece recently and her school still had a stage. Same long bench seats, too.
OlDirtyJesus@reddit
yeah we didn’t have those fancy individual seats like in the most photos here. good to hear some schools are still keeping it real
thatlldoyo@reddit
Yep. Elementary schools typically still have stages in the cafeterias. Middle schools’ stages are usually in the gym, and high schools have separate auditoriums. I don’t think I’ve been in a single public school building since having children over the last 18 years that didn’t go by this model.
malibuklw@reddit
In my area (upstate NY) every school has an auditorium. When we lived in Texas the schools were like you said.
sweet_jane_13@reddit
My highs had the stage in the cafeteria. My middle and elementary school didn't have any at all
Izarial@reddit
They do. At my son’s elementary if you came to eat lunch with your kid, yall all got to sit on stage to eat (it sounds weird but it wasn’t like we were on display, that was just the “family eating area”, and you were never the only parent there that I can recall)
ErraticDragon@reddit
Interesting. Did they have smaller tables up on the stage?
Seems like it would be hard to clear the stage if they had full-size ones like the rest of the room.
pennyflowerrose@reddit
They do, my kid's elementary school cafeteria looks exactly like this.
Astrazigniferi@reddit
Every school my kids have gone to so far (other than preschool) has this setup.
goofytigre@reddit
Yes. My wife is an elementary school teacher at multiple schools and her choir programs were always in the cafetoriums..
SeasonPositive6771@reddit
They absolutely do! I was in all sorts of schools until relatively recently and they are still common.
FaeriePriestess@reddit
My school got fancy and called it a caffetorium!!!
Jclark36816@reddit
This is what my kids’ school calls it. It was built five years ago.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
We had a caffegymatorium!
lovemypennydog@reddit
Came here to say cafegymatorium!
gpo321@reddit
A “multipurpose room”
angel_girl2248@reddit
This is what they called the cafeteria in my school from grades 5-8.
irishprincess2002@reddit
Same only it was grades 1-8 , kindergarten was only half day when I was in elementary school, the tables were on the stage portion unless we were having a special event like school wide thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and then tables were placed on the gym floor. Being chosen to eat in gym was the biggest prize!
softshrew@reddit
Same here
Indubitalist@reddit
Yeah, I remember that name. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it, but it perfectly fits the setup at my kid’s school, which looks like OP’s picture and is connected via an accordion wall to the gym classroom, so sometimes the same room is a cafeteria, an auditorium or a gym.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
Nah. It was those three things. Stage for shows and assemblies, basketball hoops and gym equipment, and tables for lunch!
cjl99@reddit
,main room during Scholastic drives, site of larger game room for off hours carnival type events....it was like this big room that had multiple purposes!
Summer_19_@reddit
My high school was built in the 80’s, so they had one of these bad boys (the stage + cafeteria) despite I am not a Gen X / Xennial, but I am Gen Z, but heavily influenced by others in my family (regardless of closeness / immediate) who are Xennials / Gen X themselves! As a Gen Z person, your music is amazing! 🥲💕🎶
Also, Gen Alpha’s “new” vocabulary makes me want to (metaphorically & sarcastically) bang my head against a brick wall until I black out, since their slang is so mind boggling! 😓
mix0logist@reddit
My kid's school still does have the cafeteria/auditorium/gym combo.
jabber1990@reddit
No, you didn't. Someone was just an Everyone Loves Raymond fan
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
In 1983?
AmandaMarsh@reddit
Catholic school?
forgetfulsue@reddit
How’d you guess?
ToWitToWow@reddit
Three-in-one? Kinda their thing
Sufficient_Turn_9209@reddit
thelaineybelle@reddit
Kind-Feeling2490@reddit
My friends and I attended different Catholic schools and we all had these cafeteria/lunch combo rooms!
Damn this unlocked a LOT of memories.
HausuGeist@reddit
Thought we were the only ones.
kashy87@reddit
We took it to the next level for two years when they renovated the church the school gym/cafeteria become the sanctuary until the church was done.
erindizmo@reddit
We were even a bit above that. The parish ended up moving locations almost a century after it was founded to keep up with the town expanding, the school was built first (finished the year after I was born) with the actual church going up when I was in like third or fourth grade so we had a good decade or so of mass in the gym/cafeteria.
kashy87@reddit
You made me actually go read the church's history. I never realized the church I went to was actually the second church because the original one had burned down from stray sparks off of a train.
I always wondered why the cemetery was like 4 miles away from where the church and elementary school are now.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
Public!
allysung83@reddit
Here, here
NachoNachoDan@reddit
Omg my kids go to catholic school and they call it that 😂
Slippery-Pete76@reddit
We did too. I remember having gym class after lunch - we’d get there and the cafeteria people would still be rolling the tables back into the wall, the place would smell like whatever was served that day, and we’d have to dodge random peas on the floor when running laps.
ChalkDoxie@reddit
My son’s school has this!
keencleangleam@reddit
Same!
IfICouldStay@reddit
Yes, cafetorium. It was the gymnasium/lunch room/band practice area/stage.
Global-Jury8810@reddit
Yours too? (Middleton, Idaho, class of 01)
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
One of the schools my kids attended too.
Missingsocks77@reddit
We spelled it cafetorium.
Life_Grade1900@reddit
Same. Rowan elementary by chance?
FaeriePriestess@reddit
Nope!
Life_Grade1900@reddit
Odds were low. Cheers
jabber1990@reddit
No, they didn't. They got that from an episode of Raymond
Economy-Camp-7339@reddit
Ours was the MPR, or multi purpose room.
Oh they were so clever to avoid portmanteaus…
ArchaicBrainWorms@reddit
Ah, the old MoPuRo
Wild_Manufacturer555@reddit
I had no clue how to spell that.
FionaGoodeEnough@reddit
We had a cafetorinasium, because the stage was also the lunchroom, and the audience area was also the gym.
Middle-Letter-7041@reddit
mine called it an auditeria
Thliz325@reddit
My kids elementary school had a cafetorium too!
Wild-Sky-4807@reddit
I have also heard of a gymnitorium.
AdHour943@reddit
Rual
whyisthislife87@reddit
Came to say this
seanymphcalypso@reddit
That’s what mine called it as well. My kids had an audeteria that still makes my eye twitch to this day.
Comfortable-Sky-9569@reddit
Mine too! The two elementary schools I attended had them. I moved after 1st grade.
Bella4077@reddit
Mine too, although they just call it a cafeteria now.
ChromeDestiny@reddit
Mine too, there was also a rotunda with a large circular bench and skylight where all the vending machines were. Out school was also joined directly to the town rink, rec center and library. It was a pretty decent place to go to high school. I have a few good memories of school dances, concerts and movie night fundraisers in the cafetorium.
TollyVonTheDruth@reddit
I guess it's common. My children's school cafeteria looks very similar to those images.
FnordRanger_5@reddit
I always was jealous of schools I visited that had that feature, none of mine did. I always imagined they got to watch plays and shit while they ate
Skitzafranik@reddit
I bet the architect/ engineer who designed this model 40+ years ago is living off of massive royalties !!!😁😂
Skitzafranik@reddit
Literally 2 of my sons 2 different middle schools , and one of their elementary schools , from the 2020s !!
OkAdagio9622@reddit
For us, the stage was connected to the gym.
Is that weird!
msheehan418@reddit
Didn’t have this in HS and Middle only elementary
Leading-Summer-4724@reddit
Holy cow I just had a serious flashback when trying to scroll by. This looks EXACTLY like my elementary school’s cafeteria / stage.
bgva@reddit (OP)
I’m convinced that every elementary school built in the 60s-80s had like a half-dozen floor plans, especially when it came to the multipurpose room.
Leading-Summer-4724@reddit
Totally makes sense. Cookie-cutter plans, and then just add portables when you run out of space in the original buildings.
Liko81@reddit
They still buildin' em like this new in Texas. My kids' elementary school is only about as old as they are, and I watched 'em all cross the "cafetorium" stage to get their 5th grade diplomas.
ConfidentAd9359@reddit
My elementary school was like this until the remodel last year. Except our cafeteria was on the stage
Substantial-Dingo-64@reddit
It's so common that I swear the first and last are schools I've been to.
Hairy_Ad4969@reddit
My son’s elementary school has one to this day. They use the stage too, they put on performances and have movie nights in there.
mollysharton@reddit
Ah yes. The triumph of tight budgets over pleasing acoustics. It was a big deal when my high school got a performing arts theater.
amopdx@reddit
These still exist
Wapiti_whacker82@reddit
Then the tables get folded up for PE classes and basketball.
thejunkmanadv@reddit
My K-12 school had the tables in the walls of the gym which also had the stage.
MephiticDeity@reddit
Gen X here. The elementary school I went to was built in the 50s and had one, same with the junior high school.
Beneficial-Cause9726@reddit
OMG, I can actually smell that picture.
Forward-Bank8412@reddit
The smell of bleach. So much bleach. So much hot bleach smell. So many hot bleach fumes. Goddamn it there was not a germ in the place.
bgva@reddit (OP)
And that minty sawdust to cover some kid's vomit.
blackhorse15A@reddit
Our smelled like sawdust
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
Ours smelled like hot dog water 🤣
maggie320@reddit
Cafegymatorium. We didn’t eat in there except for super special meals like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We ate in the classrooms.
blackhorse15A@reddit
The ones pictured above are not cafegymatoriums. Tile floors without lines and no basketball hoops or anything on the walls.
Kurfaloid@reddit
Wow, ate in the classrooms? Was it strictly lunch brought from home?
maggie320@reddit
Yep. I remember having pizza on Friday sometimes, but that may have been once in a blue moon. That school closed in 1990 so memories are fuzzy about the pizza, but otherwise it was lunch brought from home.
E6DA@reddit
Ours was a little bit backwards. The cafeteria was the back of the stage. The stage was facing into the gym which was down a half flight of stairs.
VashMM@reddit
Ah yes, the Cafetorium.
I used to work in a middle school that had one. They're still around.
bgva@reddit (OP)
I love how they had different names depending on where you were. I think ours was the multipurpose room.
vulchiegoodness@reddit
you mean the all-purpose room?
Spiritual_Smile9882@reddit
My school had it the other way around. The cafeteria WAS the stage. On one side was the kitchen and the serving line and the opposite wall opened up to the gym. There was 4-5 steps down from the cafeteria to the gym floor (which was of course carpeted). So when there was any kind of performance, the stage and backgrounds had the entire cafeteria to work with and the audience sat in the gym.
Lorrainium@reddit
I guess I went to fancy schools (Chicago), none of the schools I went to had combo use rooms. It took moving to KY to see them in the wild; my children's schools all utilize the 'gymatorium' model.
jthagler@reddit
I assumed this was a newer thing because I never had this but all of the newer elementary schools where I live do. In fact the new schools all have those round center areas with curving stair cases and balconies like I used to see in movies. My schools were never that nice.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
Cafetorium
Elenakalis@reddit
Our 6th grade school had this. Just outside of it, we had "the commons," which had the canteen and was where we took recess since our school was built in a swamp.
My class (1998) ended up being almost twice as big as the other classes, so they were scrambling to find room for us. My French class was held on the stage, while beginning band was in the cafeteria part. Half of our gym was for PE class, and the other half was split into 3 "classrooms" with portable chalkboard as walls. Our teachers had everything in plastic totes, and they had to move our classrooms against the wall whenever we had an assembly. They definitely didn't pay those teachers enough.
Allenies@reddit
Mine looked a lot like the first photo, except instead of what appears to be a white wall in the back of the stage, it was just curtains because the other side of the curtain was the gym. I could literally walk from lunch room to stage to gym in jsuta few steps.
UrAverageDegenerit@reddit
This is my elementary school and funny story also. Years later the school closed down, then partially torn down. Then in 2018, part of the school that was still standing was made into the function room(s) and fitness center of some luxury apartments (they had proms and corporate events there, place was done up really well from being a school gym). My grandparents moved into there and we had both my grandfather's 80th birthday and my grandmother's funeral memorial services in that gym/functions room. Both were a wild nostalgia trip from going to school there.
Letsgogehls@reddit
Is there any other kind?
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
My grade school had the stage in the gym.
My Jr high just didn't have a stage, and the high school had a theatre.
Hillbillygeek1981@reddit
That first image is almost identical to my middle school, to the point that I zoomed in to check if it wasn't mine, lol.
Sentientpotato13@reddit
Ah yes, the cafe-gym-natorium
malibuklw@reddit
We don’t have those in the school districts in New York that I’ve lived in. Every school has an auditorium. But also, most of our school buildings are older.
I grew up in the suburbs of buffalo and now live in the rural suburbs of Albany.
njslugger78@reddit
Is that my old elementary school? Looks just like it.
JessBlakeslee@reddit
Cafegymatorium here too. There was a foldable wall that they would sometimes unfold to separate the gym & cafeteria, if there was an assembly going on during lunchtime or gym class during lunchtime. If there was an event after school the “wall” was opened
Alert-Writer-6595@reddit
More like Gymnasium with Attached Stage and Removable Tables.
capthazelwoodsflask@reddit
My elementary school was one of those big brick schools that was built around the turn of the 20th century and was originally the town's high school. It had a separate cafeteria in the basement, which would flood if the river got too high in the spring, and the stage was in the gym.
It's been about 25 years since they built the new elementary school and it has the multipurpose gym/auditorium/cafeteria now.
Happy_Confection90@reddit
Not just grade school. My high school had a caffetorium with a bit fancier stage than in the OP's pictures. The school only had 500 students, so an independent autotorium didn't seem warranted when that stage or the gym were fit for all assembles.
tandem_kayak@reddit
Same. Just a few years after I graduated they tore it down and built a new building with a big fancy auditorium.
Dizzy_Magazine684@reddit
My high school had this. I attended Catholic school until high school. Hot meals were given to us in the gym/kitchen/assembly room, lunch room was a 1950s bomb shelter.
WandaMildew80@reddit
We called it the cafegymnasitorium. Best part is, my kids went to the same school I did so we have that in common.
Empty_Pumpkin1818@reddit
My preschool had one
sweet_jane_13@reddit
High school for me too, lol
iswallowmygum@reddit
In 8th grade I went to a newly built school with a cafeteria just like this. We also briefly had a jukebox in there that played the same 5 or to 6 different records on rotation every day at lunch. To this day, I smell tater tots whenever I hear You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Elvira or (Keep Feeling) Fascination .
RickardsRed77@reddit
Technically an endstage
altavek@reddit
Legit my kids middle school now
DasKittySmoosh@reddit
I grew up in coastal Southern California. I thought indoor cafeterias were a myth for the longest time because I only ever saw a hunch of wood tables on a blacktop.
I always thought this was the height of classy education meant only for tv and films
Rosemary_Woodhouse@reddit
My high school also had a cafeteria and auditorium mix. Our cafeteria tables and benches folded out of the wall. They would fold them back into the wall and wheel in auditorium seats for performances.
Chickens_n_Kittens@reddit
Just seeing this picture instantly fills my olfactory senses with the smell of the public school pizza. I don’t know how you can make pizza (bread + sauce + cheese) smell so horrific, but even my 6 yr old self was like, “Nope!”
jabber1990@reddit
My ES had a stage in the DFAC, and we asked about that the teachers denied it and told us we need to pay attention to our lunch instead of looking around, and they just denied and denied that it was there
penguinsfan40@reddit
My elementary school had a gymatorium
jaqattack02@reddit
Is that not normally a thing anymore or something? My kids' school is like that and I had to do look around several schools for work a few years ago and there were several I saw in the area that still had it as well.
redditcreditcardz@reddit
This is where my childhood anxiety really kicked in
lawn-gnome1717@reddit
My kids school has this and it was rebuilt just a few years ago. The lunch tables convert into benches. Seems like a great use of space
Koss424@reddit
Where else would you have plays?
Sufficient_Turn_9209@reddit
I swear that first one is my elementary school!
IllustriousDoggo1855@reddit
We didn't have a cafeteria in grade school. We had a "multi-purpose room." Tables for lunch were folded up and became part of the wall the rest of the time. Assemblies, we sat on the floor.
GeetarEnthusiast85@reddit
You know what I hated about this? Having to sit on the gym floor for school productions (assemblies, plays, etc)
Iittletart@reddit
Is this not a thing anymore?
FeelTheWrath79@reddit
I don't think we had one of those...
Jets237@reddit
My sons school still has this
RetroGamerKev@reddit
I remember doing a Christmas play on the stage of mine long ago.
aspect-of-the-badger@reddit
My kids schools are newly built and have this.
ccr213@reddit
my grammar school had the stage in the gym
ErinBeezy@reddit
Do they not have these anymore?
bgva@reddit (OP)
When I went to my nephew's holiday recital in 2022, they held it in a similar "cafetorium", so I'm guessing yes. But seeing the slideshow made me nostalgic.
fourofkeys@reddit
was this unusual?
PowerCompetitive6565@reddit
Omg that first photo looks exactly like my elementary school!
bgva@reddit (OP)
I noted elsewhere that the two elementary schools had the same layout, but they're more or less a mirror image. Now I'm curious as to how many schools had that design.
Plenty-Concert5742@reddit
All purpose room
Famous_Attention5861@reddit
My school called it the multi-purpose room.
tarzanacide@reddit
Los Angeles schools call it MPR for short. We only eat there if it's raining. The regular, outside eating area is sometimes called the dining pavilion.
Famous_Attention5861@reddit
Yup, grew up in SoCal.
isitrealholoooo@reddit
I work at a middle school, we call it that and yes it's a stage and cafeteria all in one!
photogdog@reddit
Or MPR for short.
RogerDodger457@reddit
Every elementary school in my old northeast USA town.
Onthemightof@reddit
Wait, is this not a thing anymore at schools?
3rty3hree@reddit
A good All-Purpose Room, that is☝🏽
clemjones88@reddit
Our school mascot was the dolphins, ours was a multi-Porpoise room...
seanymphcalypso@reddit
If that’s a dad joke kindly see yourself out. If that’s the schools quirky idea you should let your kids burn it down.
clemjones88@reddit
We all had the same thought for grades 3-5.
FloppyHands@reddit
Meadow Creek Elementary?
clemjones88@reddit
Nope
NachoNachoDan@reddit
Please tell me that’s true. I want this to be true so badly
clemjones88@reddit
Dana grey dolphins. Its legit. Lol
Worth_Afternoon_2383@reddit
You did that on porpoise.
empressarchetype@reddit
It’s an All Purpose Room
Mattimvs@reddit
Those folding tables, I remember
E-2theRescue@reddit
Ours were mustard yellow, orange, and beige. Middle, Jr. High, and high school, respectively.
Kurfaloid@reddit
Except the individual seats - I only had long benches.
Do_it_My_Way-79@reddit
Schools in south Orange County California I attended had no cafeteria. We ate outside at picnic tables.
E-2theRescue@reddit
Yup. Elementary and middle school. Then my Jr High didn't have anything, so everything was done at the gym. Only my high school had a proper auditorium, which was still fairly small.
JaimePfe17@reddit
Exactly what mine looked like.
481126@reddit
It was the lunch room, the auditorium and the gym. We didn't have hot lunch.
wildkatrose@reddit
I can smell those pictures.
Fast-Damage2298@reddit
The All Purpose Room
free-toe-pie@reddit
Our elementary school gym had a wooden stage that would fold up like bleachers. It was also the cafeteria. That room was always busy and almost all the classrooms were connected to it. So we heard everything going on in it from our classrooms.
mtbguy1981@reddit
Where is the stop light????
OohBeesIhateEm@reddit
Whoa mine looked just like the first…..so much so that I did a double take for a second and I feel a weird pang of sadness.
Ok_Economics4552@reddit
Cafetorium or auditoria
Wild_Manufacturer555@reddit
Oh the good old days of cafetoriums.
Aeronor@reddit
Wow, that first one looks like it could have been mine!
TheConcreteGhost@reddit
Cafetoriums came after my time. Our school was an older building that had a big nice auditorium that community groups would rent out for pagents, plays and debates.
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
Elementary, middle school, high school all had these. In HS we also had a stage in our auditorium/gym building. And another separate gym building. So many activities. I thought we had a lot of students then but now the outdoor courts are full of portable classrooms. The joys of being in CA with an ever growing population. 🙃
UnluckyCardiologist9@reddit
Our elementary’s looked like the 1st pic. We did our Sweatin’ to the Oldies PE class in there.
bgva@reddit (OP)
Both elementary schools I attended looked similar to the first pic as well. My area grew rapidly in the 60s and 70s so I imagine it was much more feasible to build a bunch of schools using the same exact floor plan.
Worklurker@reddit
Architecturally, it would be "mirrored floorplan". Flipped 180 degrees sounds like it faces in the opposite direction, lol.
CNBLBT@reddit
Hula Hoopin' to Kokomo for me.
Brlyavrgevrythng_@reddit
Ours was a caffegymatorium!
mysteriousblue87@reddit
My kid’s school also has a gymnasicaffitorium
JASCO47@reddit
Oh they still make em. We built one last year
BishlovesSquish@reddit
My kids elementary school has this, a very common design in my area.
CombatDeffective@reddit
Our school, the ISS kids had to eat lunch on the stage away from everyone. I think it was for public shaming, but it hilariously awesome. You couldn't talk to anyone, but you could give a finger gun and wink to the fans cheering you on.
trousershark22@reddit
Ours was a cafeteria auditorium gymnasium
laternerdz@reddit
They’re still like this. 😂
mamaberry15@reddit
We didn't have anything like that at my school, but at my daughter's school the cafeteria is the stage to the gym (it's elevated and looks like the picture here). They have a curtain track that makes most of the lunchroom into "backstage."
MaleficentBuffalo100@reddit
My kids school has this!
genrlokoye@reddit
Multipurpose room
Sodamyte@reddit
I went to several different elementary schools. Most of them had this.
BrattyTwilis@reddit
Yep. The "All-Purpose Room".
WhoYouBoo_eek789@reddit
They're called MPRs now! 😄 Multipurpose room.
Meow_Meow_4_Life@reddit
Damn this takes me back to some bad times in my life...
drstabman@reddit
My kids elementary still has the setup. Definitely brings back the memories.
Professional-Car9621@reddit
Lockman Elementary - Royal Oak, MI!
mitchgtz@reddit
I think I made my solo (then duo) guitar debut in the fifth grade on a stage like this. It was called the all-purpose-room which was probably a cafeteria plus 5 gym rooms with foldable dividing walls. Over 600 kids, somehow, I didn’t chicken out.
phillysleuther@reddit
I actually didn’t have a stage in either of my cafeterias (K-8, 9-12). The cafeteria was next to the parish hall/basketball court. We had a full sized stage there. In high school, our cafeteria was in the basement of an extension they added to the building. It was above the gym, which is where the stage was. We also had a small stage in the basement of the initial building of the school. That was called the Green Room.
mdmommy99@reddit
These aren’t gone. They’re still very present in my area
SteveEcks@reddit
I remember when I learned the lunch room was attached to the gym via a removable wall. The stage was in the gym.
CROBBY2@reddit
Shoot, we did this in our high school too.
NaiveTackle8821@reddit
I just got home from a HIGH SCHOOL that has this and it's what they use for plays. And the school musical.
toasterb@reddit
Ours had a dual purpose stage/cafeteria with the gym down below. In retrospect, it seems weird to have eaten on the stage with the curtains down.
The school was expanded in 3rd grade, and after that we had a standalone cafeteria.
chadwickipedia@reddit
Ours was also the gym
HomesteadGranny1959@reddit
We called the “Multi-purpose room.”
beezchurgr@reddit
Is this not a thing anymore? We had our high school funerals in ours.
whyyoutwofour@reddit
Ours was fancy and the stage backed on to the gym so it could be used either in the cafeteria or gym
Elethuir@reddit
Mine was separated but I think these are cool
Eclectic_Paradox@reddit
Not for me. We had a separated cafeteria and auditorium.
Massive-Cherry9690@reddit
hilarious, sounds like they were trying too hard with the naming game
madsci@reddit
The multi-use room. Ours had tables built into the walls that folded down.
I watched Challenger explode live on a big screen TV on a stage just like this.
chocki305@reddit
My elementary school had a gym / stage / cafeteria room.
School lunches where not cooked on site. They where made at the district main school 2 miles away. So the stage was also the food prep area. We would walk into a door that lead up onto the stage, gather our tray with food, then walk down the opposite side to sit in the main area with those classic white double long folding tables with benches attached.
Lunch smelled of BO. Afternoon gym smelled of lunch.
I didn't see an actual school kitchen until 6th grade.
Immediate-Name-6731@reddit
boogerholes@reddit
Number 1, our local elementary still looks like this.
Ok-Change6854@reddit
The first picture looks exactly like my kids current elementary school. Mine had separate cafeteria and auditorium, and gym.
ilikemycoffeealatte@reddit
The stage was the art classroom at one of mine.
javaper@reddit
Cafetorium
brackthomas7@reddit
Ah yes where grade school talent show legends are born! The good days
WhatTheCluck802@reddit
Many schools here in rural Vermont still have these setups.
TheJokersWild53@reddit
No, the stage was in my gym. When we had gym class, the curtain was closed, and the basketball hoop was down. In stage mode, the basketball hoop was cranked up to be parallel with the floor, and the curtain was open and folding chair chairs were placed to make aisles in the gym on the floor.
eljeffrey1980@reddit
We called it the All-purpose room
garden__gate@reddit
Ours was also the gym!
HesALittleSlow@reddit
My kids school still has one
No-Hospital559@reddit
First pic looks almost exactly like my old school
AnElectricalMeatbag@reddit
We had a cafe-gym-itoroum! And when it was gym class time, we threw the dodge balls up at the ceiling and made the popcorn asbestos ceiling snow on us.
Drachen1065@reddit
Middle school for me.
Elementary the cafeteria was literally a gym.
Although maybe its because the middle school was previously an elementary school and the elementary school was previously a middle school.
AnticitizenPrime@reddit
Dinner AND a show
GeekFatale@reddit
My elementary/middle school had a gymnatorium. My high school had a chapcafetorium (chapel opened into the cafeteria/auditorium for Mass days)
Factsoverfictions222@reddit
You mean you guys had stages in their own room?! Fancy, schmancy
AssistantEfficient65@reddit
My kids school has one! We changed schools and we fell in love with the feel of a school like the ones we went too
tssdrunx@reddit
Gunna post this to r/hardcore "What the fuck is up, MLK Jr Middle School!!!"
Sarra5532@reddit
Never had this. Only saw it when my stepson went to a private school that had it.
ConcreteKeys@reddit
Ah yes, how can I forget that yearly performance where a salesman would dangle trinkets on stage and said they could all be ours if we sold our neighbors a bunch of crap.
Djinn-Rummy@reddit
Cafagymatoriums are common in older buildings where I have taught.
MonkeyBred@reddit
Maybe that was an upper crust thing. This wasn't a thing in my experience at 2 elementary schools, middle school, or high school; however, this is 100% a thing at my kid's elementary and now middle school both.
fromthedarqwaves@reddit
That first one looks exactly like my 1st and 2nd grade school’s cafeterium. Our school was k-8. The first time I saw break dancing was on that stage in 1988. Some 8th graders did a performance for the talent show.
Greekphysed@reddit
I teach at an elementary school. That's basically what we have. We have our assemblies and lunches in there.
bikeonychus@reddit
Ours had a gigantic moveable wall separating the cafeteria and the Assembly Hall. When it was a whole school assembly, they would move the wall to the side. Surprisingly, it wasn't used that often - possibly because there were over 2000 kids at the school, and you couldn't even fit half of them in the Hall at the same time.
leeloocal@reddit
My elementary school had the first one, but we never ate in there unless it was raining. We’d eat outside.
Kurfaloid@reddit
Very distinct smell. Damp, vague broccoli aroma, with just a hint of cleaning agent.
rangeghost@reddit
My grade schools all had their stages off the gym.
mister_burns1@reddit
“Multi-Purpose Room”
Also, is that a spork I see on the floor?
Frequent-Interest796@reddit
Perfect venue for a 3rd recorder concert. Cafeteria / Auditoriums lend the perfect acoustics to supplement the sweet screech of a plastic recorder.
Weird_Squirrel_8382@reddit
My son's elementary school was built in the early 2000s and had a cafetorium. His high school had a room like this they called the multi room. But they had a main cafeteria attached to the kitchen and a separate gym, to capture all the sweat in one place!
MNxpat33@reddit
That looks exactly like my elementary school’s.
BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit
Yup. It was gym/auditorium/lunchroom
wolfmann99@reddit
And the tables folded into the walls.
BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit
We didn’t have the fancy Murphy bed style tables.
RandomTreat@reddit
Yes! I remember the folding tables in the walls!
DisastrousFlower@reddit
ours was a gym with a stage and a kitchen. but we never ate in there until when I was almost out of gradeschool.
RandomTreat@reddit
We definitely did square dancing in this room for PE.
Weavercat@reddit
Ours was a cafenasium.
three-sense@reddit
“We need one of these attached to the White House”
NJ2SD@reddit
That first pic looks exactly like my grade school cafeteria from the 80's
Express-Cow190@reddit
Our school also called it a Cafetorium like others here.
I remember we had our high school graduation in there. My daughter just graduated this year from the same school and the ceremony was done in the gym
selftaughtgenius@reddit
I never saw this in any of the 10 schools I went to in Canada or the US. All the schools I went to had a dedicated theatre or shows were just put on in the gym (which also typically had a stage). This is wild to me.
Distinct-Banana-7937@reddit
My kids go to the same elementary school i did and they still have the cafetorium!
HostilePile@reddit
Got to graduate 8th grade on the cafeteria stage! I really wish my kids school had one would be so much better when they do their recitals.
shinysquirrel220701@reddit
Ours was the lunch room/gym/auditorium
Gullible-Courage4665@reddit
My elementary school didn’t have a cafeteria. Just high school, and no stage attached. The stage was usually off the gym for us.
Glittering-Station78@reddit
We didn’t have a stage, but all the events were still held in the cafeteria/gym.
_TheWolfOfWalmart_@reddit
My high school had one of these. It still does. It's a voting location in my precinct so I still get to go inside now and then!
FreeBeerTX@reddit
Food fights
verticalsidewall@reddit
It’s a cafetorinasium!
gloebe10@reddit
Before the pandemic and crowd restrictions. My wife and I found an old school converted into a wedding venue. And the reception area was this exact situation. We were bummed when we had to back out.
roxylikeahurricane@reddit
!!!
lifeat24fps@reddit
We did the school "straight play" on the cafeteria stage and the big annual musical in the auditorium.
scarred_but_whole@reddit
I can smell this picture. Ghosts of lunches past, well-used varnished wood, and old paper. Pretty common around here in the older, smaller schools.
GMHGeorge@reddit
Also the bingo hall on Tuesday nights. Wednesday morning you would come in and it would reek of cigarette smoke.
Snrub1@reddit
Every gym I played basketball in in middle school.
Ztiw-@reddit
We Kindergarten - 12th grade we ate outside year around (Los Angeles) and both schools had a separate building with stage and seating, and a separate gymnasium.
Going to auditorium was always exciting and a special event for me.
unchangedman@reddit
With a gym floor underneath
Adrasteia-One@reddit
I think I called it a gymteria one year.
Breatheitoutnow@reddit
Yes you mean a cafetorium
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
This looks identical to my kindergarten cafeteria (shout out to Cimmaron Elementary in Crosby, TX).
That was the only school I attended that had it like this, though.
Now my son's schools, every one of them, had a similar setup. He went to a private school for middle school, and they had a full-size gym with retractable bleachers and everything. That's where they had lunch, where they did sports, where they did after school care, where they did plays, and where they did Wednesday morning church service.
Jay-Breeze@reddit
My kid’s school has that (as I did when I was young). So classy!!
rexallia@reddit
Yesss. The smart kids would play chess on the stage during lunch lol
throwsplasticattrees@reddit
Cafetornasium - the cafeteria, auditorium, and gymnasium.
Defiant_Cookie_4963@reddit
My high school had this!
YarnBunny@reddit
None of my school's growing up had this. But my kiddos school currently does. It's an older school building.
CasualtyVampires@reddit
I hated those tables.
bgva@reddit (OP)
Brings back memories of appearing in many holiday recitals or plays in the late-80s/early-90s. If there were ever any VHS tapes they disappeared years ago.