Holyoke High School - Annual Yearbook (Holyoke, MA)

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with a large attic and high basement, and is surrounded by a tasty cupola. The wings af- ford separate entrances for the two sexes. On the first floor are two rooms affording seats for sixty pupils each, occupied by permission of the town, by a primary and intermediate school of District No. V. According to the school committee report for that year, the new high school His the best furnished and as beautiful a structure of the kind as, consider- ing the cost, can be found in the Connecticut Valley. A short time later two courses were initiated leading to diplomas: a two year course in 6'En- glish Branches which provided the student with a practical business education, and a four year course in the classics which prepared the student for further study in college. College, preparation for that day, and for many years thereafter, consisted of the study of Latin, mathematics, French and Greek. Not until later did the study of English become a def- inite part of high school work. There were exercises in grammar and composition, but in- struction in the English language and litera- ture was not begun until 1891. Officially, the commercial department was instituted in 1897, and Michael Cella was the business education instructor. Because of crowded conditions at Elm Street High School, as it was popularly referred to, the Post Of- fice Store was rented to house the commercial department. Already the Saint Joseph Tem- perance League Hall was used for morning exercises and assemblies. To enter high school, graduates of the town grammar schools were carefully examined in geography, history, grammar, and arithmetic. In 1870, a state law required free instruction in industrial or mechanical drawing for per- sons fifteen years of age in day or evening school became applicable to Holyoke. Also at this time, the school committee acknowledged music as an important branch of education. Soon the basement of the school was converted into a chemistry laboratory. When the impor- tance of health and physical education was realized, Holyoke became the first New Eng- land city to employ a calisthenics instructor. Drawing and penmanship gained new em- phasis. Hence a new kind of education was being fitted gradually to the needs of the children and the community. In 1863 our first Superintendent of Schools, J. P. Buckland, was elected by the school board consisting of John Chase, Stephen Holman, Edwin H. Ball, Simeon Miller, and J. P. Buck- land himself. After the establishment of a regular course in the new high school, the first graduating class consisted of six young ladies: Alice A. Wild, Imogene Heywood, Emma Loomis, Sarah Grover, Alice Emerson, and Maria Kelt. The absence of boys from that graduating. class of 1865 may have been caused by the Civil War which was raging in the United States at that time. Four boys, however, did graduate the following year, 1866. When the Superintendent of Schools, I. P. Buckland, presented diplomas to the class of 1865, he urged them to put their lives to good use and especially to remember their teachers 23

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was opened in Baptist Village Clflmwoodb. This school, Baptist Academy, was situated on Back Street fHomestead Avenueb but was later moved to the site of the old Merrick res- idence on the corner of Westfield Road and Northampton Street. At this academy, boys received instruction in mathematics and the classics as a preparation for college. The first evidence of the existence of a high school in Ireland Parish came with an agree- ment of the Trustees of the lreland Parish High School which allowed William Gamwell to become master of that high school in 1839. Gamwell agreed to assume the entire charge of the lreland Parish High School as preceptor for the term of three years. This high school became known as HGarnwell Academygi' tui- tion to the academy was from three dollars and fifty cents to four dollars per month with an additional dollar for French, drawing, and painting. ln 1850 Ireland Parish ceased to exist when it became the Town of Holyoke. In 1852 the first school committee consisted of three men: A. B. Clarke, Asbel Chapin, and Mark Car- penter, and in the same year Stephen Holman established the Holyoke Village High School, the immediate forerunner of Holyoke High School. Mr. Holman Ncommenced the school and earned for himself a reputation as a well-quali- fied, thorough, and most efficient teacher. At first the Galludet block on the corner of High and Lyman Streets was the location of the Village High School, later, the high school moved to a block on the corner of Race and 22 Dwight Streets. At that time it was the policy of schools to regulate school terms to the farming needs of the New England community. Hence, the Village High School had three terms-summer, winter, and fall. Textbooks used at the high school included: Andrewis Latin Lessons, Andrew's Latin Reader, Anthonas Horace, Cooperis Vergil, Harris' Bookkeeping, Green's Elements of the English Language, lVlitchell,s Ancient Geog- raphy and Atlas, Goodrichis United States H is- tory, and Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic. On February 19, 1856, the students of the Village High School published Our Little Pet, their first school newspaper. This issue, the first of six that are known, sold at five cents a copy, twenty-five cents a year. As explained by its originators, the purpose of the newspa- per was as follows: 5'0ur Little Pet is intended as a school journal to lay before our parents and friends, view our compositions, a catalogue of our school, and a program of our exhibi- tion. Whether it will be issued during future terms depends upon the patronage it now re- ceivesf' During a town meeting in March, 1862, the first municipal high school was established when the Village High School was abolished. During the same year a new high school build- ing was erected at a cost of 38,500 on the west side of Elm Street, between Suffolk and Dwight Streets. Here is a detailed description of the building: The structure is of brick, with slate roof, and consists of a main part and two wings. It has two stories, the first twelve feet in height, the second sixteen feet,

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Stephen Holman The Elm Street High School I. P. Buckland NEARLY 100 YEARS AGO this lovely group was the first class to graduate from Holyoke High School. Front Row, left to right: Emma Loomis, Sarah Grover, Alice Emerson and Maria Kelt. In back: Betty Wildes, at left, and Imogene Heywood, This was the class of 1865 at HHS, the first class to graduate after the establishment of the regular course at the high school.