Hughes High School - Hughes Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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HUGHES HIGH SCHOOL

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OLD HUGHES I HAVE been asked to tell something about the Old Hughes building on West Fifth Street. The accompanying cut gives a very fair idea of the school and its surroundings as they were in the early seventies. There were but eight recitation rooms in the original building, four on the first floor and four on the second. The third floor was occupied by an audi- torium. Later, two recitation rooms were cut off of the south end of the auditorium. The small vestibule on the first floor in the front of the building was used as a French recitation room. The French teacher then taught a half-day at Hughes and the remaining half at Woodward. The small room above the vestibule on the second floor was the principa1's office, and the one above that on the third floor, was a dressing room back of the stage which then occupied the north end of the auditorium. A couple of rooms in the Brachman building, shown in the cut, on the east side of the school were later used as recitation rooms. In 1886 an addition of six rooms was placed in front of the Hughes building. This addition was the cause of much indignation among the graduates and friends of Old Hughes as it conformed in no way to the architectural design of the picturesque old building, but was simply a plain box as its detractors called it, placed to hide the beauty of the old building. The new part of the house was heated by furnace, but the rooms of the old part were heated by stoves up to the time that we moved to our new quarters. During the last few years that we occupied the Fifth Street building, some apprehension was felt because the wooden stairs in the old part shook and swayed when classes were passing. We were assured that they were perfectly safe. After we moved to the hill, the upper fioors of the old home were declared unsafe and the School Board was allowed to use only the first floor for school purposes. The Old Hughes building when erected, was in the midst of a residential neighborhood. The character of its surroundings changed very much in its latter years. The original residents moved to the suburbs and their places were filled by foreigners and negroes. The soot and smoke from the chimneys of the factories that filled the bottoms to the south of us added to our discomfort, and it was with considerable satisfaction that we moved to the New Hughes in Clifton Heights. ALAN SANDERS. lPage ninel

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OUR HUGHES QCTOBER 16, 1908, the corner stone of the new Hughes High School Building was laid by Albert D. Shockley, President of the Union Board of High Schools. Since the formal dedication exercises in December, 1910, Cincinnati has fully appreciated its perfection. Though built for 1600 pupils, Hughes in 1916-17 has 2098 enrolled. Hence We have our wandering teachers with desks in the Auditorium, and we have the decorative fringe of D Grade boys around its walls at Assembly. Ten courses of study are offered, from the Academic to the Agricultural Co-opera- tive. All are well attended, and completely equipped. We even boast a good- sized greenhouse and a wireless transmitting and receiving set. The powers that be systematize everything. Take the lunch rooms for example. The two together seat only 700 pupils, so 1300 pupils buying luncheon daily make necessary two recess periods. The business amounts to some 330,000 a year, everything selling at cost price with a small margin for running expenses. Two hundred pounds of meat and six bushels of potatoes each day, two barrels of flour and two hundred loaves of bread each week, satisfy our healthy appetites! Twenty-two Senior boys act as servers, and other A Graders keep in order the bread lines in the corridors. Our student organizations would sound appalling in number, were there not more than two thousand of us. Perhaps we attempt too much for the good of our lessons. But our work shows spirit. In this spirit we issue a monthly magazine, involving an expenditure of more than 251600. In this spirit we support this Annual, as big an undertaking as Old Hughes. In this spirit all departments and organizations united in producing such an Operetta as The Saucy Hollandaisef' which netted more than 261000. The language and departmental clubs, the musical organizations, the literary, art, and athletic associations are all represented in these pages. Latin, Mathematics and English, are not slighted, but we shall look back to the organizations also, after iifty years-and remember our Hughes with pride. At present the Student Help Fund is aiding three pupils to continue their education. This grows out of little gifts from various sources. One boy serving in the lunch room donates his lunch money to the Fund. Just before mid-year the Honor League and the Hughes Club added fifty dollars through a candy sale. Similarly, the Outside Employment Committee of teachers brings together the positions and the students who need employment after school and on Saturdays. Pupils thus employed, during one year earned 510,200 lPage elevenl