Newton High School - Newtonian Yearbook (Newton, MA)

Page 26 text:

At this time, a regular military drill was held for the boys by an officer who lived in Newtonville. These drills were conducted in an old building in the square or in the lower corridor of the school building. The student parliament met periodically and was elected by a schoolwide election. There was, of course, no woman suffrage, and only the boys were allowed to speak at meetings. In 1881, the School Board purchased additional land on which they built an extension of the original building. How- ever, the improvement was so slight that a drill shed was built behind what is now Building I, and this shed is still used today for band practice, gym classes, and elections. In 1896, the present Building I was erected, providing lunchrooms, a large assembly hall, science laboratories, a gym- nasium, and classrooms. This new building is said to have brought to a end the practice of walking to Newtonville Square for lunch. 22

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May Day Procession 5 I 1 F, we :ag It may not be surprising to note that most students had little time to spend in the train yards. School, homework, outside activities, and church or family recreation filled the days of most students. The extent of extra-curricular activities was outstanding even in the 1870's. In 1873, an exhibition from the Newton schools at the World's Fair in Vienna won a Diploma of Merit . By that time, the high school had four major courses of study: the Classical Course, expanded to meet the new en- trance requirements of Harvard College, the Business Course, which offered vocational studies, the General Course, a mixture of classical and practical studies, and the Technology Course, a three-year, general course with emphasis on mathematics. Also in 1875, the adult education courses were introduced into the high school program. Evening classes in freehand and industrial drawing were offered to members of the com- munity. In 1876, the familiar knock of overcrowdedness was heard at the door, and the school committee proposed a noble en- largement to the original building. The resulting appearance prompted this passage in The Kingk Handbook of Newton: Less than half a mile from the R.R. station, on Walnut Street, rises the Newton High School, a spacious and com- modious structure . . , Pleasant lawns extend around the building, and during the school hours the walls are lined with tall bicycles, on which the boys come to the scene of their studies . . . The situation of the school, on the broad and quiet Walnut Street, close to the park-like Clafiin domain, is particularly advantageous, and every morning of the educa- tional year, the lads and lasses of Newton are seen wending their way hither by scores, or those from the remoter villages coming by barges or by R.R. trains.

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A new interest in science at the turn of the century at- tracted many Newton boys to M.l.T., and the curriculum was broadened to prepare them for engineering. By 1901, pressure was being placed on the Board to build a new structure to house the commercial and technical students, Completed in 1909, the Technical High School absorbed commercial courses from the classical school and admitted some of its students. Under the leadership of the first headmaster, Charles Kehrner, the Technical High School increased its enrollment, and a vocational school was installed within the same building. In 1926, Building III was completed, and in the new gymnasium, boys' basketball was first introduced to the school. During the next year, several activities were added. The first chapter of the National Honor Society in Massachusetts was established in Newton High School. The new athletic Held, composed of a quarter-mile track, a varsity gridiron, a baseball diamond, hockey fields, and tennis courts, was dedi- cated to Alfred Dickinson, who had died in that year. r L , V i ' ii r 1 l , i l 0 , i l 1 i 1...