University High School - U Highlights Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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V01-XI. INTRODUCTORY 1914 that the school should have a vigorous life, and an encouraging growth. As a simple matter of fact the South Side Academy was a sturdy school, earning its Way, always paying its way, and never so strong or so large as when it gave up its separate existance to become part of the larger and more finely equipped school of today. lol-IN M.fxxW131.L CROWE. .T Imax V HHH' Q Il . ., ., waves we-as we s a 4 wa s M Q l 1Z9,7t 'l3 't'G2S Z?nY'TQV 'fFiIgE9'A'TQ'V Qm if X ilsramkmx A625 ...Mn mms Amr. , 4 as if Nf '1'f f f ilifltrair ,ill it-'E 1 'MQ-l7liNm5ET,i4.W,t:f' HQ' jlfgglllfiIIllg.hr1l+llijnI'l 'Wlfj I9

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VOLXI. THE CORRELATOR 1914 the whole school, with room to spare. It was in this building that the school, through contact, formed the attachment to kitchen sinks and open plumbing in the recitation rooms which it has never been able to overcome, even in the impres- sive equipment ofthe University High School. One room was fitted up for English classes by lVliss lVlay Estelle Cook when she left her position as head of the depart- ment of English. The walls were not only prettily covered and decorated,'7 but well furnished with good pictures. The two relics of this room are our Clay Club, and the portrait of Shakespeare which adorns the library of the School of Education as serenely as if it were not a gift to the South Side Academy, and an inspiration to the classes in English, and is now the undivided property of the University High School. The other rooms were plainly furnished, and not large, but they were, on the whole, comfortable. No definite plan of change was in mind when Dean Owen went abroad for the winter of 1900-1901, leaving hflr. VV. E. Whaley as acting dean. lt was during that year, however, that President Harper formed the plan, elsewhere explained, of uniting the South Side Academy with the Chicago hffanual Training School, to form the secondary school of the new School of Education. The board of trustees in this year, 1901, Hturned overl' the school to the trustees of the University of Chicago, and in 1902 the new school opened, principally in Emmons Blaine Hall. There were not as many student organizations and activities in the South Side Academy as in our school of today. Fraternities and sororities existed, at first without restriction, and afterwards under faculty supervision. The only enduring organization was the Clay Club, about the origin of which a singular misunderstand- ing has existed in the present school. The Clay Club was organized as a literary society with evening meetings, for both boys and girls. The meetings were held in the English room before described, and the rostrurn was a circle drawn on the fioor with chalk. The first president was hlr. Charles XYells, now Dr. 'Wells of Burlington, Vermont. For the first three years the honored position of faculty critic was filled by the writer of this history, who was followed in three years of faithful and efficient service by Klr. Davis of the English department of our school. There was no question whatever of the continuity of the Clay Club from the first evening meeting in the South Side Academy until today. The school paper, published monthly, was a creditable paper of the usual school magazine type. It was called the Sosiac, a clever name formed by combining the first two letters of each word in the name of the school. ln athletics the South Side Academy was a worthy forerunner of the University High School. The only important sports were baseball and football. The Acad- emy belonged to the Inter-Academic League, and its greatest and dearest foe was Nlorgan Park Academy, then the preparatory school of the University of Chi- cago, and almost invincible in athletics. Against this powerful opponent, the Academy was finally able to get a drawn in football, and in a tremendous struggle on Marshall Field, to win one baseball championship. The South Side Academy was a preparatory school. Its obvious purpose was to prepare young men and women for college, as thoroughly as possible. But lVlr. Owen, who not only directed it but inspired it, esteemed everything else of little value in comparison with the opportunity of building up boys and girls into strong, self-reliant, self-controlled, useful manhood and wornanhood. 'With a rare sympathy with the young people who made up the school, and perhaps a rarer understanding of them, he was able to achieve marked success in this higher purpose. With this aim, and creditable success in attaining it, it was inevitable 18

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