Beaumont High School - Caduceus Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

Page 20 text:

fm r fl? if . A r o t 'f'tti' F llillliif l l -2.1 2 , Q -if Jig, ,W ' T H E C A D U C E U S over under the rules of the Board of Edu- cation until the meeting of December 12, when it was unanimously adopted, Perhaps nothing could indicate more clearly or strikingly the growth of the educational system of St. Louis, and especially of its high school system, which has far outstripped the city's growth in population, than a comparison of the Beaumont High School building with the Hrst high school building erected in St. Louis. This Hrst building was completed in 1856, three years after the establishment of the first high school in 1853, and was located on the northeast corner of Fifteenth and Olive Streets, on a lot 150'xl06'6 , which cost 317,950.00 The extreme depth of the building from front to back was l04'4 and its extreme width was 84', including towers and transepts, The body of the building was 84'x67' and its main height was 71C Its cubical contents were approximately 400,000 cubic feet. lt was designed to accommodate 400 pupils, There were four rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second floor. On the third floor was an auditorium 82'x64' seating 700. This room was used for classes in chorus music and also for phys- ical training. In the basement was one class room and a science laboratory. Prob- ably the first high school chemistry labora- tory in the United States was later installed in this room. The cost of this building was 347,186.16 and of the furnaces for heating it 81750.00 On each side of the building was a yard 30'x90'. The character of this building, how- ever. as judged by the standards of the time of its construction will appear from a quotation taken from the annual report of July, 1855, which reads as follows: The magnificent New High School edifice is drawing near completion and when it is completed, St. Louis can boast of a model school edifice, one not exceeded if equaled in the United States. In the interior ar- rangements, it contains not only all the modern improvements and conveniences in school house architecture, but several en- tirely new features. In exterior appearance, it is one of the most imposing structures in the country, and if the organization pre- scribed for it and the course proposed in it are faithfully carried out, there will be no literary institution. whether public or private. that will give such an extensive, thorough, and practical education to the rising generation. Among the most encouraging features of the age is the munificent appropriations for the higher grade of school edifices. Boston and New York have high school edinces that cost, including the lots on which they stand, S80,000,00. Philadel- phia, exclusive of the lot, 543,000.00 Cincinnati. SZ8.000.00, Toledo, 332,- 0O0.00. lt would not require a great stretch of imagination for the reader of this quota- tion to suppose that the Beaumont High School was in the mind of the writer. The city of St. Louis has been specially favored all through the years in having at the head of its schools men of broad vision and democratic conception of the meaning and function of the public schools, men who really believed in the fundamental prin- ciples of public education designed to pre- pare youth for self-realization and for participation in creating, conserving, and developing a truly democratic social order, men who saw that the establishment and preservation of a democratic state was de- pendent upon the freest, fullest oppor- tunities for the education of each indi- vidual child. Entrance to the High School from the eighth grade of the elementary school, at that time, depended upon written examina- tions in writing, geography, arithmetic, grammar, history and constitution of the United States. The High School curricu- lum included English, language and litera- Twenty-one

Page 19 text:

A QT' f - l f, X ciuytolwuif MN iCCi?f' l gf ' W U' ' , J, fi-'sf 3 i V' i f r, . HH it IQ X.-'gi T H E C A D U C E U S besides these double stairways, there are two single stairways from the ground floor to the first floor. ' The auditorium has a seating capacity of 2250. Back of the proscenium arch, the stage extends forty feet, having an area of 4O'x80', while in front of the arch, it extends fifteen feet, having an area of l5'x6O'. A steel curtain may be lowered just back of the proscenium arch separating the auditorium from the stage gymnasium. This stage gymnasium is connected by doors with two other gymnasia. These two gymnasia are fully equipped with lad- ders, rings, swinging poles, stall bars and other apparatus, while the stage gymna- sium is equipped with stall bars, and goals for basketball. There is a swimming pool 24'x6O' with dressing rooms and showers for girls and boys, The lockers are located in the corridors and connect with the ventilation system. They are fiush with the wall surface. The library is on the second floor and connects with rooms on either side by means of a door. The music room is on the third floor and has a seating capacity of 300 pupils. The administration suite consists of five connecting offices: the Principal's Office, the Dean's Office, the Doctor's Office, the Assistant Principal's Office, and the large general office with work room and vault for storage of valuable papers. There are forty-five class rooms having a capacity of 45 pupils each, thirty re- citing, Hfteen studying. There are nine science laboratories: one for Botany, con- necting with a conservatory into which it opens: one for Physiology, two for Gen- eral Science, two for Physics, one for Chemistry, one for Physiography, one for Geography, and adjacent to each of these laboratories is a demonstration room. There are three rooms for art drawing Twenty with store rooms adjacent and three me- chanical-drawing rooms with store rooms and a blue-print room adjacent. The Domestic Science group comprises a cooking room and pantry, a housekeep- ing suite consisting of kitchen, pantry, din- ing room, living room and bathroom, two sewing rooms with fitting room adjacent. each furnished with sixteen double tables provided with an electric sewing machine and an electric iron, and one of them sup- plied also wth equipment for laundry work-stationary tubs, ironing boards and electric irons, electric washing machine, drying apparatus and electric mangle. The lunch room is large enough to accommodate fifteen hundred persons at once. It is located on the ground fioor and is arranged for double service. For the Manual Training department, six ample shops are provided, each having a capacity of thirty pupils: one Joinery Shop 97'x29', one Pattern Making and Turning Shop, 74'x29', one Molding Shop 97'x29', one Forge Shop 97'x29', one Machine Shop 97'x54', one Auto- mechanics Shop 84'x29'. The Commercial department consists of three bookkeeping rooms and three type- writing rooms. Teachers' retiring rooms are provided on each floor. In the fourth floor or tower, there are Eve rooms. one of them designed for band and orchestra practice. Back of the school building is a field 245' wide x 699' long, intended for foot- ball, baseball, and track and field athletics, and on either side a space of 327'xl28' for other outdoor sports, such as tennis and hockey. On November 14, l922, it was recom- mended that the new high school to be erected on what was known as the Car- dinal Field be named the Beaumont High School. This recommendation was laid

Page 21 text:

G'TlJ i af fi ft Vaseeco i eafffa fl if ei i tiluj e if ijt gt T H E C A D U C E U S turafforeign languages. Latin, Greek, German, Frcnchgancient and modern historyufthe sciences, physical geography, natural philosophy, physics, physiology. Zoology, botany, geology, chemistry, as- tronomy, mental and moral sciencef mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonom- etry. analytical geometry, calculus, men- suration. mechanics, engineering, book- keeping. A comparison of these subjects with those now taught in the high schools will show the absence of manual arts subjects and stenography which were of later intro- duction, By the opening of the Beaumont High School with its admirable accommodations designed to facilitate in every way the ad- vancement of those who are so happy as to be privileged to enjoy them, a new stage in the realization of the vision of the far- sighted. public-spirited men of 1853 and the years following has been reached. They laid broad and deep the foundations of public education, which they thought and declared should be commensurate with the needs of all children and youth seeking to develop their native endowment of body and mind and should not be excelled by institutions privately endowed and acces- sible only to a limited number of children. Pupils of the Beaumont High School, heirs of the stout-hearted, far-seeing. broad-minded men who have planned and established and directed the public school system of St. Louis, I congratulate you and invoke your aid in carrying forward the work by them begun. So use your opportunities and influence that your debt of gratitude may be repaid many times over to those who come after you. V X , ,..,,.., .... . .. V Y xl 'C A D UC E U S I 1 1 .LL V' 'J' ' L L l ' ,Sk -iii 7'iut-nie-iitwi