Calumet High School - Temulac Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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retired in 1935, Miss McKinley dedicated her- self to the school, making the welfare of thousands of students her life. After she left, it was necessary to find a dozen teachers to take over her work as Dean of Girls, senior counsellor, sponsor of the Senior Girls' Coun- cil, vocational counsellor, scholarship counsel- lor, welfare worker, securing aid for children with physical defects, and clothing, equip- ment, carfare and lunches for needy children, Miss Victoria Adams, history teacher at Cal from 1895 to 1921, upon her retirement gave the school library 500 history reference books, which she had collected as reviewer for the American Historical Society. Upon her death Miss Adams, a descendent of Pres. Iohn Adams, established a trust fund of 585,000 to finance scholarships to the University of Chicago for Calumet students majoring in history. Although Cal's student body was small in number, they were taking many honors. Prob- ably the most notable achievement was made in later years by Dr. Frank Smithies, who was awarded the French Cross of the Legion of Honor for his work in the field of asthma. The third floor was finished off and con- verted into an assembly hall. lt was but a short time until classes, Cone of which might be a music classl had to be held in the four corners of the hall. Additions were continually being added to the building, however, making its stu- dent capacity larger, Many pupils required from an hour to an hour and a half to reach school, traveling in unheated horse cars with only a layer of straw on the floor to keep their feet warm and walking nearly a mile across the prairie. So in 1899, a branch was opened at 117th and Clark at the Curtis Clfengerl School. But the students didn't like being isolated from the main school so the Board rented the Ten Mile House just back of Calumet and used it as a branch for freshmen. Built in 1837, the year Chicago received its charter, on land ob- tained directly frorn the government as a fed- eral land grant, the Ten Mile House was the oldest building in the community. lts sills were

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' If -'Q:iEdi?E?5f'7 -4:?,.-f.::s 54:2-m,. H U ' . f'f.lq. ':lK P -A gm W1 my ,gn1fTf.11f1'.'i' sl ii it mt f tt .-N i l J 5. ,.15,'1x:l , !H ' i .rar ,I i ni,lWUl: ...yll-,tx X 4. J:-L .P -'T f T - Il' .r f -- l .fr y . 5 f 5 41 , l 1 1 ,T X ' ' A i P l I I iv I 5 ' f v ff ' fm-.... f ... ft, 'ta f -fu! .ii 73-A- -i C I-Ei tra: J '-' 1: I SAX x f-n.'4 -.fx I -.-I HI: Il!! ' 111. 1112 ETSI:- Qsf A 5 W , 3 Sun ..-il lx 5.52:-A I, T- V-ggxl.-, W. qi- ?iv :lg I' gl ?E itll 'leelle lay: itilsejfssi ll, Iliff is ztgqt.. lutilltlf it 1l.fp.iIT5i'gilM1Vll -ui L 'Hit' 1 -it 'wif Lili' ir Vx ' ' vrtssx X I' J',4 1 1 s Our school began its existence as Calumet Township High School in September of 1889. lt was housed in three small rooms on the second floor of the Washington Heights CBarnardl Grammar School at 104th and Charles Streets. The student body consisted of forty-eight pupils and the faculty of two teachers, Mr. A, S. Hall, principal, and Miss May B. Phillips. Students came from graduating eighth grade classes and from the tutor- ing classes of Mr. Milliken in Fernwood and Mrs. Sutherland in Washing- ton Heights. The school district at that time included the territory south of 87th Street and east of Western Avenue. lt was bounded on the south by the little Calumet River and on the east by a line running through Lake Calumet about Stony lsland Avenue. During the summer of l890, a fire occurred in the Washington Heights building, and the high school was moved to temporary quarters in the old Tracy Town Hall, a one story frame building at l03rd and Prospect, which was partitioned off into four classrooms. These quarters were very in- convenient and it was obvious that the township needed a new school building but the school board was having difficulty in selecting a location. The villages of Blue Island, Morgan Park, Washington Heights, Gano, and Fernwood had grown up along the railroads but there was no east and west transportation. Hence each village wanted the new school but re- fused to send their students to any other village. So the board ordered the discontinuance of the search for a building site and petitioned Chicago to accept its students, teachers, and 530,000 ln April l89l the Board of Education voted to accept Calumet as a Chicago high school and in September the school was transferred to the Auburn Park Grammar School at 8lst and Normal, a new six-room brick building where the high school was given three rooms on the second floor. Auburn Park had just been incorporated into the city of Chicago. The very first settlers were about fifteen German farmers who in l875 started small truck farms around 79th and Halsted, establishing a settle- ment known as the Grove . There were also a few Hollander truck farmers west of 82nd and Peoria and around 79th and State. Auburn itself mushroomed into existence at 79th and Vincennes following the great Chicago fire when people were looking for places to build in the suburbs instead of in the burned over territory north of 22nd Street. This fine prairie land was considered one of the most promising south side districts because its land was some sixteen feet higher than the surround- ing swampland. lt built up rapidly in l872-73 and the Auburn Park Grammar School was built in l876 at 8lst and Wallace. However, it burned down in l887 when the Weber Wagon Works across the street burned and took the school and some 25 houses with it. The new school was erected in l888 at Slst and Normal on land donated by Mr. August Schorling. To Calumet, located in this building, students of all ages, who had not had an opportunity for a high school education up till this time, flocked from the distant suburbs. ln fune of '9l two pupils received their diplo- mas at graduation exercises held for all Chicago high schools in the Auditorium at Michigan Boulevard and Congress. The teaching staff had been increased to eight. One of the best loved and well-remembered of these teachers was Miss Alice McKinley. From her first year at the school in 1897 till she

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small logs surfaced on the upper side by hand with an ax, its laths were also made by hand. lt was named to show its distance from the Chicago River along the old indian trail, Vin- cennes Trace fAvenueJ, over which goods were transported by pony pack to Vincennes, lndi- ana. Some of it was shortly rerouted over the State Road fStreetJ to avoid the worst of the marshland. Old timers tell of how a man on horseback could reach down and dip up drink- ing water in some low places. Later the Ten Mile I-louse was referred to as the Farmers' Tavern because the truck farmers stopped there overnight on the way to Chicago, usually the Twenty-second Street market, with their produce. lt did a thriving business until the railroads superseded the horse and wagon trade. However, it had been abandoned by this time, and was offered Cal for housing its overflow. ln l897 the front of the building was added and some changes were made in the old part. Six years later a section was added to the south end, after which the building compared favorably with other high schools. As the population of the city increased, new high schools were established and the district of Calumet High School was reduced repeatedly. The districts of Morgan Park, Fen- ger, Bowen, Parker, and Lindblom were taken in part or entirely from the original Calumet district. In l922 there were over 4,000 high school pupils residing in the original district, but those attending Calumet were less than 600. Most of the territory surrounding the school was a low level prairie covered by endless fields of wild flowers. Until 1905 when drain- age devices and sewers were installed, heavy rainfalls brought severe floods and occasion- ally the school board declared a holiday. ln the winter it was possible to ice skate from 79th and Vincennes all the way to Lake Calumet, and in the spring you could go duck hunting along the old drainage ditch at 91st and Racine where water from the spring rains stood six inches to three feet deep, making excellent feeding swamps for the migrating birds. Very often following heavy rains the boys would play on the board side walks along 79th street using them as rafts. Despite all the additions to the school, how- ever, and the 530,000 worth of new equipment bought in 1913, the old building became in- creasingly inadequate and finally the grammar school was forced to move into portables erected in the school yard. Attendance soared to even greater heights as soon as the people heard that the Board was planning a new school building, and the old school was soon overcrowded by about 350 extra students. Mr. Grant Beebe, the second principal of Calumet, decided that the rapidly growing community of Auburn Park needed a modern, well equipped high school building. Appealing to the Board of Education, Mr. Beebe received