Elkhart High School - Pennant Yearbook (Elkhart, IN)

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pennant i e Annual UIEIDS OF E. R. S PAST JIND PRESENT %n i J ' ' ' i- re ' ;-t f- c ov- ELKHART HIGH SCHOOL

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pnnant la e Annual

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pennant i92fi Annual A Ristory of CThe Elkhart High School In the future, when some of th.e graduates of Elkhart High School have won for themselves places of fame and renown in the world of business, art, science and other vocations, and when the public shall search back into the past records of that man or woman, they will know that man or woman has come from Elkhart High School! With this in view, let us peer into the past history of this institute where Knowledge is Power. The first school house, a one-story frame building, was built in 1838 on the east side of Second street, between Jackson and Washington. Six years later this building burned, and for four years, until a new building was erected on the original site, the three-story building, known as Tammany Hall, was used for school purposes. In 1S41. a long, foui ' -room, frame building was Iniilt on tlie corner of High and Second streets, where the High School now stands, and this was used until it became so old and shaky that people began to doubt its safety. This building was destroyed by fire in 1867. The next year a new four-story brick building was constructed on the same site, at a cost of forty-five thousand dollars. Many people denounced this as a piece of extravagance, and predicted that it would always be too roomy tor the number of children in Elkhart. It some of those people could have had a glimpse of the future, and seen the crow-ds of pupils come thronging in and out of Central building and High School today, it would have seemed incredible. Sixteen years later the High School needed more room and an addition of eight rooms was built adjoining the Central build- ing on the west. In the new building the High School and reci- tation rooms w-ere on the first floor, the upper grammar .grades occupied the second, and the library, museum and superintend- ent ' s oflice were in the room connecting the old and new build- ings. The dark and poorly ventilated rooms in this building, and the crowded condition of the rooms made it necessary to provide better accommodations To meet this demand, it was planned to . erect a new High School building at the .iunction of Vistula and Lexin.gton avenue, which was then Pigeon street. While this new- building was being built, the High School held its sessions in the fourth story of the Central building. After climbing those lon.g flights of stairs, the pupils felt that theirs was a high education in spirit and in truth. It was but Seven