Forreston High School - Cardinal Yearbook (Forreston, IL)

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History ofthe New School It has been no secret for several years that a new school bulldmg was needed at Forreston The hlgh school has never hadaseparate bu1ld1ng When the hlgh school dlstrxct was organlzed ln 1937 the board rented space from the grade school Two years later the hxgh school erected the gym ag class rooms and commerclal rooms adJo1n1ng the grade school bulldmg Smce the grade school owns the major part of the bu1ld1ng and smce there are 50'Z, more students than the bu1ld1ng can safely accomodate xt became apparent that the renter would have to vacate In fact the grade school board made such a formal request of the hlgh school 1n a letter dated Aprll 13 1953 Room mother groups and the adv1sory councll became acutely mterested durlng the 1953 54 school year The guldmg genlus for the advxsory council 1n its early precarious days was the chalrman George McDonald He was later succeeded by Kermit Mlller who also d1d a f1ne Job leadxng thls lmportant group Each portlon of the entlre dlstrlct was represented on the large commlttee and smaller commlttees were chosen to make pertlnent studles The most lmportant of these study commlttees were the currlculum chlld census s1te hot lunch wut d1str1ct bulldmg and flnance They all turned IH valuable reports On the questlon of new bu1ld1ng or un1t d1str1ct the entire councll debated the matter serxously for some tlme and voted 18 6 to recommend a new bu1ld1ng rather than a un1t d1str1ct The Ill1no1s Bond Servlce was employed June 17 1954 and four weeks later f7!15y Ray Orput Rock ford was employed as archltect Mr Posorske of Illmols Bond Servlce helped varlous commlttees organ xze to get necessary mformatlon to the people pr1or to the election The electlon was held October 17 1954 The vote was favorable for both the S590 000 bond ISSUE and the Weegens sxte at the east edge of town It was 633 375 for the bonds and 536 462 for the Slte A total of 1034 people voted The 20 acre slte was purchased from Slmon Weegens shortly after the electlon for S20 000 Blue prlnts for the bulldmg were completed early IH May and blds were opened June 3 1955 Con tracts were awarded to low bldders as follows General Contractor John Gustafson 8zSon S395 472 00 Plumbmg Rockford Plumblng and Heating 45 000 00 Heatlng Nelson Plplng Co 77 776 00 Electr1c Berg Electr1c Co 40 196 00 S558 444 00 Three weeks after the blds were opened Gustafson had the dlrt flylng June 24 1955 Progress has been satlsfactory slnce that tlme and lt now appears that the school w1ll be completed and ready to use by September 1 Another unportant development has taken place 1n that the German Valley area has been added to our hlgh school dlstrlct and the terrltory east and south of Florence Statlon IS petxtlonlng to enter Thus the d1S trxct w1ll be 4096 larger than It was when the bulldmg program began Many of these students were already attendm here The board of educatlon has planned well 1n preparing for 250 hlgh school students 1n the new bu1 d1ng 166 were enrolled thls year The heatlng plant IS ample to care for slx add1t1onal rooms lf such need to be added The school IS located at the east edge of Forreston on the south Slde of Route 72 It IS a one story structure with the mam part extendlng east and west parellel to the hlghway To the east IS the qulet or academlc sectlon llbrary English hlstory math science and commerclal To the west IS the vocatlonal wing Home econornlcs vocatlonal agriculture lndustrlal arts and draftlng The admmxstratlve sectlon IS between these two wmgs at the north entrance Extending due south beyond the front entrance IS the physlcal educatlon plant and audltorxum Flne fac1l1t1es w1ll be afforded for regular P E classes For basketball games the floor IS the same SIZC as any large hlgh school floor m Ill1no1s and there w1ll be seats for 1100 people Just west of the gym lS a f1ne cafeterla that w1ll handle 200 students at a t1me and a spaclous kltchen adjolns lt on the south Beyond the kltchen IS a dellghtful muslc room wxth rlsers for better practlce facllltxes practlcc rooms storage and lxbrary space The muslc room IS just 0pp0Slt8 the large stage that IS located at the south end of the gym There f1ne musxc programs and class pla s may be antlclpated In short a f1ne bulld 1ng IS about ready to serve the communlty and lt IS a buxldmg o whlch the communlty should well be proud O All Contractors were from Rockford except Berg Electric Co. of Rochelle. h

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History of F C H S The f1rst school bmldmg ln Forreston was a one story frame structure about 40x60 feet lo cated ln the center of the or1g1na1 town plat or to be exact on the lots occupled by the Stanley resldence Just west of the Lutheran church It was erected 1n 1856 and was ln those early days used for every pur pose of publlc gathermg 1nclud1ng lectures theatre etc On Sundays It was an unusually busy place as all denomlnatlons used lt for rel1g1ous servlces at varlous hours durmg the day so that rel1g1ous servlces were almost lf not contmuous through the day In lt the Un1on Sunday School was organlzed by C M Haller and others ln May 1859 and contxnued to hold 1tS sesslons there untxl the year 1863 when It was remov ed to the then new Lutheran Church the second new church to be btult 1n Forreston When the new school was bu1lt ID 1867 thxs old tabernacle was sold for a few hundred dollars to George W Hewltt who used lt several years for a hay barn When I f1rst attended th1s school It cons1sted of one large room wlth two front doors one for the boys and one for the gxrls The benches and desks were so arranged that the boys and glrls faced each other lookmg north and south There was a ralsed plat form at the west end where the teacher had h1s table and the dunce block As populatlon lncreased we needed two teachers A board part1t1on was run through the room east and west dlVld1Dg xt mto two long narrow rooms The males and females could no longer be segregated and toward the end It became very crowded so that the smaller ch1ldren were crowded out and were taught by a th1rd teacher 1n the basement of U B Church The above ment1oned 1867 bul1d1ng was erected near the Slte of our present bul1d1ng The present bu1ld1ng was bullt ln 1916 and 1n 1939 an addxtlon was bullt whlch prov1ded for a gym a commerclal room an ag room and a stage The school grounds have been enlarged and lmproved ln many ways the past few years We now have a very f1ne track and a splend1d softball d1amond In 1946 11 ts were added to xmprove the d1amond In November 1952 an asphalt tennls court was la1d east of the bul d1ng The class of 1947 planted two Jumper trees southwest of the bulldmg 1n memo of two F C l-I S men gave thelr llves for thexr country 1n World War II On the north slde of the school 1S a towermg gmgko tree planted ln memory of Charles Ruppert a World War I veteran A marker was placed by thxs tree ln 1949 by Amerlcan Leglon Post 308 In 1879 three students graduated from F C H S to make up the f1rst graduat1ng class There were no graduates from 1881 to 1885 but since that txme there has been a graduatxon class every year The largest classes of 34 members each graduated rn 1942 and 1945 unt1l the 1954 group set a new record w1th 38 graduates Just now we feel we are enterxng a new era On October 16 1954 the dlstrxct voted S590 000 1n bonds to purchase a slte and to erect a new school on that s1te The s1te contams 20 acres border1ng the vxllage l1m1ts on the east and lylng Just south of Route 72 The proposed buxldmg IS to face the north and wxll be accesslble from Route 72 and v1a a new street to be opened Just south of the Jack Freasman resldence Thls street lines up wlth the east west street by the Masonlc Temple Hopes had been held for a new street Jo1n1ng these separated segments but s1x sets of raxlroad tracks would be crossed The estl mated mxmmum cost for new street work the crossmgs and the flasher slgnals was S30 000 Then too a permxt must be secured from the Illinols Commerce Comm1ss1on The plan has been dropped for the present The dxrt began to fly Jlme 24 on the new Slte Progress has been steady and the bmldmg IS scheduled for occupancy by September 1 Costs are too great to purchase all new eqmpment Usable equipment from the present buildmg w1ll be taken to the new btuldlng The cafeterla k1tchen lxbrary physlcs and chemlstry equlpment and several other items must be purchased new The school wzll accommodate 250 students 165 are now enrolled There may be 200 from the combined Forreston Ger man Valley area w1th1n three years It IS posslble that the 250 mark could be reached ln fxfteen years If so our heatxng system IS deslgned to take care of SIX add1t1onal rooms whlch would take care of our hxgh problems for qnute a few more years It IS slgmfxcant that the flrst school ln Forreston was buxlt 1n 1856 Thus the one hundreth annlver sary of th1s flrst school can be approprlately celebrated by dedlcatmg one of the fmest h1gh school btuld mgs ln northern Illlnols I O O O H . . . . - graduates, Pvt: Herman Woolsey, class of 1938, and Ensign Carroll Coffman, class c:ly193.9. These tivo ' 1 'C ,, . . . . .

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