Grant High School - Memoirs Yearbook (Portland, OR)

Page 10 text:

million dollars in order to pay for the building program. Within a fortnight of the day the voters gave their consent, architect W.C. Knighton of the firm Knighton ■ Howell was selected by the school board to begin preliminary drawings of the unnamed city high school. Knighton’s original drawings submitted in the fall of 1922, pictured a large complex of buildings located on an attractive and spacious campus. The main building was depicted with a peaked roof straddled by a cupola, which made it resemble contemporary Franklin High School. Both the north and south wings were also surmounted by dormercd, peaked roofs, as were the swimming pool bathhouse and the gymnasium. Incidentally, the latter building was shown on the south side of today’s varsity baseball diamond, near U.S. Grant Place, a location which would have given the campus symmetry but which would also have meant a long hike from the gym to the swimming pool. In January 1923 the school board, pleased with a modified version of Knighton’s blueprints, voted unanimously to begin construction of a flat-roofed fireproof building at the northeast Portland site. Estimated cost of the structure was $232,000 with additions to bring the total cost up to about $400,000. Meanwhile the school had been given a name. At the school board meeting of Wednesday evening, September 13th, 1922, George E. Sandy, a military veteran and commander of a local V.F.W. post, suggested the name of General Grant as a suitable title for the new institution of learning. Pressed by Sandy into immediate action, the board unanimously adopted the name “Ulysses Simpson Grant High School” for the new school. Construction on the main building and gymnasium began in early 1923 and by autumn of that year it had progressed to the point that a formal cornerstone laying could take place. On the chilly day of October 8th over 300 spectators and dignitaries assembled before the hugh steel, concrete and brick framework located near the intersection of N.F . 36th Avenue and Thompson Street. While the crowd listened patiently the national chairman of the Knights of Pythias spoke of the importance of education and of the fine example set by U.S. Grant for the youth of America. Next, School Director Clark praised the modern facilities of the school and pleaded for more public school funds in the form of tax dollars from the public. The final speaker was Mayor George L. Baker, who orated in favor of tighter immigration laws. He opined that good education was the best moral, spiritual and intellectual safeguard for the American people, and pointed out that backward countries have difficulty raising their standards of living because poor educational facilities, such as existed in many foreign countries in 1923, result in large numbers of people being unable to raise their personal standards of living. After this series of addresses the polished granite cornerstone, which had already been emplaced, was sealed. The rectangular hollow chiseled stone had enclosed in it a small American flag, some newspapers, rosters listing all officials and workmen responsible for the school’s construction, and a hand-written account of the early planning for Grant. The cornerstone, which measures thirty-five inches by thirteen inches, still rests solidly amongst the bricks on the right-hand side of the school’s front portico, and presumably still contains its mouldering treasures. Work continued on Grant into 1924. After a careful, scrutinizing inspection for structural flaws, the school district chose to accept it in the summer of that year. PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC “Keep on Watching Watts” 621 S.VV. Alder Portland, Oregon

Page 9 text:

Grant High SCHOOL History By Perry E. Buck itizens of Portland learned from their morning newspapers of March 21, 1922 that at a special meeting held the previous evening, the city school board had approved and passed along for the electorate’s approval a six-million dollar school construction program. This program, which the voters would agree to finance at the school election held the following June 17th, among other things called for construction of a modem high school in northeast Portland. The ten-acre site chosen for the projected high school was an old brickyard adjacent to an area under development as a public park. Fern wood school (a local landmark since 1911) and a few scattered houses were the only buildings in the area, while streets such as Fremont and 33rd Avenue were little more than country lanes. Mud, standing water, underbrush and heaps of broken brick graced the area. Yet the city was growing. Real estate ads and hucksters proclaimed the glories of life in Rossmerc, Rose City Park, Hollywood and a dozen other now forgotten sub-divisions. Moreover, other areas such as Dolph Park, Laurel-hurst and Irvington were already wealthy, established suburban neighborhoods. Unless a new high school was built, the children from these areas would overtax the capacity of the city’s seven existing high schools. Hence the voters, cognizant of these facts, approved the sale of three million dollars of school bonds and, in addition, agreed to a three year tax hike totaling another three COUCH STREET GALLERY MARY MALETIS iii

Page 11 text:

Shortly after the school opened, it became apparent that it was too small for its rapidly growing student body. Half-a-dozen portable classrooms and a temporary wooden cafeteria were placed along the west side of the main building to ease the crowding, and, in April of 1925, the construction firm of Stebinger Brothers was awarded a contract to build the school’s north wing after submitting a low bid of approximately $115,000. Included in the new wing were several biology labs, cooking and domestic arts classrooms, manual training shops and a study hall which could also serve as a small auditorium. This sixteen-room wing was completed late that year and was occupied in the spring term of 1926, thus serving to alleviate the classroom crisis. A similar wing on the south end of Grant, containing physics labs, mechanical and freehand drawing rooms, as well as typing and bookkeeping classrooms, was completed later, in about 1928. In that same year the auditorium, built to accommodate 1800 students was finished. The annual school play, which in this particular season was a whimsical piece entitled, “The Boomerang”, was the first of many attractions to be presented there. Not only was the student body pleased with this play, presented in late April; it was also happy that the school now had permanent cafeteria facilities. They were situated directly below the auditorium. Meanwhile other changes were taking place outside the building itself. Muddy grounds, crossed by rickety boardwalks, were giving way to lawns divided by smooth concrete sidewalks. Handsome lightposts were sited along nearby streets in 1927, and rows of trees were planted not only on the school grounds, but in nearby U.S. Grant Park, too. Swimming pool and tennis courts were built in 1926 and 1927 as part of the city’s development of the park, and Grant bowl, situated in a natural depression, was excavated to a depth of twelve feet, then banked, graded, and landscaped. In those days the American flag waved proudly on a pole placed above the rim of the bowl. The Grant neighborhood, stimulated by its new focal point was being improved as well. Eugene Street, running along the south side of the campus, was renamed U.S. Grant Place. Soon sturdy, comfortable houses were built along it as well as along other streets near the school. For nearly twenty years after 1929, economic depression and war occupied the minds of taxpayers; further construction ceased for a long period of time. Not until the early 1950s when Grant’s enrollment, which had declined for a time, again passed the 2000 mark, did parents and administrators begin to worry about overcrowding in Grant’s aging facilities. With forecasts predicting the size of the student body to pass the capacity mark of 2400 in 1955, expansion was seriously considered. At the school board meeting of Thursday, October 25, 1951, Ward Cook, president of the Grant Dads’ Club, urged improvements in the school. He pointed out that Grant’s gym was totally inadequate for a comprehensive physical education and athletics program. Laurence E. Winter, director of secondary education, advocated plans providing for addition of a new gym as well as construction of a wing containing shops and homemaking rooms. Winter’s plan also called for a re-arrangement of the library, offices and counseling rooms. This plan ultimately went into effect, but not all at once. The modern, $281,687 northwest wing containing art, home economics and shop classes opened in 1953 but the construction of the new gym was not completed until the autumn of 1957. Mineral Aggregate Industries Service Consultant Service to Quarries, Crushers, Sand and Gravel Operations ADA (PACKARD) I.OFTS 13825 S.W. 27th Portland 646-6200 Oregon State University Alumni Association sends best wishes to Grant High School and its Alumni on the occasion of its Golden Anniversary celebration.