Grant High School - Memoirs Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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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

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Accolades, too, are richly deserved by those who so graciously sponsored individual pages to pay for the printing, but most of all credit goes to YOU who lived the GRANT SAGA. We are all brothers and sisters of the same association, none unimportant, though some have been more visible than others. We’re terribly sorry if any who should be named or viewed are not present. Thank you for being a GRANTONIAN. You are Someone Special. Without further apology now, we, your fiftieth anniversary staff, salute YOU who began it all . . . YOU who continued it . .. and YOU who are yet to evolve on the march to Anninvcrsary ONE HUNDRED, and Beyond May the inspiration and loving effort of our minds and hearts reach out and touch yours! May you enjoy learning ... or remembering when . . . from the fifty year log of a ship within a space ship, THE ULYSSES S. GRANT. Dr. L. Mila Warn AND AWAY WE GO! ACCOLADES AND APPRECIATION TO ALL COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN AND HELPERS. SO MANY HAVE DONE SO MUCH. WHETHER ON THE LIST OR OFF, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR IMPORTANT PART IN MAKING GRANT’S FIFTIETH YOUR SUCCESS! Greetings from the Dimilre Family as we reach 25 Years of Grant attendance BOB DIMITRE '36 MONY (FOWLER) DIMITRE ’38 DON DIMITRE ’62 DIAN (DIMITRE) WARRENS '65 DAVE DIMITRE '68 DEBBIE (BEACH) DIM1TRE '68 DEB DIMITRE 77 II

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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