Hadley Technical High School - Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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lowing recommendation of the Superintendent: Since the intermediate and high school as now organized and conducted do not meet the educational needs of those who must seek early employment therefore a new school of a vocational type should be constituted The following month the first groups were organized and the classes met in rooms at the Yeatman and Roosevelt High Schools The total en rollment reached 44 In Sep tember 1927 the vocational classes were moved to the Central High School build mg but here after less than a month the tornado scat tered the vocational classes again The Central Building was restored and soon had a student body of around 2000 pupils bemg the combma tion of classes of the Frank lm Intermediate and the V0- cational School On May 14 1929 the school was renam ed the Herbert S Hadley Vo ber 1929 the Board organ ized the second vocational school in the city for the pur pose of serving the Negro pupils and gave it added dignity by naming It after one of the greatest men the world has known Booker T Washington During this time the Board had been busy visiting cities looking at schools inquiring about successful vocational pro grams and gaming mforma tion with which to build a new vocational school The Hadley Building was then 7 ' H ! i . 7 7 , - ' Y , - cational School. In Septem- 1 9 ' 7 7 , -

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the leadmg schools ln the natlon Another xmportant step ln St Louls vocatxonal program came 1nd1rectly ln 1917 Two men who l1ved IU the East Dr Charles A Prosser a lawyer and school teacher, and Dr Charles R Allen a teacher of chemls try worked together to pro mote vocatlonal educatxon for the natlon Thelr success came w1th the passage of the Smxth Hughes Act by Congress ln 1917 Thxs act provxded federal funds for state departments of educa tlon who ln turn were to use the money for vocatlonal educatlon m the schools m couragement St Lou1s made plans for the future The next step occured when classes for boys and glrls who left school at an early age ln order to go to work were orgamzed These class es were called contlnuatlon classes and began ln 1919 Foul years later IH 1923 the Jefferson Vocatlonal School was formed by com b1n1ng the varlous trade and commercxal classes of the school system After three years of operatlon the Jef ferson School was changed to an lntermedlate school and was renamed the Franklm School Later 1n the year of 1926 the Board of Educatlon authorxzed Mr Thomas E Spencer to or gamze a new vocatlonal school It was on December 14 that the Board created prov1s1onally 'the Vocatlon al School based on the fol their state. With this en-

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planned and by November 29 1930 the cornerstone was lald Fourteen months later onFebruary10 1932,the Hadley Bulldmg was dedl cated The public toured the five story bulldmg and the new tea room served 1ts first dlnner to Board mem bers officers and prmclpals In September 1940 the name was changed to the Herbert S Hadley Techmcal Hlgh School By thls tlme Hadley had become embedded ln the educatlonal program of St Louxs And fortunately so for xts buxldlng and currlcu lum offered the cxty and natxon a ready to use plan for the early defense and war tralmng programs that were so xmportant to the free thlnklng world durmg the years 1941 to 1946 Then before the last of the war ley served returmng veter ans who had earned the rlght to pursue thelr own ducatxon wh1ch had been mterrupted by the call to arms In 1949 the overcrowd ed condltlons 1n the cltys two vocatlonal schools caus ed the Board to begln plans for a new technlcal hlgh school After many contro versles ln regard to the ex pense and worth of vocatlon al educatxon lts past record spoke for itself and plans progressed unt11 on Septem ber 24 1954 one hundred years after the real begin nmg of vocational educatlon ln St Louls the cornerstone for the new techmcal hlgh school was laxd and a new era for educatxon started 7 7 l I Y . . ' Y 9 ' 1 training was completed Had- S . . . . . . , 7 1 ' I I