J Sterling Morton East High School - Mortonian Yearbook (Cicero, IL)

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Morton 496 HH growth of Morton has been very pro- nounced from the original red-brick school on Ogden Avenue, two blocks east of Aus- tin, to the present school of 1925, on Austin Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street. The year 1899 marks the beginning of the history of our high school under the guidance of Mr. Harry V. Church. VVhen he first took charge at the Ogden Avenue school, there was a student body of forty-four pupils and a faculty consisting of five teachers. With the growth ofthe community, the number of students increased so that it was rendered imperative that a larger school be builtg and the present site, the block at the corner of Twenty-fifth Street and Austin Boulevard, was chosen. The new school was built in IQO3 and named in honor of' Mr. gl. Sterling Morton, the originator of' Arbor Day, ex-governor of Ne- braska, and Secretary of Agriculture in the cabi- net of President Cleveland during the latter's second administration. The growth ofthe school from that time on has been tremendous. Seven years later, 1910, it was necessary to add an assembly room and a new gymnasium. In almost the same length of time another annexation to the original building was contracted for, which added a series of rooms on Austin Avenue, including a community room, oflices, sewing and manual training room, chem- istry, physics, and biology laboratories, teachers' rest room, and many classrooms. Also included in this construction were a swimming pool and a boys' gymnasium. Finally, in I924, the present mammoth addi- tion circling the old building for two-thirds its perimeter, was finished. All this was accom- plished during the twenty-live years of Mr. Church's administration. This is not all. He has looked into the future, has seen the need of a still larger establishment, and has pushed ahead plans for another equally large addition now un- der construction. It will include numerous class- rooms, additional laboratories,a girls' swimming pool, and two girls' gymnasiums, a cafeteria capable of accommodating ISOO students, and another having accommodations for one hun- dred fifty teachers, an auditorium having'a ca- pacity for 2500 persons, and a stage large enough for the playing of a basketball game. This auditorium will be the first in the middle west of its kind. Thus far we have dealt solely with the in- creased building addition with no mention of the elaborately planned curriculum for the commu- Histor 50 1 The Ogdfn Avenue School nity concerned in the school. The rapid growth ofthe school district has made it necessary for a widely varied course of study. The commercial department has been enlarged by the addition of many other courses of office work aside from typewriting and shorthand. This enables students desiring a business course to get practical training while in the high school. For the boys there is a complete shop program giving opportunity for many trades, such as tool designing and general machine work, practical and theoretical teachings in electricity, automo- biles, printing, pattern making, etc. Then there is the college preparatory course, which includes the fundamental studies required in the various courses offered in college. Aside from the regular curricula, there has been just recently added an orthopedic school, which treats and educates the less fortunate chil- dren of the community who have deformities of diverse nature. The continuation and evening school occupy another large place at Morton. The continuation school is solely for those boys and girls ofthe district up to the age of eighteen who have to enter the business world before com- pleting the high school. The evening school ren- ders an education possible to thousands of adults who are employed during the day. There has been included into the high school a Junior Col- lege, enabling graduates to enter a two years' college course, thereby allowing them to obtain two years' college credit to any college in the United States. Along with the athletic depart- ment are a girls, corrective class, a nutrition class for the undernourished, and medical in- spection. l13l

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