La Salle Peru Township High School - Ell Ess Pe Yearbook (La Salle, IL)

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DSP ELL ESS PE I IN-w.5, ,, -I I . I 'Q'-rv , X xv ' I :Eff n NIAN UAL TRAINING f 'Nh 2' . . f I HYGIENIC INSTITUTE Ten I I I I V I I I !

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- - -DSP N ELL ESS PE Qhhitinns uf 1918 In 1918 was completed a very commodious addition to the Recreation Building, made possible by the gift of the late Mr. F. W. lvlatthiessen. In the basement of the addition is a new biological laboratory. It has a much better aquarium than the old room, and is also an improvement because it has separate laboratory and recitation departments. The first floor contains a large reception room in which parties and dances can be held. On the first Hoor is also a kitchenette, an apparatus room, an office, cloakrooms, and two game rooms. One of these game rooms during the winter was used by a night school class of home nursing, under the instruction of Miss Clythia DeCosta, of the Hygienic Institute. The other game room is used by the high school boys at noon and .after school. By this addition to the Recreation Building, it is pos- sible to have boys' and girls' classes in different rooms on the same day, so that a great deal of time and space that hitherto has been wasted can now be utilized. Qtnntemplateh Zlltzratinns The old T. H. S. Building is to undergo this year extensive remodeling on plans laid out by the late Honorable F. W. liflatthiessen. ' The south entrance to the Malll Building will be put on the same level as the first embankment. A stairway will go from this level to the main hallway. The tower will be cut out from the second floor up. The principal's present office and the gen- eral school oHice will be placed in this tower where the Typewriting room now is. The Typewriting room will be transferred upstairs to the present Commercial room. Hereafter the students will have to use the east and west stairways only to reach the upper parts of the building. The old lunch room will be remodeled as well as the entire front ogithe building on the third fioor. A large fire escape will be built connecting the iVIain Building with the Recreation Building. The east and west entrances and the tile walls will be repaired. The Chemical laboratory, Chemical lecture room, and the Stereopticon room will be ventilated. A new master clock with new signal bells will be installed. The Board is to install slate blackboards in all the altered rooms. The building will be in great part re-decorated. Alterations will be made in the west entrance to the Auditorium and in the old Biological laboratory, back of the Auditorium, which will make it possible to shut off entirely the activities of the lower floor from the main school building. . The old so-called library of the Recreation Building will be converted into a recita- tion room, and provision is to be made for remodeling the Domestic Science depart- ment and establishing suitable quarters for the Drawing department. The jwlattbiessen Memorial library Through the generosity of the heirs of hir. F. VV. iiiatthiessen, a modern and com- pletely equipped library will be installed in the space now occupied CIQIQ, by the three rooms of the principal's ofiice, just east of the assembly hall. The present double doors to the assembly hall will be walled up. A vestibule entrance will be made in the southwest corner and an ornamented iron gallery will be built around the greater part of the room. A stairway will lead to a workshop in the basement floor. An ornamented ceiling will be introduced, and milled woodwork for shelves will cover the entire wall space. Leaded glass windows will be installed. The library will be equipped with all the up-to-date machinery for making it a completeworkshop for all the classes of the school. There will be reading tables, magazine cases, lantern slide and Victrola record cases, card catalogues, etc. The architectural and decorative scheme will be of the Georgian period. The principal's and the school's general office will probably also be fitted up with modern ofiice equipment. Nine

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- .LISP - .... ELL ESS PE ftllnntemplateh Beahing Baum ants Qnnex in Becrsatinn Euilhing The classes of 1911 and 1914. left funds which combined were to be used to furnish a reading room or library for the Social Center. These funds are still at interest and since now the plans of the Social Center Building are complete, it will be feasible to establish in the Social Center the long-deferred library and reading I'00111 for the use of the young people of the towns. These plans will be carried out as soon as prac- ticable. Gruunhs The grounds of the school cover two-thirds of two city blocks. Two-thirds of one block are taken up by the Nlanual Training Building, Heating Plant, and two tennis courts for the boys. This property was a gift of the late lVIr. F. VV. lkdatthiessen. The two-thirds of the other block are taken up by the remaining buildings of the school. Between the main building and the Hygienic Institute is situated a tennis court for the girls. All the grounds are neatly terraced and planted with trees and shrubbery. The most important of the grounds, however, is a large athletic field west of the llflanual Training Building, a field of eleven acres, which was a gift of Mr. F. VV. Nlatthiessen and which is being used in connection with the Social Center. The field is surrounded by a large running track with a one hundred-yard straight-away. The ground enclosed by the track is used as a football gridiron and baseball diamond. At the east end of the field is a large and adequately equipped out-of-door swimming pool and natatorium. A large concrete stadium costing 352,560 has been constructed on the field, the expense being defrayed by public subscription. The capacity of the stadium is about five hundred. The entire field and equipment are valued at about S25,000. Recently lN'Ir. F. W. Matthiessen gave to the school about eleven acres directly west of the athletic field. This will probably be used for the present by the Social Center and the cadets. At considerable expense it has been graded, the top of a hill being used to fill up a ravine, and it is now in good condition. Equipment anh finurses SCIENCES The department of Physics and Chemistry is probably the most adequately equipped of the school. The lecture room has a sloping Hoor and opera seats, a large laboratory table with water, gas, and electrical connection, and all apparatus necessary for instruc- tion in science classes and class demonstration work. The Physics department is fitted with large desks and apparatus for instruction in this branch. Each student is supplied with a complete set of apparatus. The store-room is also used by the instructor as a laboratory. The workshop is equipped with a screw lathe and a pattern-maker's bench for work in metals and wood. The instructor also has a complete set of tools, and the lathe is driven by a one-half horse-power motor. In this workshop many pieces of apparatus have been built, including a dissectible dynamo, which is used for class instruction, and also to charge storage cells for ringing the school bells. The dark room is equipped with chemicals and apparatus necessary for photographic workg and there has recently been purchased a large camera, which is now used for all school - Eleven