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

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ELL ESS PE These pictures, taken February IO and March 28, 1927, show the beginning of construction and progress on our new High School and Junior College building. With these views in sight, our mem- ories of the old Manual Training building are dimmed. GE 18

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ELL Ess PIE THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL AND jUNIOR COLLEGE BUILDING 1- HE cut opposite shows the general appearance of the new addition to the high school plant to occupy the site of the former manual training building. The addition, which will extend on Chartres Street from Fifth to Sixth and along Sixth Street west, will house the new Junior College, several High School departments,and a civic auditorium. The new building was made possible by the J splendid contribution of four hundred thousand dollars by Mrs. Adele M. Blow and Mrs. Eda Matthiessen of LaSalle, and by the two hundred thousand dollar bond issue of the citizens of LaSalle, Peru, and Oglesby. A g The civic auditorium, which is shown at the right of the cut, will be the largest in the county, seating 1420 persons, and will enable concerts, dramatic perform- ances and conventions of all kinds to be held in the Tri-Cities. The stage of the auditorium will be wide and deep and well equipped with all the appliances and devices of modern' stage-craft. The plans of the auditorium also include an organ loft. The auditorium will be so arranged that it can be easily shut off by sound- proof doors from the main building. The basement floor of the new building, as shown at the left of the cut, will house the manual training department. The second floor will contain the ad- ministrative oflices and high school classrooms. The upper story will house the junior college and the scientific laboratories. To the biology laboratory a green- house will be added. . ,. The building, which will be fire-proof, and as far as possible noise-proof, is to be built of red brick with conservative cut-stone trimmings in the Tudor-Gothic style. It will present a pleasing appearance from all directions and approaches. The construction and equipment of the building have been carefully studied along the most modern lines of educational engineering. The heating, Ventilating, plumbing, and electrical wiring will be modern and provide a structure that is absolutely safe. The architects are the well-known firm of Childs and Smithof Chicago, who have built school buildings at Ann Arbor and Jackson, Michigang Sheboygan, Wisconsin, LaGrange, Illinois, and other places, and who are advisory architects for the McKinlock Campus of Northwestern University, Chicago. The plans for the new building which the Township Board of Education and the architect have evolved are based absolutely upon considerations of economy and efliciency for the future. The building is also planned so as to form a unit and not offer any obstacles in the way of future additions for many years. When the old Township High School building is abandoned, and as the needs of the High School and Junior College increase, the present building can be extended along Sixth Street to the athletic grounds and then south to Fifth Street, forming a quadrangle built on the same lines of construction and of the same material. Work was begun on the new structure in October. On September 27, 1926, the tearing down of the manual training building was begun. The excavations were started October 21. W PAGE 17

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ELL ESS PE , X s- was Hx s - - SN A Xwswwc.,s. . . K 1 5 THE MANUAL TRAINING BUILDING The Manual Training building pictured above was erected in IQO3, as a gift to the community by the late Mrs. F. W. Matthiessen. For twenty-three years the building has served the valuable purpose of housing the Manual Training and Domestic Science departments of the school. In this capacity, it was a very center of industry- teeming with the atmosphere of a real factory, and yet pos- sessing the dignity of a school. The students of LaSalle-Peru came to know the building as an old friend, and held a kind reverence for it, as a part of our great institution. The public became familiar with the building through the annual exhibits held by the Manual and Household Arts departments. These exhibits showed remarkable accomplishments on the part of the students and represented a home of real achievement. The old order changeth, yielding place to new -thus Tennyson tells the story which we express in the pictures placed opposite. The Manual Training building had served its time. Repairs were sadly needed, but these repairs would have been very costly and only a temporary solution of the problem. It was then that Mrs. Adele M. Blow and Mrs. Eda Matthiessen offered S4oo,ooo for the erection of a new school unit that would rival the best in the state. The community, however, was to raise an additional K200,0CO by taxation, which was accomplished in a spirited manner, thus assuring the erection of the new building and necessitating the destruction of the old. During the summer of IQ26, the old building was dismantled, while the actual tearing down was begun on September 27, IQ26. The pupils, although delighted at the prospect of a new building, saw with regret the old disappear. Neverthe- less, sacrifices must be made-it is the price of progress. ARTHUR SEEPE f PAGE 19