Lansdowne High School - Lahian Yearbook (Lansdowne, PA)

Page 10 text:

LANSDOWNE NIR. F. S. l'NDl'RlllI.I., a member of the school board Illlfll'-0llC years and its president for sixteen. Tl1ese 111en had 111any hopes and high ideals which they wanted to see car- ried out. On June seventh, 1892, Lansdowne was granted a charter by the county to form a high school, which opened in September, 1892, with but three pupils. Their course included: geog- raphy, psychology, reading, aritlunetic, natural philosophy, penmanship, as- tronomy, and rhetoric, besides those subjects which are taught today. XVben music was added to the cur- riculum and the need for a piano was felt, the school resorted to entertain- ments and solicitations, since there was no money available for the pur- pose. In April of that year. Lansdowne High School became the proud owner of a piano. June, 1895, saw our first commence- ment, the biggest event in the town at that time. All the closed carriages and cabs in the livery stable were reserved for the occasio11. The con1n1encen1ent exercises were held at three o'clocl4 in the afternoon and continued to be held in the afternoon for about ten years afterwards. Both teachers and graduates sat on the stage, and each member of the Class of ,95 : Fmily Hibberd, Kate Robertson, and Kate Beadle, gave an address. The school board presented each of the graduates with a fine set of books. This class, like all succeeding it, had a senior dance. Two of the graduates, Miss Hibberd and Miss Beadle returned to the school in the capacity of teachers. Our second commencement was fol- lowed in the evening by dancing and class day exercises. That year three boys and five girls left our school as graduates. An Alumni Association was formed in june, 1896 and continued to exist until the first XVorld lVar. The first addition to our building was completed in 1896. lVith this came an improvement in the heating system. Formerly the school had been heated by coal furnaces, but in 1896 steam heat was installed. The second addition was completed in 1898, and the third in 1915. A fine rain did not prevent the citi- zens of Lansdowne fron1 filling to the bri111 the large school hall to hear the University of Pennsylvania Glee, Ban- jo, a11d Mandolin Clubs on December 17, 1897. After the musical was con- cluded, the chairs were cleared away and many stayed to dance until the late hour of ten o'clock. The proceeds from this entertainment went to the

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gQ6U 5 0 l 0gl 855 N its fifty years of existence, Lans- downe High has grown, perhaps not phenomenally, but surely steadily. In size it has developed from part of a three-room school house to the sev- enty-room school building we know today. The number of pupils has in- creased from three to nearly eight hundred, and the size of the faculty from three members to thirty-four. Almost a year before Lansdowne became a borough, Upper Darby erect- ed, in 1892, a red brick school build- ing on Baltimore Avenue, between Lansdowne and Highland Avenues. It was primarily intended as a three- room grade school, but in the same year Upper Darby sent Miss H. Emilie Groce, one of its teachers, to the new school for the express purpose of founding a high school. NVhen Lansdowne had its election, six men, the required number for ll board at that time, were elected school directors. Those elected were: Isaac P. Garrett, Edwin B. I.ewis, Mathiew F. Vander, YVilliam P. Freeham, joseph Fleming, and Edward Flacker. af? W 'uw 'fi Q c O .1 :CBJ f Pa 'nl' Miss Iixilm' Hllilil1RD, class of '95, one MR. Amos P. BEADLE, class of '96, was of the hrst three graduates, returned one of the first three boys to graduate lilcx as a member of the faculty. from Lansdowne High School. . o 5 5.

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