Mechanic Arts High School - M Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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QHANGING SCFNFS HERE existed, some fifty years ago, at Tenth and Robert streets, a two- story, red brick building, the St. Paul High School, the only public high school in the city at that time. There arose a desire at St. Paul High tor technical education and so: In the year- ln a corner basement room ot the school, Mr. I. D. Ludden, chairman ot the man' l887- ual training committee, speaks to an audience of boys and faculty members: -Let this portion of St. Paul High School be dedicated as a manual train- inq quarter for its students- l888- At a meeting ot the Board of Education, B. E. Wright takes the floor: ln view of the encroaching demand for technical training at St. Paul High School, I propose that a separate building be constructed for the purpose. l889- Standing on the steps ot the new school on Park Avenue, Mr. Charles A. Bennet addresses a gathering ot students: l am honored to have the privilege of officially opening the doors ot the Manual Training School and happy to become its first principal. U55 Ofc! ml acgoof gOLl.:S5 O12 930.76 JUEHUE Page 10

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IN FIFTY YEARS At Central High School George Weitbrecht, a kindly chemistry and economics teacher, is approached by a group of men. After an earnest discussion the teacher speaks: Gentlemen, l accept the principalship of the Manual Training School with the provision that academic classes be included in the curriculag and that the school be henceforth known as Mechanic Arts High Schoo1. On the stage of the school auditorium, diplomas are presented to fourteen anxious scholars-the first graduating class. The enrollment increases consistently. The student populace crowd into the assembly hall expressing their sentiments in their first school song: Let's make Mechanics large, boys, It will not hold us all. We used to go to school in it When you and 1 were small. But now were growing large, boys, And we need lots of room, So when we get our nice new school! Construction begins-at the corner of Central and Robert streets. Steam shovels roar, pick-axes grate, and hammers ring. Doors of the new school swing open for the first time-Six hundred eager students take possession of uncarved desks. Grave-faced students file quietly into assembly. The silence is broken only by Mr. Lange's official announcement of the first principa1's death. M-e-c-h-a-n-i-c-s! Fight! Team! Fight! bursts from the new gym. Shouts one senior to another: 1'm thankful for two things: for the new gym. and be- cause we're rid of them pesky freshmen. 2168 high school students of varying creeds, colors, and ambitions pour in and out of familiar halls. Among the crowds bob occasional small figures with round childish faces. The freshmen are with us again. ln fifty years' time we have grown from a mere handful of students in a basement room to the second largest high school in the City of St. Paul, the progressive Republic of Mechanic Arts. Page 11 -1896 -1897 Iune -1909 November -1911 April 41916 February 41929 11937