Mount Vernon High School - Forum Yearbook (Mount Vernon, OH)

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Mount Vernon s First High School Old Central Building Courtesy Clinton Willi Mount Vernon ' s first high school building, known as the Central Building, was situated at the corner of North Mulberry and West Hamtramck Streets. It was completed in 1859 and razed in 1925 so that the west wing of the present hi gh school building might be erected. On the third floor of this building was a very large room which was used as a gym, but was later converted into a large study hall. The teacher sat on a raised platform in the middle of the front of the room. There were two classrooms at the rear of this large room and the only access to them was through the study hall. Usually there were a number of students going and coming through this room all the time. 10

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levy taxes for the building of a school house in each district. Petitions were now brought to council asking that they provide facilities for teaching high school subjects, and an ordinance was passed to provide for appointment and election of a board of education consisting of six members. The first meeting of this regular board of education was held in April, 1856, and those present were Walter Smith, Samuel Israel, Henry Warden, Mark Curtis, Levi Ward, and Jacob Lybrand. From this time until the present day school administration passed forever out of the hands of council. The board elected to spend $10,000 for the erection of a central school building, and they paid George True 84,500 for eight lots on the west side of North Mulberry Street between West Hamtramck and West Burgess Streets. They also agreed to pay a maximum salary of $40 a month to male teachers and $25 for female instructors. This was considered quite a raise over the S22 formerly paid. On May 4, 1857, the Board resolved: As the sense of this Board, that it is expedient to erect a school edifice sufficiently large to accommodate all the scholars of the city, should it hereafter be thought for the interest of the city to con- centrate the entire system in one building . . . Auld and Miller, architects, designed a plan for a Union Central Building and bids were opened October, 1857. The bid of Henry Huller and Joseph Gardner was accepted, and the school was to be completed before August, 1859. The cost of the building including the lots and furniture came to $30,000. Although the school was begun in 1858, it was not ready for occupancy until October, 1859. For a time all the pupils of the city except those in the primary grades attended this large central building. As ward structures were com- pleted, the central building was finally con- verted into just a high school. The school year was ten months long divided into three terms. Besides the subjects now taught in high school, such impressive names as zoology, astronomy, geology, intellectual phil- osophy, moral philosophy, and elocution were in the curriculum. French and Greek were added if there was sufficient demand for them. The first commerical courses were ofifered about 1870 under the management of Captain H. Stevens! By 1897, the Central Building which had been erected on the corner of North Mulberry and West Hamtramck Streets had become too small for high school purposes, and another building was erected on the corner of North Mulberry and West Burgess Streets. No attempt was made to follow the type of architecture of the first building, but they were connected by a corridor. One of the outstanding features of this new structure was the large central hall into which the rooms on the first floor opened and the big fireplace at one end of the hall. Finally the school population soon out-grew these two buildings and wooden garage-like buildings were built at the rear to house indus- trial arts and home economics. By 1925 the fact became apparent that Mount Vernon must have a modern high school. So the old Central School was razed, and in its place the west wing of the present high school was erected. The building on the corner of West Burgess and North Mulberry was still in good condition despite its wooden floors and stairways, and it was converted into Mount Vernon ' s first junior high school bringing together all the seventh and eighth graders of the city into one school. This was done in 1927. In 1928 a combination auditorium and gymnasium was added to the rear of the high school. Both boys and girls used the gym and for the first time a girls ' physical education program was introduced as a part of the curri- culum. Sara Cannon was employed as girls ' physical education director, and Angus King was hired as boys ' physical education instructor and coach of all teams with no assistant coaches. In 1938 the voters approved a $360,000 bond issue for the building of the present high school. The erecting of this edifice necessitated the razing of the junior high school, and both junior and senior high school classes were taught in one building. This new building contained a boys ' gym, art and photography rooms, well equipped home economics rooms including a social room for small teas and dinners, a regular journalism room, a commercial area including a school bank, laboratories for chemistry, physics, biology and general science, visual aid facilities, music room, and a complete vocational agricul- ture department. By 1954 the 100 piece school band and the industrial arts section had out- Coiithiiiei! on last page

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Old Junior High This high school building was situated on the corner of Mulberry and Burgess Streets. It was built in 1897 and razed in 1938 when the present building was erected. From 1927 to 1938 it was used as the Junior High Building. Courtesy Clinton Williams 11