Palo Alto High School - Madrono Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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1897 T0 1947 @© B99 In July, 1894, a little group of Palo Altans, ledebyeMrsAs beZschokke, Prof.) Gs D. Marx, and Mr. D. L. Sloan, met to discuss the possibilities of establishing a high school here. Largely through their efforts, Palo Alto High School was founded two months later. From the very beginning, Stanford Uni- versity was a driving force behind the pro- ject, helping to supply the necessary teach- ers and prescribe the course of study. As a result of this, graduates of the high school who received the principal’s recommenda- tion were invited to enter Stanford without taking an examination. Dr. David Starr Jor- dan, then head of the university, was from Cornell, as were many of the early high school teachers recommended by him. Palo Alto High School was to follow Eastern scholastic traditions and become the first high quality public school in the West. This influence lasted for some twenty years, while Stanford remained under Dr. Jordan, but then pulled away from the old university charted course and began to follow the lines of other state-sponsored schools. On September 13, 1894, Palo Alto High School opened with an enrollment of twenty pupils, who paid six dollars a month tuition. Two upper rooms of the old public school on Channing Avenue, torn down in 1926, were used, and the original faculty was comprised of Mr. Glanville Terrell, Principal; Mr. M. W. Greer, and Miss Margaret Foster, all highly recommended by Stanford. In 1897 the high school was crowded out of the public school, originally intended for gram- mar school students, and forced to use a private building, erected for this purpose by Mrs. Zschokke a foremost proponent of the high school. Occupied by the school until 1901, this building, remodelled as a residence, is still standing at 526 Forest Avenue. The second semester of Palo Alto High School's first year, 1894-1895, saw thirty- five pupils enrolled. The original three years of the course were called Junior, Middle, and Senior, and were divided into ‘Classical’ and ‘Modern Language” courses. Students were expected to take one or the other for all three years. There were no science or vocational courses. The chief aim of the high school was to prepare the students for college; items not directly connected with this aim were excluded. The Live Oak stated in 1897, “The excellent standing with which the pioneer graduating class entered the uni- versity this semester will tend to increase the favor which our high school has already gained, and the proficiency of the present crops of teachers will add greatly to the value of the school.” Extra-curricular activities, moreover, were not absent from school life, and as early as April, 1896, Paly High had a baseball team. In October, 1897, a football team was or- ganized. In November, the high school eleven, according to the Times, ‘suffered an overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Manzanita Team .... the score being 14 to 0, and the losing eleven quitting about the middle of the second half.” The article went on to say, ‘There will be no games between the two teams in the future, as it has ceased to be valuable practice for Manzanita, and has proved too discouraging to the High School.’ Social activities were also being held, and the “programme” of a dance given by one of the first senior classes listed a grand march, three schottisches, two polkas, three waltzes, and the lancers. Commence- ment exercises were probably the most im- portant social functions of the year. Inciden- tally, in the old days each class had its own Latin motto and its colors. In 1900 the High School Board called for “offers and prices of real estate suitable for the High School site, in lots of not less than one quarter nor more than one full block,” and ‘competitive plans for a high. school building of six rooms, with seating capacity for not less than two hundred pupils, and suitable offices, halls, closets, with heating apparatus, and basement laboratory with cost not to exceed thirteen thousand dollars.” One year later, on April 8, 1901, the new high school building was dedicated. Comp- leted and furnished at a total cost of twenty thousand dollars, the building, which was the first built by Palo Alto for use exclus- ively as a high school, is known to many today as Channing Avenue School, and so needs little further description. In 1909 the wooden gymnasium was added at a cost of three thousand, four hundred and thirty-one

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FEET 600 4060 200 ° 200 400 I. First public school — where Telephone Co. is at pres- ent. As pictured, the building was a small, wooden frame with a flag pole. It was erected by the carpenters in town in 1894. II. The first high school classes were held in the second story of this grammar school building, which stood where the Channing soccer field is now. III. This is the location of the fiirst separate high school building. It was donated by Mrs. Zschokke in 1897 for use 6 EVOLUTION PALOZALTO Santa Clara County California as a high school until the city could build one of its own. It is still standing as a remodelled home in its original loca- tion of 526 Forest. For a picture, see page nine. IV. Channing school was the first city high school. It was erected in 1901 for a cost of twenty thousand five hundred dollars. V. Our own Palo Alto Senior High School was built hav US)iN ts).

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dollars. The four-year high school course was also inaugurated about this time. October of 1901 saw the appearance of a literary magazine called the Red and Green. Published monthly by the high school stud- ents, it cost them fifty cents. The name was soon changed to Madrono, and in 1903, to The Sphinx. The title Madrono was re- adopted in 1904, however, and was retained by the monthly until the advent of the Camp- anile in 1918, At the end of each school year, a graduation issue of the Madrono, which served as a yearbook, was put out. But this was not Paly’s first publication. In fact, as early as 1895, a paper, called The Palo Alto Statement, was printed, and even before this, the paper was written by the editors and read before the school. In November, 1901, the student body was organized and all the pupils “of regular standing’ could become members. There were about 110 in attendance at the time. In 1911 the first Student Body Officers included a president, first and second vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer, Madrono editor, Mad- rono manager, property clerk, three auditors, and a yell leader. A real proponent of stu- dent body government, Mr. Nichols started it on its present scale at Paly, when it was practically unheard of, and made it work. A few years later the commissioners began to come into existence, along with the elected student council, which was provided for by a 1920 amendment. The 1921 commission- ers were general welfare and safety, finance and revenue, entertainment (the first com- missioner of entertainment was a boy), and IAEA AY Ng NE TO Nar literary activities. Later that year the com- missioners of girls’ activities and school betterment were added, followed in 1935 by boys’ activities and girls’ athletics; the office of commissioner of boys’ athletics was created sometime in the intervening period. In these early days of the school, when “23 Skidoo” was the byword, people went to high school to get an eduaction and not for recreation. Schooling was strict, and be- cause Paly was small, the faculty could keep careful track of the students, and anyone with poor grades was dropped from school. Life was not without its pleasures, however, and the town’s one policeman was no men- ace in the horse and buggy days. Although Palo Alto was definitely a college town and © Stanford activities were prominent here, the local lads had their hangouts, known as “Stick”” Wilson's and Larkin’s Cigar Store. With top wages being 10 cents an hour, spending 50 cents on a date was extravagant. But then sodas were only a dime, and one could get into the movies for a nickel. At the few dances, well lighted and chaperoned, a local woman would play waltzes and two steps on a piano, the same tunes over and over, from eight until eleven. There were no dance dates; instead, fellows made out pro- grams of the girls with whom they wanted to dance. Old Jordan Hall, which stood on Ramona Street, usually held these high school dances. Although horse and buggy trips to San Mateo and nearby points were not uncommon, the only way to go any dis- tance was by train, and round trip tickets to San Francisco would cost one dollar. The fellows and girls, however, were satisfied to To the left is the first city-owned, seperate senior high school—now Channing Grammar School. To the right is the old grammar school building, in whose second story the first high school classes were held.