Park Ridge High School - Hoot Yearbook (Park Ridge, NJ)

Page 12 text:

l The New School The Park Ridge High School, which has been our Alma Mater for the past four years, was built in 1908. Since that time, the membership of the school has steadily increased each year, due to the admission of more and more students from the adjoining towns. Now, with our breadth of curriculum and our skill in athletics, we stand among the foremost high schools of the country. It was one June morning in 1920, just before the final examinations were to take place that we arrived in the neighborhood of the school onlv to find the beloved building in ru'ns! We could hardly believe our eyes. All those well- known rooms were so vivid in our minds! Each time we looked at the blackened walls, still standing in some places, the smoke still rising from the awful scene, we received as great shock as if we saw it for the first time. Surely it must be a dream! we told ourselves. but it proved to be only too real. Becoming less dazed, we realized our sad loss: We found out for the Hrst time how much we really cared for that building, and it was gone, now gone beyond a doubt. Nothing at all had been saved, for it had burned very early in the morning. Will anyone of us ever forget how he felt as he approached the spot where the school had stood? Even when we looked away, the horrible picture kept returning to our minds, filling us anew with grief. However, Mr. Schmerber, after calling us together in the Volunteer Fire Hall. spoke of our great loss, but said we must continue the school year at all events. We lost only half a day because of the fire. Mrs. Leach generously offered the use of her home as a high school until the new one should be ready. Now we have spent two years there, conducting high school in spite of rather cramped conditions. 8

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Hoot Staff james Tatem Roger ter Kuile Owen T. Clarke Alan Kyle . Reinold ter Kuile Ruth Baillie . Lillian Engle William Mullan Arno Pause Dorothy lhnen Henry Pisacano Nlargaret O'Brien Russell Anstey Helen Odell . lVIyrtle Stark Hazel Hayden Bessie . Editor-in-Clzieyf Afss't. Editor-in-Chiqf Business Manager Afss't. Business Mgr. . ll CC CC Literarv Editor . Afss't. Literarv Ed. CK CK CC Advertising Manager ,4ss't. ffdfv. Mgr. . Treasurer Art Editor Asst Art Editor . Staf Stenegraplzer dss't. Staf Stenog. CK KC CK

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'nw uL4 We are very much encouraged when we see the new school which is now being erected. Our new school will be mu'h larger and more pretentious in appearance than the old building. lt is one of the most modern schools in this part of the state. The dignity of the structure is greatly increased by the portico and six massive columns the height of the building. One of the greatest attractions is the gymnasium. It is an airy, spacious room in the basement, and will have all the modern equipments of a healthful. enioyable gym . Surely none of us will want to shirk physical training in such a pleasant gymnasium. The basement will also contain attractions in the form of a machine room. a manual training room, and a domestic science room. The pursuit of such studies will be very pleasant to break the monotony of constant study with books. Then, of course, they will have a very practical value to all of us who take advantage of them. Up on the second floor, we find the Biology. Chemistry, Physics, and Science Laboratories. which will make scientific courses much more attractive. Those who study the sciences in well equipped laboratories will be able to understand them much more readily than we, who have had to rely entirely upon text books. Science will take on a new and more interesting aspect. Special rooms are also devoted to Stenography, Bookkeeping and Type- writing, which will make the commercial subjects more interesting. This school is being rapidly built and it is expected that it will be finished by September, 1922. Undoubtedly it will be one of the best, if not the best school of its kind in the state. It will be just as practical as it is attractive. for it will give the best, most modern methods of education. Surely it will grow even more rapidly than did the former school, and will uphold the time- honored standards of Park Ridge High School. 9