Parkesburg High School - Venture Yearbook (Parkesburg, PA)

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HISTORICAL INFORMATION The construction of the new Octorara Area High School will mean the end of Parkes- burg High School traditions and graduations. The 1956 class will be the last to pass out of P. H. S. This thought sends one into the records and a number of interesting facts appear. To date there have been sixty - one Parkesburg High School commencement exercises and more than a thousand boys and girls have been presented with P. H. S. diplomas. The school and the Alumni Association records disclose that the first graduates were presented diplomas in 1886. At these exercises one boy, Parke Torbert, and four girls, Eurie Strickland, Mary Gormley, Alice Irwin and Gertrude Sellers, graduated. The 1886 class as well as the 1887 and 1888 ones were actually graduated from grammar school since during that period eight grades were all there were in the system. Additional training had to be taken at a private school like the one conducted at Hillside on Chapel Avenue. Bessie Evans, class of 1893, was the first pupil to graduate from Parkesburg's two- year high school. This is counted as the fourth graduating class since no one graduated in the 1889-92 period. Nor were there any graduates in 1894 and 1895. There were eight graduates in 1896 but none in 1897 and 1898. Then there was no break until 1912. The reason for there not be- ing a 1912 class was creation of a four-year high which was to graduate five girls the next year. The members of this first four-year high school were: Mary Ross, Marguerite Mitchell, Elsie Black, Eva Devlin and Eva Freeman. Since that time P. H. S. has been turning out from eleven to thirty-five graduates each spring. The eleven graduated in 1915 while there were thirty-five graduated in both 1935 and 1941. The present Parkesburg School was put into service in January 1900. This red brick structure replaced a frame building which was located on an adjacent Main Street property. The frame school was destroyed by fire on June 23, 1898 and the school board had to take care of the emergency by renting rooms at the Moses Ross Building (now the Parkesburg Beverage, ) the J. Wilson Wright carriage shop on Rumford Street (First Avenue) and at the Elm Street School (now the home of school director Robert E. Barron, South Culvert Street. ) The board rejected the purchase of the former Parkesburg Academy property (Hillside) from W. A. Simpson and proposed a $20, 000 bond issue to erect a new building. The loan was approved by the voters by a seventy-one vote majority on November 8, 1898. The tax rate was in- creased from four and one-half to seven and one-half mills to help finance the building program. The present site, 135.35 front feet on Main Street, was purchased from Wright and Young for eight dollars per front foot or $1,802.80. The contract to build the brick school was awarded to a former board member, R. Preston Shoemaker, who submitted a bid of $17,170. Joseph Keft, of West Chester, did the grading for $1, 000; H. M. Windle laid the seventy-two concrete front steps for $634; and the Strasburg Avenue pavement was placed by I. W. Guest for seventeen and one-half cents per feet. J. P. Myers was principal at this time. There were six other faculty members to take care of the 350 pupils then enrolled. The principal's monthly salary was $75 while the teachers received $38, $42, and $48 per month. Janitor Cochran Stroup's monthly pay was $32. The seven members of the 1900 class were the first to graduate from the present school building. By 1908 the school enrollment had reached 440 pupils. Only a petition from a delegation of colored people kept the board from creating a separate school for the forty-three Negro pupils at the Bethany A. M. E. Church on Green Street. The school facilities were ex- panded by placing grade six in the Smith Guthrie Building (Parkesburg Beverage) on Main Street in 1909. The enrollment, now 459, included sixty-five first graders who attended only half sessions. A high school annex was proposed in 1909 but the board delayed the plan by a yearly shift of partitions which took care of the increasing enrollment. The nearby townships were sending pupils to the Parkesburg school and by 1914 the total enrollment reached 515. Seventy- nine were in the first grade and ninety-seven in the high school. The purchase of the former Parkesburg Academy was again considered but both it and the Seltzer's Hall (Odd Fellows Hall) deal were rejected. The board also had an optional proposal from William B. Smith, who offer- ed a building site on the south side of town.

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CLASS OF 1941. One of the two largest classes to be graduated from Parkesburg High School. CLASS OF 1934. Faculty members include the following who are still associated with P. H. S. : Mr. Buck, Mr. Minch, Mrs. Colman, Mr. Krumrine.

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Parkesburg voters approved of a $17, 500 bond issue on May 3, 1915 for the building of a high school annex. This thirty-year loan raised the school tax rate to nine and one-half mills. Clyde Adams served as architect and the annex contract awards totaled $16,484. They included; W. J. Elliott, general contract, $14,150 and plumbing, $100; C. B. Shearer, electrical, $280; and American Heating and Ventilating Co., $1,954. L. Y. Bollman was principal when the annex with its auditorium and five second floor classrooms was put into service. The fifteen members of the class of 1917 were the first to graduate from this addi- tion. Lloyd L. Coil became principal in the fall of 1917 and it was during his tenure that the faculty was expanded to eight grade teachers and seven high school instructors. New high school courses were domestic science and business. It was on a suggestion from Park- esburg Iron Company officials that the business course was inaugurated in the fall of 1917. The $65 monthly salary of the teacher, Pearl Grier, was paid by the iron company. Today the commercial course is taken by a vast majority of the high school students. The official opening of the domestic science department in the school basement took place on November 22, 1917. Phoebe Brown was the first instructor, being followed by Margaret Cover, Zella Potts , Mildred Barrick , Louella Jackson, Rachel Sutton and Ruth Trimble. The course was discontinued about twenty-five years ago but will be part of the new Octorara Area school curriculum. The science and language departments have a longer history although the laboratory was not too well equipped until a classroom was provided in the high school annex. A music department was organized when Fred Orth, of Coatesville, was engaged to start a school band. Before this time music had either been a classroom responsibility of the teacher or under a part-time teacher setup. Blaine Geyer succeeded Orth, becoming the first teacher-director. Instruments and uniforms were purchased largely through the efforts of the P. T. A. which had advocated this move in the early 1930's. Today the band and the chorus hold an annual Spring Concert. The latest specialized training course —a kindergarten — was inaugurated as part of the public school system during the 1948-49 term. Pauline Simmons Kauffman served as teacher. CLASS OF 1900 Left to right: Greta Entrekin Mullen Harriet Smith Wright John Glenn, Sr. Florence White Stauffer Elizabeth Parke DePrato Seated: Mabel Miller McMillen Not in picture: William Rice OPPOSITE PAGE T op: Senior Class Play, 1932 P.H. S. Band, 1940 Bottom: Basketball Team, 1927-28 First SCCL Champions, 1928-29