Polytechnic High School - Polytechnic Student Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Thirty-four years ago a commercial depart- ment was instituted in the Los Angeles High School, with W. H. Wagner, still a member of our faculty, the first teacher appointed. One hundred and ten pupils comprised the enroll- ment. In 1896 the de- partment was placed un- der the supervision of Mr. John H. Francis, and was transferred to the second floor of the California Street School building, located back of the old L. A. High School on North Hill Street. Two years were required to complete the course, which included bookkeeping, arithme- tic, English, spelling, stenography, typewrit- ing, commercial geog- raphy, and penmanship. Six boys and six girls were in the first class graduated from this de- partment. Attendance in this commercial department increased rapidly and in 1901 a special building was erected on Hill Street opposite L. A. High. This building cost $10,000 and accommodated 600 students. It was filled to capacity from the first. The course was extended to three years, and Spanish, drawing, and civics added. Among the fifteen members of the faculty Mr. Wagner, Mr. Faithfull, Mr. Twining, and Mr. Locke are still teaching at Polytechnic. Miss Kate Smith and Miss Bertha Sanborn, who left only a year or two ago, also taught in this school. In the beginning the citizens of Los Angeles considered the Commercial High School only an experiment. But under the leadership of Mr. Francis, a man of broad vision, a dreamer of dreams that come true, the little school so developed that in 1904 the Administration Building 414]H-

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name was changed to Los Angeles Polytech- nic High School and the course extended to in- clude additional sub- jects much as they now are. Bonds were voted for the purchase of grounds for the main building, although the people of the community gener- ally thought that they would have a white elephant on their hands. But in spite of the prediction that the auditorium would be filled with spiderwebs before it was filled with people, students were so eager that when school opened in September they began to come on Saturday to wait in line for the opening on Mon- day morning. They slept in blankets and their food was brought them by their families. For a few years the new buildings accom- modated Poly ' s stu- — dents, but by 1908 her numbers were so increased that the site for the art building was purchased. Plans for the structure were drawn by the students of the architectural department. Former President Taft turned over the first shovel full of dirt, and when school opened in 1905, the building was ready to be occupied. In 1906 Polytechnic made an important addition to her faculty. Mjss Katharine B. Ross became the first girls ' vice-principal. In 1908 Mr. Dunn, then a teacher in the science department, took the place of Mr. Birney H. Donnell, former vice-principal. Poly could not keep the Big Chief long, however, for Mr. Francis accepted the position of Superintendent of City Schools in 1910. Mr. Dunn became principal. As Mr. Francis is known to the older alumni as the Big Chief, so Mr. Dunn is spoken of by the younger alumni as Daddy Dunn, kind, helpful, and sympathetic. Mr. Willis A. Dunn, Principal €15