Pontiac Senior High School - Quiver Yearbook (Pontiac, MI)

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I . .i3flT','T.fI Q YESCEQ-. 1 3 2 A Q Q 4 4 Ai The Story of Pontiac High School 1-IE PONTIAC Company composed of conscientious, industrious, and practical New Englanders realized the need of education in the flourishing village of Pontiac. Their children were growing, some were marrying and then other people were moving to their beautiful location on the Clinton River. Should these young people and their children go uneducated? Out of this question grew the Pontiac Academy, incorporated in 1833. A frame building was erected to house this institution on the Northwest corner of Huron and Saginaw Streets where the National Bank now stands. School was conducted on the second floor and the first was used as the Presbyterian Church. In 1837 it became a branch of the University of Michigan. Professor George XVilliam was the only principal and teacher, having 30 to 35 students. Three years after its founding the school was dis- continued from lack of interest. Many schools sprang up in our village. In old records we find mention of Pontiac Literary Institute, Academy Educational Society, Oakland Female Seminary, Pontiac In- stitute, Pontiac English and Classical School, Young Ladies' Select School. These seldom lasted over one year. In the Jacksonian,' 1843, a Pontiac weekly of the period, we hnd the first mention of the Pontiac High School, which was held in Academy Hall. From the advertisements we discover that the year was divided into four terms of eleven weeks each. The tuition, we find, ranged from three dollars per term for reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and English grammar, to five dollars a term for Latin, Greek, and French. In '49, Pontiac, being ashamed of its backward educational facilities, built the Union School, later called Old Union, on the site of the present Central School. This building was used as our high school until 1871 when, because of its size, the high school was moved to Oak Grove on the corner of State and Huron Streets. On the beautiful plot old Grove High Schoolv was built. The school was considered the finest in the state of Michi a . I k h 'l ' f ' ' g n t too t ree years to bui d it, and vias about the size of two of our session rooms put side by side. This building was nearly square, had three stories, and a tower of one hundred feet high in front. The hrst floor was occupied by grade children, the second by the high school, and the third was a lecture room or auditorium. There were two ses- sion rooms, the one for the boys was supervised, very strictly, by the principal, and the one for the girls by the vice-principal. For many years Miss McCarroll held this position. In 1876 there were 132 in high school. The largest graduation class to 1900 was in '91 when 26 received their diplomas. The number of students grew rapidly with the population of Pontiac until it was necessary to build another high school in 1914. The present high school was constructed on the place where the former school stood. It is built in the shape of an NH. It contains 45 completely furnished recitation rooms, 4 session rooms, with seating capacity of 200 each, a large auditorium, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, and a fine library. Since this time, by the addition of an industrial building and boys' gym, Pontiac High School offers a complete preparatory course for almost any line of work. Scholastically, Pontiac is rated very high. In the last few years it has carried home honors from the Mt. Pleasant contest. In 1931 Pontiac won Hrst place. With a strong administration and faculty, the school fulfills the function for which it was built. Each makes history. XVhat will the future bring? fl , -llllll I I

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J -i .. ' .L . -as 4 -A . fi feefifnili- Alt. A is gal, 1.1 I l,,lf, ' .. A. L. BRANNACK, M. D. Dc-Iwi! College of Mrdirim- Harvard Columbia School Physician MARGARET LEHMAN Ofhce Clerk ,,, ,AL t ERNEST A. Cook, fi M. D., A. B. y UHll'f'l'Sffy of Miubigilfl 5 ii ff Drlroil collage of NIvJiL'i11c . H I and Surgery ' Ass't School Physician 1 w MARGUERITE C. LAHIFF Ofhce Clerk MRS. MARY C. CHRISTIAN Yjnilafzfi Normal Ar! Iusiitntr, Chicago R, I. Srfaoal of Design Art mr. llamwa Hnhermnnh d E L Bixb Hos iral, Adrian, On March 13, 1932, Mr. James Underwood die in mma . ' y p h f bi l ' P tiae Hi h School for five years. Mr. Under- Michigan. He was a teac er o io ogy in on g wood was born in Hudson, Michigan, on April 25, 1882. He received his preparatory d d t d from Olivet College in 1908. education in the rural schools -of Hudson an gra ua e h' D ort, Iowa, and in Pontiac. ln Davenport he He taught in Negaunee, Mic igan, avenp was assistant principal of the high school and while there, he organized the Davenport f b in a ver competent science Teachers' Club. In Pontiac he earned the reputation o e g y - Cl hours in res arch and nature study to give instructor. Mr. Underwoo spent many e L to his students the best that he could. Besides his beautiful home relations, James Under- 'd f the Olivet Alumni Club and a wood was active in other things. He was presi ent o member of the Congregational Church. h' ' 't , a trait which made His most pronounced characteristic was is utmost sinceri y h k w him intimately. In him was no decep- him loved by anyone fortunate enoug to no tion. His promised way to do it. word was to him a sacred thing, to be kept if there was a possible His unconquerable will to carry on, his determination to fight to the last in a just cause, his fa ithfulness to his friends, his devotion to his family and his self-denial,-these constituted the man you would have discovered and loved if you had known him. .,Q,5,L A ' 3 - - 51' l'.J I i

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