Pratt High School - Osage Yearbook (Essex, CT)

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PRATT HIGH SCH00l THE SENIOR CLASS PRESENTS THE THIRTEENTH CONSECUTIVE VCLUME OF THE USAGE ln Honor of DR. CHARLES H. HUBBARD Whose standards of tolerance, symp thy and understanding F th eeds ol youth have set F t sple d d example ol valor and t th

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TH ON THIS ANNIVERSARY OF

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A History of Pratt High School f 1892-1942, Fifty years ago in Essex the rivalry among the various churches was much more pro- nounced than it is today. The chief participants of this conflict were the Baptist and Con- gregational Churches. So keen was the competition that its influence .extended beyond re- ligious concerns and affected, among other things, the educational system of the town. The only school in Essex at that time which could be placed in the secondary class was Hill's Academy, owned and administrated by the Baptists. That the Baptists domi- nated anything, let alone a school to which they sent their children, irked all the Con- gregationalists and Captain Isaiah Pratt in particular. Captain Pratt decided to remedy this situation by placing an additional clause in his will. It was not until his death in 1892 and the subsequent probation of his will that the townspeople became aware of the Captain's action. He had left a trust fund for the erection and maintenance of a school of higher education which was to be called PRATT HIGH SCHOOL. A board of trustees was also named to administer the fund under the chairmanship of Dr. Hubbard, the leading doctor in the community, and one of its ablest citizens. And last, but not least, the will stipulated that only those children whose parents were members of the First Congregational Church of Essex might attend this school. Upon learning of this clause, Dr. Hubbard told the court that unless the terms of the will could be interpreted Very liberally he would have nothing to do with it, because he felt that any enterprise of this sort should be for the benefit of everyone and not just a select few. The local court appealed the case to the State which said that in interpreting a will, the court should only suppose that the maker had it in mind to make the best possible use of the means at his disposal. As only four OT five children would have been eligible to attend such a school, the state ruled that the clause under contest should be disregarded, but that each student whose parents were not Congregationalists must pay tuition. With this matter settled, Dr. Hubbard felt free to carry out the terms of the will. The first problem was to select a site for PRATT HIGH SCHOOL. The Trustees finally chose the lot at the corner of West Avenue and Grove Street, which had formerly been owned by Captain Pratt. The architect for the original building is believed to have been Charles E. Pratt, whose father was a member of the Board of Trustees. The plans specified that the school was to be built entirely of granite, but due to unforeseen additional expenses the second story of the building was made of wood. The two rooms which now comprise the Homemaking department were the main part of the original school. Later on, the second floor was finished off and rented to the town to be used as a grammar school until the completion of the town's own grammar school building in l907. Mr. Walter Foster was engaged by the Trustees as the first principal and teacher, and PRATT HIGH SCHOOL held its initial session in September, 1892 with a total enroll- ment of ten students. During these first years it was not easy for the new school to keep going partly be- cause of the general lack of interest in the town for high school education and also be- cause many townspeople did not wish to send their children to a school whose founder had been a bit narrow minded. It was due to Dr. Hubbard's able direction of the .school finances in those first years that PRATT is still in existence today. In 1903 Mr. Ernest M. Libby, who is now the president of the Board of Trustees, ac- cepted the principalship at PRATT. The Trustees had long had it in mind, as the funds 4