Reading Memorial High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Reading, MA)

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THE PAST A student entering Reading High many years ago found a far different place from the R. H. S. of today. Outside, the building is much the same, but on the inside many changes have occurred not only because of rather crowded conditions and the ravages of time. The pupil of yesterday fol¬ lowed a less flexible program of studies, enjoyed a different variety of activities, and had fewer class¬ mates and teachers. On the next few pages, trace briefly with us the story of the beginnings of the Reading School System and of the infant days of the present R. H. S.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS PAST.7-10 FACULTY.11-16 SPORTS.17-30 UNDERCLASSES.31-37 ACTIVITIES. 38-52 SENIORS.53-86 FUTURE.87-89

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’STUDY THE PAST IF YOU WOULD DIVINE THE FUTURE Our schools of today are built on the experience of yesterday. The first record of a school in Reading dates back to 1693, when the town voted that a free school be kept. The sum of four pounds was allotted for a three- months ' school. The first school master appointed was Nicholas Lynde, who had been graduated from Harvard in 1690. Eighteen years later, in 1708, the first schoolhouse was built. This small one-room building was located at the corner of the present Washington and Woburn Streets. The school master, Mr. John Webb, was paid thirty pounds a year to teach reading, writing, Latin, and Greek. In 1793 came the first appointment of a School Committee to care for all school business. It was not until 1856 that a high school came into being, when the Center School District of Reading purchased a building called Union Hall and rented it to the town for use as a high school. The first class, consisting of four members, Frederic Bancroft, Esther Emerson, S. Maria Parker, and Lena A. Wakefield — all possessors of old Reading names —- was graduated in 1863. It was very soon evident that a new building was needed, and in 1867 Reading dedicated as a high school the building which is now known as the Center School, located beside the Methodist Church, near the Common. Seven years before the turn of the century, in 1893, Reading appointed a Superintendent of Schools, who was to devote two-fifths of his time to Reading and three-fifths to Wakefield. As the town grew, the number of high-school pupils increased until, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the town had outgrown the facilities of the Center School, then operating on a two-platoon system. As a result, on March 7, 1904, the town meeting voted to buy land between Sanborn and Linden Streets for $8,000. Slightly less than a year later, $1,500 was voted for plans, and on June 28, 1905, came the major appropriation of $85,000 for the building itself. Ground was broken in August of 1905, and the first brick was laid two months later. On November 13, 1905, a metallic box containing the school reports, the course of study, a list of pupils and teachers, and pictures of Reading was laid in the foundation with great ceremony. The construction of the sixty-eight foot by one hundred fifty-seven foot building of Georgian design progressed rapidly, and on September 15, 1906, an open-house was held. An unexpectedly large crowd of between fifteen hundred to two thousand townspeople came to inspect this new, modern school, which fortunately was large enough to accommodate approximately two hundred more than the two hundred eighty pupils enrolled. Two days later the school opened its classroom doors to pupils for the first time. Typical of the many comments made was that written by Dr. A. E. Winship, editor of the Journal of Education. Th e new High School house is one of the best, and one of the best equipped and appointed in the state. Indeed, I know of none better for the size and wealth of the Town in the country. The money has gone for the latest and best for school purposes, rather than for ornamentation. It is as valuable for its purposes as some High School buildings that have cost $50,000 more. When the present high school opened, most students followed an academic program of studies. However, the new school contained both a typewriting room and a commercial room, providing improved facilities for instruction in typewriting and stenography, both of which had been introduced into the curriculum just before the turn of the century. In the same year that the 8