South High School - Tiger Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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ma VIEWS OF THE NEW ADDITION

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building of her own. The first president of the Hoard of Education. the scholarly Prof. Sven Oftedal, has more than once told me the story of how he helped secure a high school for North Minneapolis that he might thus force the Board to give South Town an equal privilege. It was a hitter cold day, the Monday following the Christmas vacation in early 1893, that the new structure opened its doors for the first time. It was a memorable day in the annals of South High; it was an historical event in the history of South Minneapolis. Early on that morning the student body, then numbering 250, assembled for the last time in the old Adams. In procession, headed by principal and teachers (Miss Klampe still with us), they marched across lots, where but a few years before had been a cow-path leading across the prairie, to the new building on Cedar Avenue. I)r. Jordan had at the beginning of the school year assumed the Superintendency anil Prof. C. I.. Sawyer had been chosen principal of the new high school. South Minneapolis was proud of the new structure with its prepossessing tower, its spacious class-rooms, and its fine auditorium on the third floor, with a seating capacity of 996. Years passed. Prof. A. X. O .ias succeeded Prof. Sawyer. The school outgrew its domicile, and during his time a strip of the auditorium had to be sacrificed and made into class-rooms. In September, 1909, Prof. Joseph Jorgens came to fill the place vacated by Prof. Ozias. The congestion had now become so great that the remaining part of the auditorium had to be converted into class-rooms, green curtains strung on wires serving as partitions. What had formerly been a sorely felt need became an urgent demand. During that year, whenever the occasion demanded a mass-meeting, the student body assembled in the hall on the second Hoor, standing closely huddled together as packed sardines or seated on the floor in a seething mass. You may therefore imagine that there was true rejoicing when, in January live years ago, our present magnificent auditorium was first thrown open for the mid-year graduation, the manual training wing, and the commercial department having been put into use the previous September. Again the rapidly growing school is knocking at the door of necessity, asking for more breathing space. The towering walls to the South give assurance of the fulfillment of the promise. As the old school has stretched out in a vain attempt to keep pace with the spirit of the institution, so may each student help build upward, outward and onward, thus adding fresh laurels to Alma Mater. “Too low they build, who build beneath the stars.” I I 14 I

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THE HIGH COST OF NEW CLOTHING Helen R. Fisii “Al’I’ORV of creation of world told in 300 words: try it, was the message received by a cub reporter who had wired his editor for more space. Cowed by like editorial warning, I undertake to compress the history of the new building to the space of one of its own bricks. When South I ligh was in its scrambling teens, the Hoard of Education wished to keep it still in short trousers, hut there were those who had a more manly vision. So the plan of “letting out by the addition of a few class rooms and an auditorium for 600 was changed to the long-trousered effect of an auditorium for 2,000, a lunch room, a gymnasium, commercial and manual training departments. 1 lardlv were the new clothes donned, however, than the lusty high school cried for more. Classes were dangling out of sleeves, halls bursting at the seams, pockets bulging with stray teachers. Still the Board, deceived by Mr. Jorgens’ skilful Gary system of pressing, pronounced the clothes a perfect lit. Moreover, they pointed out that there was no money, since East and West wanted shoes and Central must have a whole new suit. Southtown was roused. Mass meetings were held. Wires were kept hot and tempers too. Mr. Jorgens and the men of the faculty were oftener at the legislature than at school. Committees rose anil fell, “and some of ’em was brave, and some was not,” and at last when our pattern was chosen and the samples in our pockets— North High’s entire wardrobe burned! South I ligh must wait! We waited. Meanwhile, East and West, who had been put off with new neckties, began to clamor. It looked like a return to knickerbockers for everybody, until those who believed in better raiment renewed the light. They won. South I ligh’s $250,000 suit is even now being made. It is not beautiful, but as our mothers say, it is “strong and warm, and of a size befitting so tall a youth. I o those who know the history of the hopes, ambitions and struggles that went into its acquiring, it seems such stuff as dreams are made of. All right with thr world!” ( 16] Sec page IJ4, Nov. 12.