South High School - Tiger Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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kept streaming in with the beginning of each new semester, and construction was started on a new junior and senior high school in the district. It was later named Roosevelt and with its opening in 1922 it considerably relieved the congestion at South. But the breathing spell that came with the transferring of a great number of its pupils to the new school was but temporary, and Mr. Iorgens with his usual fore- sight was already coping with the problems that were destined to arise. As early as 1924 a definite program for future improvements was outlined. It included the construction of a new gymnasium and of a chorus room to seat 400 students, the improvement of the athletic field, and the alteration of the auditorium to make it fireproof and suitable for production of plays. So determined was Mr. Iorgens to carry into effect that program that by 1927 these improvements and additions were no longer a dream but a reality. In profound appreciation of what Mr. Iorgens had done for South High and for the community, the alumni presented to the school on April 21, 1931 a large portrait painting of him. Especially proud was South of the completion of its athletic field. Since 1920 the school and the community had been mobilized to push to completion the plans for the athletic field. Proceeds from class plays, vaudevilles, alumni plays, and benefit performances, gifts from different student organizations, graduating classes, and the sales of S buttons, tags, candy and stamps-such contributions helped to raise the 31,200 for the improvement of the field. The gateway of the field was dedicated as a memorial to the South High boys who gave their lives in the world war. Such was the physical growth of South High. In four decades it grew from an institution which had its birthplace in a garret of a school, with a few small rooms and a handful of teachers instructing a few students, into an institution that today, even with half of its original district, has a faculty of nearly 100, a student body numbering nearly 3,000, and facilities for the teaching of such courses as Art, Book- keeping, Botany, Cooking, Cabinet Making, Electricity, Forge, Gas Engines, and Pattern Making, as well as academic and commercial subjects. The strides South has made in its physical growth were not only equalled but were considerably surpassed by the progress it made in the field of education itself. Its most conspicuous advancement was made under the administration of Mr. Ior- - j A5 .vp Q Ai ! I 2 i231

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commercial courses at the present time. The exceptional students in this department receive valuable training by doing stenographic work for the assistant principal, the attendance department, and the school publications. The next addition, the auditorium wing, was completed in 1911 and a welcome addition it was to students of South High. Long since had they outgrown what in the beginning was an unusually large assembly room. The auditorium was made to seat 1913 persons. The wisdom of constructing an auditorium to seat that number was at hrst questioned and looked upon as unreasonable, but before even a decade had run its course, that capacity was outgrown until today an auditorium seating again as many would just accommodate the students in school. Below the auditorium, in the basement, was constructed the gymnasium with an elevated running track. A wooden partition, which could be rolled up, divided the gymnasium so that one side could be used by the boys and the other by the girls. Swiftly and steadily grew the enrollment. It soon exceeded the capacity of all the departments and there was a crying need for more recitation rooms, larger science rooms, and suitable quarters for a library. To relieve that condition the third addi- tion was constructed in 1916. This addition contained thirty-seven recitation rooms, science laboratories, an immense lunch room for students, a greenhouse, and a library. The library especially was a gratifying addition. Its growth is typical of the growth of the school. In the beginning the library consisted of nothing more than two tables placed between the two iron pillars on the second Hoor in front of the ofiice. On these tables were a few reference hooks. Later it was moved in to what is now the Southerner office and the glass partition was erected so that the librarian could observe the conduct in the library while she taught class. Today the library has grown into something of an institution containing 11,000 volumes, 45 monthly magazines, 15 weelilies and governmental pamphlets. Two librarians and a corp of student assistants minister to the needs of approximately five hundred students who daily use the library. Time marched on and the enrollment continued to mount. Fortunately months before, it became apparent that there was no stemming the tide of new students that HENNEPIN Avis. mom FIF'fH ST. xg 'A nmimw our All . A 4 . o1H.f THE 1933 TIGER rzzi

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gens. In the quarter of a century that he has directed its affairs, South has been in the forefront with a great number of its activities. Most of the honors it has won are discussed more fully in the sections on activities and on organizations of this volume but briefiy summarized a few of the distinctions and achievements are the following: The Tiger, the student annual, has won an All-American rating in 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, and 1932, the awards being made by the National Scholastic Press Association. The Southerner, the student newspaper, has received from the National Scholastic Press Association All-American ratings consecutively from 1924 to 1933 and from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association it has received the gold medal award, the highest to be given by that organization, annually since 1927. The Ioseph Iorgens chapter of Quill and Scroll, the International Honorary Society for High School Iournalists, the activities of which at South are closely linked with those of the school paper, was the first to sponsor an Authors' Tournament in American high schools. Glints in the Sand, an anthology of 150 pages containing poems, essays, stories, and plays written by South High students, is probably the first of its kind to be published on such a scale by an American high school. Published in 1928, it is now in its second edition. The South High Band, an organization of nearly one hundred instruments, won the state band championship in 1926, 1927, and 1928. Having won the championship three times in succession, it was not permitted to compete again until 1931 when it again won the state championship. In 1933 it won its fifth state contest. It also competed for national honors at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 19275 at Ioliet, Illinois, in 1928, and at Denver, Colorado, in 1929. The South High orchestra, with a personnel of more than sixty members, won the state championship in 1931. The Glee Clubs of South High point with pride to the list of distinguished operettas they have presented within recent years. In addition to those by Gilbert ON THE FACULTY UNDER Foitiu-'it Pitixc:lr1.u.s Tm' ROW-Keatley, Sh:ara'omt'n, Klmnpv, Fish. BOTTOM ROW-Barlo-Zu, furgens, Ffic'fll11mlr'r. 'P' ' :, 7 5 ' on law' mr I I 4 MHH l e THE 1933 TIGER I2-I I