Streator Township High School - Hardscrabble Yearbook (Streator, IL)

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ARDSCRABBLE 2 23 Our High School as a Communi Asset W. D. WALDRIP, A. B. Principal T one time high schools were supposed to do nothing but prepare students for college. If we care to go hack further, there was a time when high schools were only to prepare for the lVlinist1'y. But times are changing, and so are educational ideals. More and more our secondary school education is getting to be a preparatory time for life in the home community. We feel now that we are the college and university for the major share of the young men and women of our community, and as such we must prepare for life in Streator and the sur- rounding communities. Our many branches of school work will easily enable us to do all this and more. We learn to serve our community in many ways-we boost-we work-we create public sentiment-we raise the standard of thought in our homes-we strive to make Streator the best city in the land. Is not this a large undertaking? Yes, but if we all strive in the right direc- tion, social unrest will disappearg class distinction will become unknowng religious fanaticism will fade away. Our motto is a better Streator, for all-all for Streator and Streator for all. W. D. WALDRIP. Page Twclvc v 77 1'

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ARDSCRABBLE 923 C-lbe Hardscrabble Spirit HE Streator Township High School has made a record of honorable achievement, from that day in the fall of 1875 when a few young people constituted the first local high school, which was located on South Bloomington Street where the Garfield School is now found. ' And the end of that honorable achievement is not yet. At that early date the city of Streator was known as Hardscrabble, and that is truly what the first high school students did to pave the way to better high school facilities. It seems that this is a Streator High School tradition, and no microscope in the biological room is powerful enough, I am sure, to detect the vital germ in some of our traditions that makes them catch and spread. From the first site the high school moved to Mr. Samuel Plumb's bank building Know part of the Free Pressj and in 1878 this place was left for rooms in the old Methodist Church, on the spot where the Baptist parsonage now stands, where it was located until 1882, when it was housed permanently in the present main building fto be torn down this summerl on a block square campus-both the generous gift of Col. Ralph Plumb, who in the days when Streator was yet Hardscrabble was manager of its first coal mine. The day of the dedication of the then new high school building was a memorable one in the school's history. Col. Plumb said in his presentation speech: It is my cheerful contribution to the aid of that system of popular education controlled and conducted under state laws on which the people of the republic may largely depend for the permanency of our institutions. Mr. A. P. Wright, who accepted the gift in behalf of the township, expressed the feeling of the people in the words: Happy is that community which numbers among its citizens those who possess both the mind and the means to do good. By 1902 the growth of the school made necessary the building of the then generous addition which arranged for the comfortable accommodation of about four hundred students, and now in 1923 work is- being started on the newer and greater S. H. S. Friday, April 13 Knot such an unlucky day after allll a contract for the new building was signed with Mr. E. L. Damon, contractor, who has charge of the supervision of the erection, and the first actual work on the newer and larger Streator High School was started. Ground was first broken in the week following. The new school building is being built on the same site where the present building stands.- but it will extend to nearly a block in floor plan and will be in the form of a capital E with the wings of the letter facing Madison Street. The old south portion will be incorporated in the new school, and only the walls of this section will be used, the interior being completely changed. The gymnasium will be built in the north wing, and a space for the swimming pool will be left, since finances will not permit construction of the pool at the same time. A balcony for spec- tators, seating more than fifteen hundred people, will be built, so that it will not be necessary to use space on the playing fioor for the accommodation of the fans. Another much needed feature will be the auditorium, which is to be built in soon after the completion of the building, and which will have a seating capacity of nearly two thousand. The new building will be three stories in height, and will be constructed for service pri- marily. The basement will be built partly above ground so that it can be spoken of as the first fioor. The second floor will be devoted to the auditorium, class rooms and gymnasium, while the third fioor will be built for class rooms and study rooms, space being left in the attic for a rehearsal room for the orchestra and chorus. The sketch on the opposite page is a drawing by A. L. Pillsburg of Bloomington, the de- signer of the new school building, and although a few changes may have to be made, it is a like- ness of the school that will be ready in two years time for the future high school students. Although the class of nineteen twenty-three would have liked to have been in the new school, they have found a great deal of enjoyment in the old building and in helping push the plans for the erection of the new one. Future students of S. H. S. should realize what possibilities they may enjoy, use them, inherit the S. H. S. Hardscrabble characteristics, and carry on! Page Eleven 1- ,l -,JA in ' .4-I -

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ARDSCRABBLE W 9 23 V w 1 r First Row-Marie Honeywell, Rachael Bradish. Second Row-Colette McFadden, George Gillert, Lowell Dale, Wilma Buckles. Third Row-Margaret Hall, Hazel Look, Elberta Llewellyn, Della Lewis. Fourth Row-Evangeline Nicholas, Clara Colwell, Vera Lohrman, Esther Cowan. Page Thirteen