Strong Vincent High School - Spokesman Yearbook (Erie, PA)

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In September, 1891, the High School moved into its new quarters in the Central School Building at Eleventh and Sassafras Streets. The por- tion of the building extending from the Eleventh Street entrance to the tower was the original structure. At that time the High School occupied only seven rooms and the grade school the rest. Mr. Henry C. Missimer, who had been principal of the school in the old building since 1873, continued to do his splendid work in the new sur- roundings. “The old order changeth, giving place to new.” Naturally with the assuming of larger proportions and responsibilities a new order of things was instituted. The classes, which had formerly been seated in one room, were placed in seven rooms. To maintain unity, the school met twice a day, in the morning for opening exercises and talks by a member of the faculty and in the afternoon for transaction of business. The student body not only sang hymns every morning but met on Monday for vocal music practice. At this time there was a library containing about three hundred volumes, which record compared favorably with the other schools of the time. It is interesting to note the attitude of the general public toward the High School, which had not lost its novelty. An article in the “Erie Graphic,” November 29, 1891, gave the following editorial on the subject: “The Central High School building is turning out to be considerable of a The First High School—7th and Holland Streets 9

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From the Beginning — A History of Erie’s First High School Now, as she stands on the threshold of a strange and undecided des- tiny, what is more fitting than that Central shall pause at the top of the hill and survey in retrospection, her brilliant history? Some of her victories and defeats are a little dimmed by age, but how wonderful it is to be old, very old and wise. Ah yes, her outside shell is broken and crumbling but her spirit, her real self is only in its prime. Central is sixty-two years old. Nearly five thousand students have wended their way out into life from her portals, the vast majority of them successful and some famous. In the year 1866, the School Board decided to consolidate the higher classes of the three schools of the city in the third story of the School Building No. 2 at Seventh and Holland Streets. This was the beginning of the high school in Erie. As in all new projects, some molding and change characterized the first few years of its existence. An examination, including questions regarding fractions, United States money, boundaries of states and the names of twenty rivers and cities, was required for admission. However, the age of the student counted more than his standing in the examination. Although the new institution was called a high school the work covered during the first year was of elementary calibre. Soon advanced courses were added and the school’s thoroughness earned for it the reputation of one of the best schools in the country. It received words of commendation from President Eliot of Harvard. The High School, with its one hundred and forty-four students, occu- pied the first floor of the building and No. 2 School the rest. There were two sessions of four periods each, in those days, one from 9 to 12 and the other from 1:30 to 4:30. Two interesting customs of the old school were the exercises in Gen- eral Information and the Public Friday, both of which took place in the study hall before the school. A most entertaining feature of the program was the reading of the school diary which was kept by a student. There was one society, “The Volunteers” which had a two weeks’ camping trip every summer. Another prominent organization was the Chess Club. The first principal of the High School, Colonel J. M. Wells, was suc- ceeded by Mr. William Reed, who was in charge for two years. In Septem- ber, 1875, the school moved from its first quarters to the old Academy building at Ninth and Peach Streets, but in March, 1877, moved back to No. 2 School, where it remained until September, 1891. Progress was so rapid, that in 1869 the school was able to graduate its first class of two members, a boy and a girl. 8

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white elephant as was predicted by the Graphic at the time it was pro- jected. The high school portion of the building is cut up into small rooms holding fifty pupils each and there is no place for them to assemble except in the big hall on the second floor. This hall, however, is so large and low that the whole high school is lost in it and someone speaking from one end cannot be heard halfway down it. When it becomes necessary for a teacher to hear another class recite, the pupils in her home room are com- pelled to change from one room to another. The process of changing is so confusing that one of the members of the School Board described it as pigs in clover.” About 1895 the part of the building from the tower to the Tenth Street entrance was added to accommodate the increasing number of stu- dents. In 1891 it was practically all Central School and very little High School, but in 1904 it was very little Central School and nearly all High School. At first, graduation exercises were held at Central but as the school grew it became necessary to have them at the Opera House. As the primary section of the school diminished and the high school enrollment increased rapidly, people began to combine the names Central grade school and Erie High School and speak of it as Central High School. Gradually the name Erie High died out. One of the men identified with the early struggles of the High School was Assistant Principal James R. Burns who was called the “greatest friend and teacher of youth.” When Mr. John C. Diehl took over his duties as principal, the enrollment of the High School was over 1,000 stu- dents. Crowded conditions made it imperative that another school be built in the near future. In a few short years the High School had increased from a hundred or more pupils to over a thousand. Soon plans for a new high school were completed and the Academy High under construction. Because the Central High was crowded beyond capacity it was necessary to divide the school into two parts. The first division under Principal John C. Diehl met in the morning from 8:00 until 12:30. The afternoon session, held from 1:00 to 5:00 was under the supervision of Principal George O. Moore. When the Academy was completed Mr. Diehl and his section of the school were transferred to the new school. Central High School returned to the regular all day session with Mr. Moore as principal. Now, when Central has the smallest student body of any of the schools it is hard to realize that once she had as many pupils as Academy and that the other Erie high schools are, figuratively speaking, her children. We are proud of Central’s athletic history. Have you ever stopped to consider that there was a time when school athletics were practically un- heard of and that only through the efforts of the students themselves were they given a place in the curriculum? An Athletic Association was started among the pupils and on May 22, 1896, the first Field Day was celebrated. This occasion came to be a cus- tom which has only recently been abandoned. A report from the school previous to this event shows the attitude toward athletics: “While our 10