How do we feel about North High? Is it a friend or a rival or a friendly rival? Whatever it is, we have the deepest respect for that school because we have always considered it our sister Northside high school. After all, we have had friends who went there and even our parents were students there. My own parents were North students. They graduated in 1915 and 1916. So, to my surprise I recently found a 1916 Polaris annual among my mother’s things that I had never seen before.
One of the students, Laura Merritt, class of 1916, had a story in the Polaris titled “Twenty-Eight Years of North High.” This is what she wrote: “If anyone of us had seen the site of the first North High school at the time the school was built, we could not have imagined the great changes which were destined to come to this Northside institution in the next 25 years.”
Mr. Greer, our first principal, described the vicinity of the school in these words: “There was nothing in sight but woods, squirrels and a number of cows drinking leisurely from the quiet waters of Todd’s pond (our present athletic field).”
North High School was organized in January 1889, in what is now Logan School, with an enrollment of 35. Under the enthusiastic work of John Greer, it rapidly grew in spite of all obstacles. Physics, botany and chemistry rooms were equipped, a literary society organized and athletics introduced. Inside of two years many people left Central, the oldest and at that time the best high school in the city, for our North High.
At the close of the second year the first class, 16 in number, were graduated in 1892. Mr. Greer left the school he had organized to become principal of Central. Mr. Hobbs, superintendent of schools at Worthington, was offered the principalship of North High. He began his duties in the fall of 1892. At that time there were 170 pupils and 13 teachers, occupying about one-half of Logan school.
In October 1896 came a great step in growth of the school when it transferred to the new North High building on the site of the present school where there were eight grades as well as high school. It had 13 study rooms, eight recitation rooms, a library and an assembly hall which seated about 900, besides the laboratories, shops and drawing rooms. The first floor hall was utilized as a lunch room. In the early history of North High it was recorded that the pie and cake wagon made a daily stop. The need was soon felt for a regular lunch service, and in 1901 a scheme was worked out by which all persons at school could be “fed.” The food was placed on three small counters, which were taken care of by the students in the school being required to serve time.
From the time when there was a North High, music has had its place there. They have always ranked 1st with the other schools of the state in music. The 1st chorus was directed by Miss C.E. Adams, now at Central. In 1900 North was able to boast of an orchestra of nine pieces. In 1902 the Glee Clubs were proving themselves successful, and in 1904 the Male Quartet was formed.
On June 18, 1913, perhaps the saddest event in the history of North High occurred. The old building was destroyed by fire just two days before graduation. The commencement program was given at the West High auditorium. The year of 1913-1914 was spent in the old Central building. While North was laboring under great difficulty the school spirit never sagged. It might be said, that no one was sorry to be back in the new North High in September of 1914. The new building, with its fine shops, gymnasium, auditorium, lunch rooms and science departments, offer a great opportunity for work.
The chorus classes were reorganized under the direction of Samuel Morse. Athletics played a strong part in school events. The city football championship came to North in 1914 for the first time in several years. In January 1915, a scientific club was organized. A new girl’s league had arisen. A study system had been adapted by which teachers and pupils alike benefited.
This is briefly the history of North High School from the time when there were 35 students to the time when we had 1,775; from the time when 13 teachers sufficed, to the present (1916), when over 70 are not enough; from the time when North was the smallest and least important, to the time when it can be called second to no high school in the city.
Laura Merritt, ‘16