The new high school would be built down the road and a new grammar school on the site of the burned-out school…
Most often referred to as the Stevens Point High School, an 1897 article explains the building was named for transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1901 it was reported that the seniors were wearing lapel pins with a fleur de lis and the initials EHS. A few years later the boys’ football and basketball teams were given 10-inch crimson and black circle emblems with the letters EHS to sew on their sweaters. Still the school was called the Stevens Point High School by most. There was later discussion regarding whether to put the name Emerson High School on the new diplomas that needed to be ordered for the graduating class of 1912. It likely did not happen, however, because it wasn’t until 1929 that the name Emerson High School officially appeared on the yearbooks.
The red brick building suited Stevens Point for about two decades though it was lacking from the start. The third-floor gymnasium was small and quickly consumed by classrooms. Basketball games were played at Parish Hall or the Normal School. The old school also lacked proper restroom facilities for the ever-growing student body. With the toilets located in the basement and then just one on the third floor, the school needed modernization. But what the city really needed was a new facility. Talks began in the fall of 1919 regarding what to do about a new high school building as enrollment reached 370, up 55 students from the previous year.
As discussions for a new high school building began, plans were in works to move the vocational school from its downtown location on the second floor of the old Worzalla Publishing building to the original high school building. With the new unit housing the majority of the high school students, the old 1893 building would mostly be used for “home economics, manual training, and science work,” leaving plenty of room for vocational school use. There was question if there would be room enough for the girls’ vocational classes, but it was decided the issue would be resolved if needed by using the commercial department’s off campus Main Street facility if needed. The vocational school remained downtown until 1938.
Students complained about crowded classrooms and folding chairs stacked in the halls of the main building. Congestion in the building was so significant that a temporary structure was built behind the main building on the Ellis Street side. The original “barracks” structure was used for the first time in October of 1921, adding four classrooms for the growing student body. That same month the common council voted unanimously to build a new high school. However, the “temporary” building would remain in use for another 40 years.
Read Part 1 here / Read Part 2 here / Read Part 3 here / Read Part 4 here
This piece also appeared in the Stevens Point City Times / Portage County Gazette January 8, 2020
Historic Stevens Point 