The Ashland Clipper and The Ashland Record, Consolidated
Ashland, Clark County Kansas, Thursday, August 30, 1917
The Grade School Building
The accompanying cut shows the “old” school building. We shall have to accustom ourselves to the proper names for our buildings in order to prevent confusion. The building which we have always known as “the school house” must step down to the level of “a school house,” for we now have another plant. Hereafter the building shown here should be called “The Grade School” and the other, “The High School.”
Clark county was organized in 1885 and the first county superintendent was W.L. Cowder. In 1886 a school was organized using for its building the old Methodist church and two halls on Main street.
During the fall of ‘86 an agitation was started for a new building, and the ground was broken on the accompanying site in October. Two elections decided against bonding the district for the new building, but in June 1887 bonds for five thousand dollars carried and a contract was let for the structure. The work progressed rapidly during the summer of ’87 and things were “looking up.” Folks pointed with pride to the school house as a token of their devotion to the cause of their children. And don’t let it penetrate your intellect gentle reader, that in those days a five thousand dollar project in the short grass country was a thing to lightly taken. Five thousand dollars today is the price of a good Clark county touring car. In ’87 five thousand dollars in honest-to-goodness money would pretty nearly have bought everything movable and immovable south of the Arkansas river. Just before school was to have opened in the fall the new building burned to the ground. Then the Clark county parents packed their trunks and their children and faced the rising sun for a less desolate scene – no they didn’t. Our fathers and mothers were not that sort of hair pins. They rubbed the backs of their hands across their eyes took a fresh bite of corn pone, scrimped around in their treasure bags and pitched in and built another school house, bigger and better than the one that was burned. In the summer of ’88 the old part of this building was completed and school started in the fall. There were three teachers and 129 pupils. W. L. Cowden was principal and his assistants were Mrs. B. F. Donnell and Minnie Young.
And this old school house as long as it stays one brick on top of another, should stand as a monument to the spirit that saw its construction thru.
In 1907 a furnace was installed and the building painted and papered. In 1908the north addition was built. The growth of the school during these years finally compelled another change and the basement of the M. E. Church was used for a time. Later when the new Presbyterian church was finished the old Presbyterian church was leased and the primary grades have been taught there for the past few years. The final change will come this fall when the entire graded school will be housed in the building shown in the accompanying cut.
Probably no town its size in the state boasts so well adapted a graded school building as Ashland. The basement floor contains the heating plant. It is planned some day to finish the basement into toilet rooms. On the first floor for several years the graded have been accommodated in four fine large well lighted and ventilated rooms. These will accommodate the following grades: The southwest room, First grade; the southeast room, Second grade; the northwest room, Third grade; the northeast room, Fourth grade. Two large halls one east and west and the other north and south, are on this floor. There are drinking fountains and cloak rooms.
The second floor may be reached by the old flight of stairs in the original building. When the new addition was built, stairs were built; one on the east and one on the west. The second floor has been remodeled. The partition in the southeast room has been taken out which affords a fine large room. This room will accommodate the fifth grade. Across the hall the room formerly used as a Domestic Science room for the High School has been fitted up and will be used for the sixth grade. The south room will be a library and apparatus room for the grades. The room which has been the assembly hall will seat the seventh and eighth grades. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades will be conducted on the departmental plan; that is on teacher will teach the same subject for all four grades. In the seventh and eighth grades the boys will take Manual Training and the girls Domestic Science.
The building has been repaired this summer and will be in excellent shape for the opening of school. The outside has been painted and several repairs have been made inside the building. The old fence has been removed from around the grounds and the Graded School Campus presents a very pleasing appearance
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Over the main entrance of a great school are these words, “This building dedicated to the art of living with others.”
The High School Building
The cut given below shows Ashlands’ new High School building which will be occupied for the first time this fall. It has been felt for a number of years that the growing needs of the town along educational lines would sooner or later be met in a new and up-to-date High School building. An election was held on October 23, 1915 for the purpose of voting bonds for the erection of the new building. The bonds were for $30,000.00 and even in these times such an amount is “some money.” The spirit that built the first school house, that rebuilt upon the ruins of the burned building for the fathers and mothers again asserted itself and the sons and daughter voted the bonds with only two dissenting votes. Kansas is full of towns where such bond issues have gone under with a whoop or at least struggled across with a scant majority.
In the spring of 1916 the plans of Mann & Gerow, of Hutchinson, were accepted and the site was brot up for consideration. Several proposals were made among them being the Stephens lots in the south part of town, and the hill slope west of town. The former was rejected because of the dust and unbroken sweep of the long Main street and the latter because of the difficulty of water and its distance from town. The site fixed upon was the block of the old town ball grounds south of E. R. Wallingford’s. A better location would be difficult to imagine. The building presents a commanding appearance from several of the principal streets of the town and is the most conspicuous sight seen from the trains. South and west of the building runs a slough which some till will probably be dammed and a reservoir made for the irrigation of a testing plot for agriculture. The Campus affords ample space for an athletic field. At the present writing the contract is let for about 12,000 feet of sidewalk, which will add to the beauty of the Campus. The main entrance to the new building faces east and is approached by a twelve foot flight of cement steps. The building is constructed of brown brick and trimmed with terra cotta. Of course we are proud of it -it is ours- but outsiders who should be able to judge impartially say that we have the finest looking building in the country. – And outsiders are honorable men.
The top or second floor of the building contains the principal recitations room, the study hall and the library. Along the west side of the middle hall is a long well lighted study hall which will accommodate about 150 students.
In the northwest corner of the second floor and adjoining the study hall is the library. New bookcases have been installed and this will be a great improvement over the old library facilities. In the southwest and northeast corners are located toilet room and cloak rooms. Along the east side of the hall are located three large recitation rooms and one small recitation room.
On the first or main floor are found the science rooms and the Offices. The northwest corner room is a well lighted room for Manual Training. This room is equipped for all the appliance for a modern up-to-date Manual Training department and will be fitted for first class work. It contains 15 Sheldon Perfection benched with bench and general equipment, wall lockers and lumber racks. Across the hall on the east are the Science rooms; one s large room for experimentation, the other for recitation. New equipment has been ordered to supplement the old and a new ten foot glass case is ordered for the storage of equipment. Fronting the main entrance are the offices. The first office will be used for a reception room and principals desk and the second for the office of the superintendent. For the superintendent’s office there has been purchased on of the finest filing equipments ever in the town for the filing of all records and reports.
In the southwest room of this floor are the Domestic Science and Art rooms. These are equipped with all the conveniences and needs of a modern plant. The southeast corner room is a recitation room, which with the growth of the science department will probably become the department of Natural Science leaving the present science room for the physical science.
The basement floor is a combination of gymnasium and assembly hall. It contains a large playing floor, one raised floor and a balcony. The playing floor is to be seated with portable assembly chairs while the other two floors will contain opera chairs fastened permanently to the floor. We will not need in our town a town hall and a gymnasium on the same night. When we use our gymnasium, we will not need our town hall and when the town comes together for a meeting we will push out the portable chairs and seven hundred of us will settle down and enjoy ourselves. Hence the combination. Since our plan has been tried, several other towns are planning like arrangements patterning after our building. This floor also contains shower and locker rooms, toilet rooms, an apparatus room and the heating plant.
Fire danger in the new High School is reduced to a minimum. As nearly as possible it is constructed of cement, iron and brick. In case of fire there would be little to burn excepting the door casings and the books and it is popularly believed n some quarters that the composition of one of the classes in school will even offset the possibility and render fire impossible in A. H. S.
There are too many fine features to get into one issue and scant justice has been done. When the equipment all comes and is installed go down and look it over, and if you are not already convinced you will than agree that the Ashland High School is the finest in the land.
Such is our new plant. It has taken money and time and devotion from the tax payers of Clark county. Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now the time the devotion and some of the money will be bread cast upon the waters which will return to us some forty, some sixty and some a hundred fold.
