Farragut School The First Bay City High School

Farragut School
The First Bay City High School

When in the spring of 1866, the city decided it must have a High School, a committee appointed by the legal voters of District No. 1 presented to them a report of the various sites they had investigated. Among others was one offered by Judge James Birney for $3500, “a piece of land the size of a city block lying between Ninth and Tenth Streets about two blocks east of Van Buren Street.” “The committee were told to offer Judge Birney $3,000 for the land, and if the offer were accepted, he to open streets around the block at his own expense.”

Many residents complained about putting the High School so far out in the country, but the corner stone was laid May 8, 1868.

The building was of brick with stone foundation, gray stone trim, and slate mansard roof. The upper floor had one large room through the middle, with recitation rooms on the east corners, with two cloak rooms and two stair halls between them. The west end was similar but for the wide stairway in the center. The lower floor plan had two rooms formed by an east and west wall; recitation rooms, cloak rooms and rear exit on the east. On each west corner was a door opening into a hall which connected with the main hall through doors. West of these halls were recitation rooms and cloak room as on the upper floor. The basement had the same divisions but entrance was made through area doors under the main front and rear doors. When the building was opened the primary department was in the north half of the lower floor, the grammar grades in the south half, and the high school upstairs, with the superintendent’s office in the upper south-west corner.

The building was heated by stoves; kerosene lamps in brackets around the walls of the upper room dispelled some gloom on the rare “exhibition” nights; and a few small panes at the tops of some windows were arranged to swing inward to provide ventilation. All the windows were fitted with inside blinds. These and wide sills provided an ingenious teacher with a unique form of punishment. She stood naught girls on the sill and shut their long braids between the leaves of the inside blinds. The little girls stood very still for a long time which doubtless was a triumph and a rest for the teacher.

The building was opened in 1869. Professor D. C. Scoville, superintendent and principal. The first class was graduated from the high school in June, 1872. Messrs Frank Pratt and John McEwan of this city were among the members of the class.

Girls composed the entire membership of the class of ’73. This was not so remarkable as that the entire class entered Vassar the following autumn. Only one, Mrs. H. B. Smith, graduated from Vassar, matrimony overtaking the majority before they completed the college course.

The first “extras” in the building were the German Lutherans, who asked for the use of the south basement when the building opened. Their request was granted and they remained there under the tutelage of the late Professor Lankenau until the fall of ’73, when the number of public school children had so increased that the board needed the basement rooms for the primary department.

The year ’73 seems to be momentous. It was in that year that the board bought a lawn-mower and directed that the “janitor be instructed to use it as often as may be necessary.” That year the board discussed the question, “What part of the High School grounds may be used for playground?” An unsatisfactory steam-heating department reached one hundred fifty-six, and Miss Stewart (Mrs. M. C. Stanton) with one assistant was caring for an enrollment of two hundred and forty with an average daily attendance of two hundred, while the enrollment of the entire building was seven hundred ninty-one.

In 1877, under Professor Morley’s capable management, a training school for teachers was established, Miss Kate A. Peck, of Oswego Normal was the first principal and there were ten pupil-teachers in the first class. The training school was continued in this building for some years and in the city until the coming of Superintendent Ferguson. The first special room was opened her with Miss Slattery, teacher.

When training classes were established, the entire building was in use, basement and all, and so crowded that in the summer of 1878, a two-room addition was built at the north-west corner and the seventh and eighth grades were the first occupants. The new wing did not relieve the congestion, and in 1881 plans were made for a new fourth-ward school, to which on completion in 1882, the high school department was removed. The big room was divided and the seventh and eight grades moved in. The wing was given up to the primary department and the basement was vacated.

In the summer of 1888, the building was remodeled into its present form and now contains thirteen independent rooms instead of three.
The original building was replaced in 1939.

Volunteers hold copyright to the material they have donated for this site. Not to be copied and used in any format to any other site or in any other media.

This server space is provided by Michigan Family History Network

Visit the Michigan Family History Network for more Bay County names.