The Layout of the High School

The high school section of the school building was on the second floor. In the center of the floor was the assembly hall. At the front (south) end there was a slightly raised area fitted with a desk at which would sit the teacher who happened to be in charge of the hall at any given time. I am fairly sure that there was some teacher, or the principal, in attendance throughout the school hours.

At the rear of the hall there were some study tables and shelves on which various reference books were kept. These include encyclopedias. In between were the desks for the students, arranged in long rows parallel to the long (north/south) axis of the room. Freshmen were assigned seats closest to the inside wall of the room, senior being near the window side of the room (the windows extended all along that side of the hall). Opening off of the inside wall was a door leading to the library. I really have little recollection of what books and periodicals (if any) that were in the library. I seem to remember that it was open only at certain times during the school day.

On either end of the assembly hall were doors leading to short halls from which there was access to the stairs to the floor, the rest rooms (boys’ at the south end, girls’ at the north end, same as on the first floor and the basement), classrooms and cloakrooms. The cloakrooms also had doors directly to the assembly hall. One cloakroom was for the boys (the south one), the other for the girls.

Off the south hall were two classrooms, one of which I remember as being used for English and Latin classes, and maybe also for some literature classes, the other for physics, general science, and I believe the agricultural classes. There were also two offices, one the principal’s office, opening off the end of the hall and the office for the “ag” teacher, opening off the rear of the physics classroom. I was never in the agriculture classes — they may have actually met in the “ag” teacher’s office.

At the north end of the assembly hall there were three classrooms, one a general purpose room, one for typing and the third for home economics. I believe the home ec teacher had an office off of this room.