BUCHANAN HIGH SCHOOL 1920-1929

Board of Education Members—from 1920-1929

• Mr. B. F. Eggert [former Superintendent]
• Mr. Frank Habicht board member since 1920
• Mr. M.L. Hanlin board member since 1920
• Mrs. William Keller unknown date 
• Mrs. Ida Rice board member since 1914 [even though Michigan women gained the right to vote finally in 1918] ended her service in 1947 after over a third of a century
• Mr. J.A. White board member since 1916
• In 1926—Mr. Eggert and Mrs. Keller were replaced by Dr. J.C. Strayer

Superintendents 1920-1929

• 1912-1922—B.F. Eggert for a decade in the old high school, during the discussion and building of the new high school
• 1923-1954—Harold C. Stark with Assistant Superintendent Pierre Bailey [Mr. Stark served BCS at least 31 years and is the longest serving superintendent]

Principals 1920-1929

• 1922—Floyd L. Early [1 year]
• 1923–E.G. Peterson [4 years]
• 1926—Elmer H. Ormiston who also taught history [6 years]

Staff

1922-23

• 9 teachers in the High School–5 women with only one married and also 4 men
• 4 teachers in the Junior High—all women with only one married 

1923-24

• 10 teachers in high school—6 women

Graduates

1922-1923

• Many students started their education at Dewey Avenue School
• Senior President was Charles Bachman
• Some students in class came to BHS as seniors from Galien.
• 35 Senior students—18 females and 17 males 
• 32 Juniors—started with 34 but “one by one our members either moved away or were married.”
• 43 Sophomores
• 60 Freshmen
• Every Senior was involved in some type of athletic or social activity.
• Their class motto was “Deeds not Words”
• Upon graduation this first class became alumni and within the first year they were…

• Working—17 with two men also married [5 at Clark, 7 at telephone or electric, 1 at Railroad, 1 at Kawneer, 1 at Studebaker, 1 at transmission company, and 1 at tire shop]
• At college—9 [5 at Western State Normal, 3 at Albion, 1 at Anthony Wayne Institute, 1 at South Bend Business College, and 1 as Post Grad at BHS [?]
• Home Girls [?]—2
• Navy—1
• Unknown—6

1924

• 27 Seniors—12 were female
• 37 Juniors
• 51 Sophomores
• 54 Freshmen
• With grades 7-8 a total of 291 students 

1925—28 Seniors

1926—40 Senior

1927—39 Seniors

1928—42 Seniors

1929—38 Seniors [graduating year before the Great Depression began]

Timeline of 1920-1929

• The Michigan State Department of Education presented a report in 1920 calling for “immediate steps to provide for the right kind of building.”  This recommendation came as early as 1911 when the -three story building had been in use for forty years. The Department of Education had reiterated this need to build again in 1918.
• The largest class to date at the original Buchanan High School had 23 graduates in 1920. 
• During the 1920s Buchanan High School used the Athletic Park for outdoor events such as baseball, softball and football [across McCoy Creek] and did so until 1947 when Memorial Field was built.
• In 1921, Buchanan graduated 17 students. Prof. J.E. Kuizenga of Hope College gave the Commencement address at the Clark Theater on June 9.  Music was furnished by the Glee Club and by the high school orchestra. 
• In the fall of the final year [1921] in the original three story brick high school, there were 158 students enrolled in the high school. This amounted to an increase of 24 of which 49 were rural students with a growth of ten from nearby one room schools.  By October, the high school number increased to 161 with 24 Seniors.  This was the ”largest class to date, if they all graduate.” There were 468 in grade school, also.
• THE NEW SCHOOL WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1921-1922.
• In the fall of 1921, foundation work began for the new high school and was completed in a few days in November.  “F.L. Shoemaker of Niles was the successful builder for the work of excavating and building the foundation of the new school, at the meeting of the board of education.  … The amount called for $6,602 for this work is well under the estimate of the board. The building will be located in front of the old edifice, and will be 292 feet long, one wing 170 feet and the other 121 feet in width.  The main entrance will face Detroit street.  The building will be two stories high and will provide Buchanan with a school that will be adequate to the needs for some time to come.” [Berrien County Record, 1 Nov. 1921, pg. 4] “The outside walls, 18 inches thick have been laid and the tunnel which will connect the heating system with that of the present building is soon to be dug.” [The News Palladium, 10 Dec 1921 page 8] Those tunnels still underlie the court yard after a century.
• “The contract for Buchanan’s new high school has been let to Grattan Bros., Lansing, for $128,000.  This is for the building only.  Work is to be started at once.” [The News Palladium, 13 Feb 1922] “Buchanan’s New School Is Started—Bricklayers on the Job; to Complete Structure by Fall—Work on Buchanan’s new high school began this week and if weather conditions continue favorable will be pushed steadily.  A force of 15 masons are on the job… It is estimated…. that the building will be completed by August 1 and ready for occupancy at the opening of the fall term.” [The News Palladium, 11 Mar 1922 p. 8]
• “Old School, Long a Landmark is being Torn Down” The basement was left for the “…installation of the boilers for the heating plan of the new building.”  “Contractors are offering $1.35 for bricklayers.” [The News Palladium, 24 June 1922 p. 1] “Instead of eleven rooms as in the old building there are twenty-five rooms, an auditorium, gymnasium, and two offices.” [THE PINES in 1930] Some of the foundation walls of the original Buchanan High School were used well beyond 1922.  The citizens built that at an original 1871 cost of between $35,000 and $40,000 depending on the original press coverage.  Thus, part of the brick school on the hill seen by those on the railroad served Buchanan for over 150 years. Twenty-two students graduated from the old school in 1922 and within weeks much of the old school was gone.
• 1922— “Instead of eleven rooms as in the old building there are twenty-five rooms, an auditorium, gymnasium, and two offices.” [THE PINES 1930]. Provision has been made for a modern gymnasium, technical school, large auditorium, with moving picture outfit, as well as convenient arrangement of classrooms and laboratories. [Battle Creek Enquirer, 22 Nov 1922, page 3]
•  “The 1922 Buchanan High School Building was built in a style denominated by the architecture…of the time as “collegiate gothic”. The gothic part of the name was derived from the medieval European features and ornamentation in the style, which were used to relieve the austerity of the otherwise plain flat roof school building with oblong windows and doors. The “collegiate” in the name of the style I believe referred to the use of the style in college lecture halls. Frank Habicht, who in 1922 was a Director and Vice President of Clark Equipment Company, was also in1922 the President of the Buchanan School Board. Mr. Habicht, who was retired from Clark by the time I knew him, would visit me in the 1960s at my office as a Clark Equipment Company lawyer, and we would talk about various things, including the 1922 High School Building. Mr. Habicht was very proud of this building. This was more than justified, because the 1922 Buchanan High School was so soundly built. He told me he removed from the building as originally designed certain “ornaments”, to keep the cost to the taxpayers within the original budgeted cost of the building. This has resulted in almost all of the collegiate gothic features being in the front door at the middle of the building and the windows above it, with very little of the collegial gothic features being elsewhere in the building. You could say that the architecture is “collegiate gothic light’. But this doesn’t take anything away from the strength and sturdiness of the building, which has survived for 100 years in good shape, and looks to survive for many hundreds more.” “The 1922 Buchanan High School is a contributing structure in the Buchanan North and West Neighborhoods Federal Historic District.” [Don Ryman, 2022]

• School started on September 11, 1922, but not in the new building, which had more work to be done.  The new building opened with grades K-12 with high school students numbering 181 on November 20, 1922, with the completed cost of more than $200,000. This would be the equivalent of $3,256,750 a century later. “The building was delayed in construction since September.  Classes have been held in local churches and vacant store buildings.  The new building will take first rank among schools in this section of the state.  Provision has been made for a modern gymnasium, technical school, large auditorium, with moving picture outfit, as well as convenient arrangement of classrooms and laboratories.” [Battle Creek Enquirer, 22 Nov 1922, page 3] Superintendent was B.F. Eggert who had been in that position for ten years. It should be noted that virtually every construction project saw delays and postponed opening dates.
• 1922—The football season was the most successful for the “Maroon and White” since 1912 with 8 wins in 10 games. They had 15 players.  Coach Rockney [sic] of Notre Dame spoke to the football men at the end of the season along with those who played basketball. The year prior the team only won two games.  The basketball season was hindered by two starting players who were not allowed to play due to ineligibility in the second semester.
• Cleo Portz was named Cherry Blossom [Miss Blossomtime?] that year.
• There were huge pine trees in front of the new school in the fall of 1922.  Gym parties were common once the school opened.
• According to the 1986 PINES, “the new school had 23 rooms with the junior high in a corner of the building.  There were about 30-40 students in each high school class with about 10 teachers…” “Classes were different…Some were botany, economics, zoology, civics, agriculture, hygiene, orthography and domestic science.”
• The new Buchanan High School was dedicated February 26, 1923.  “Professor Henderson gave a very interesting address on the ‘Reconstruction of America.’  His conception of the beautiful structure with its pleasing graceful lines was a monument to Buchanan, and a rich inheritance for the boys and girls.” [THE PINES vol.1] The school consisted of two stories with 16 rooms on each floor.  Floors were of fine hardwood and woodwork of oak.  The auditorium seated 650. The gymnasium had a floor of “rubber composition,” a balcony and locker room with showers. A clock system operated by electricity regulated by a clock in the office.  The ventilation system was one of the very best.  “There are fine large ventilators on the roof that force out the foul air.  The same apparatus that fans in warm fresh air through the rooms in winter fans in cool air in the summer.”  The population of the city of Buchanan at that time was 3,600. [Note: After a new gym addition in the 1950s, this area became the library [later the media center] and home economics area]. A large American flag was given to the school by the Senior class to be displayed in the new gymnasium.
• A filed lawsuit of 1923 involved the bonding company and construction company vs. a Berrien Springs lumber company over supplies used in the building of Buchanan High School.
• The new high school came at a time with new emphasis on physical education. “Its purpose, the training of the body in order to prevent the material world, in the form of force, disease or ugliness from defeating man in his attempts to adjust…” became a concern. Thus, there were gym classes for both boys and girls.  The first basketball game played in new Buchanan High School occurred that year.
• Superintendent Harold Stark attended Chicago University to take course in school administration while Principal Peterson also took courses in 1923. Continuing education of administrators and educators became the norm at Buchanan Community Schools.
• New high school auditorium hosted the site of state debate competition between BHS and Mattawan that first year.

• 1923—The first play in the new auditorium was “All of a Sudden Peggy.” 
• 1923–The first graduation from the new Buchanan High School. 

“All last summer we watched with eager eyes

The laborers working with brick and too

And tonight you see

The class of “23 Is graduated first from the new High School.”

• CLASS OF  1923—First to graduate from the new, state of the art building

• 1923–With the first edition of THE PINES, BHS recorded history written by students began. THE PINES name referred to the mature pine trees in front of the new school. 

“The Pines, the first High School annual
We published for B.H.S.
A picture gallery
Filled with raillery
That we’re proud of, all will confess.”

• Upon graduation this first class from the “new” Buchanan High School became alumni and within the first year they were…
• Working—17 with two men also married [5 at Clark, 7 at telephone or electric, 1 at Railroad, 1 at Kawneer, 1 at Studebaker, 1 at transmission company, and 1 at tire shop]
• At college—9 [5 at Western State Normal, 3 at Albion, 1 at Anthony Wayne Institute, 1 at South Bend Business College, and 1 as Post Grad at BHS [?]
• Home Girls [?]—2
• Navy—1
• Unknown–6
• In 1924, kindergarten was “…added to the school, a preparatory school for the little tots where they are acquainted with the primary beginning of this mystical world.  Just recently [1936] a special room was added to give particular attention to children for whom learning is a little difficult.” [THE PINES, Vol. 13, 1937] Students body in high school numbered 291 in 1924.
• “School is an Industry,” says Prin. E. H. Ormiston—…the school is just as definitely devoted to turning out a valuable product as is the Clark Equipment Co., and we shall have a lot of fun at work and play every day.”  [The News Palladium, 14 Sept 1925] There were 28 teachers at Buchanan.  BHS established the first Student Council. Tennis came to BHS in 1925 and it was coed by 1928.
• In 1926 students began the Usher Club started and their debate topic involved federal law prohibiting child labor. A wood shop class started to interest young males and Buchanan added those classes the same year.
• 1927—With a fund balance of $15,509 150 were present at the annual school board meeting of district No. 1. The French Club became a BHS activity.  Boys wore letter sweaters. A Domestic Science Club started as the Jolly Bunch. Interclass girls’ soccer started at BHS.  Reba Lamb became the school nurse and she continued until 1959—32 years.
• 1928—About 50% of boys went out for sports.  Faculty numbered 18 for 49 Seniors and underclassmen.  Likely BCS hired its first Junior High principal/Grade Supervisor even though it was still in the same building.  Also, the first mention of Athletic Director, Harold Bradfield, became part of our staff.  BHS won the basketball regional game against St. Augustine and went on to the state tournament only to lose 25-23 to Plainwell.  Interclass sports began with boys’ basketball plus girls’ basketball. The same year the new interclass girls’ soccer team defeated Niles at Plym Park—the first soccer game ever for BHS.  Track also began at BHS.  Athletics reigned at BHS in ’28.  BHS also had a school nurse, Mrs. Lamb, with her own office.  The only custodian mentioned in the 1920s was Mr. Al Flenar who continued in that capacity for over thirty years. 
• The first mention of a part time Athletic Director, Harold Bradfield, became part of our staff in 1928. 
• A fire in what was left of the original high school completely destroyed the west wing of that building in February of 1929.  This west half of the building and the manual training equipment was lost but the heating plant was undamaged. 
• Also in 1928-29, our football team was dubbed the Maroons.  The basketball team won district class C, regionals, and beat River Rouge in state semi-final only to lose in the final game against St. Michaels 24-16.  
• Reorganization of classes occurred in 1929 with 7-12 being under senior high school principal and 1-6 under the Grade Supervisor to be more efficient and cut costs.

Classes offered [partial list]:

• Advanced U.S. History
• Agriculture
• Algebra
• American History
• American Literature
• Ancient History
• Arithmetic
• Business English
• Botany
• Caesar
• Chemistry
• Civics
• Commercial Arithmetic
• Commercial English
• Commercial Geography
• Commercial Law
• Community Civics
• Composition
• English Grammar
• English Literature
• French
• General History
• General Science
• Latin 1
• Latin Grammar
• Literature
• Modern History
• Music
• Pedagogy  
• Penmanship and Spelling
• Physical Geography
• Physics
• Physiology
• Plain Geometry
• Rhetoric
• Sewing
• Shorthand
• Solid Geometry  
• Spelling
• Trigonometry
• Typewriting
• U.S. History and Civics
• Virgil
• Zoology

Student Activities in 1920s

• “The Pines, the first High School annual. We published for B.H.S. A picture gallery, Filled with raillery. That we’re proud of, all will confess.” [First published in 1922-23 school year.]

• Alpha Agrarian Club was part of the first year at the new high school in 1922-23
• An old fashioned sleigh ride was held in 1922-23
• Banquet—1923-24
• Baseball was introduced after several years and a new field constructed with recorded 5 wins/2 losses in 1924-25 
• Basketball as early as 1922-23 and by 1929 BHS won the class C district championship, won the regionals and beat River Rouge in the state semi-final only to be defeated in the final game against St. Michaels 24-16.
• Between football and basketball in 1922-23, Coach Rockney [spelled incorrectly in THE PINES] of Notre Dame spoke to athletes at the Buchanan Inn. The Kiwanis hosted a dinner where Coach Rockne talked about the benefits of the football spirit in later life.
• Boys’ basketball was played for the first time in the new gymnasium with 8 wins/five losses in 1922-23.  By 1928, Buchanan reached the state finals.  Before the new gymnasium boys played basketball on the top floor of the Rough Opera House until 1917.  Then until the new Buchanan High School had a gymnasium games were played in the Clark Auditorium.
• Boys involved sports amounted to 50% of the male student body by 1928
• Buchanan University Club [women in the community] entertained Junior and Senior Girls to influence girls to go to college in 1922-23 according to THE PINES.
• Carnival—1923-4
• Chorus had 90 members in 1922-23
• Civics Club members focused on immigration and how to help new immigrants, the House of Representatives, the Senate with focus on how to help home, school and town in 1922-23
• Commercial Club with emphasis on typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic and law began in 1924-25
• Debate with topic of U.S. granting the Philippines complete and immediate independence in 1924-25
• Domestic Science Club a.k.a. The Jolly Bunch with the fundraiser of selling Jell-O began in 1927 but by 1928 this became the Home Economics Club.
• Drama members held their first play held in the auditorium in 1922-23: “All of a Sudden Peggy.” The next year Buchanan saw the production of “Sunshine” about a TB sanitarium outside NY City with a cast of 11 in 1924-25.
• Football—post season dinner hosted for the team by Helen Club in 1922.  The average weight of players was 150# with 5 wins/4 losses by 1924-25
• Girls interclass basketball became a highlight of athletic competition for girls with the new gymnasium in 1922-23. Girls basketball’s first year of interscholastic games in 1923-24—4 wins and 5 losses with 9 players—Three Oaks, Bridgman, Berrien Springs, Stevensville, and Decatur games but cut back shortly thereafter. Girls’ basketball with 1 win/1 loss and both with Cass in 1924-25
• French Club organized in 1926
• Girls Glee Club in 1922-23 joined by Boys Glee Club in 1927
• Girls Athletic Association began in 1928
• Gym party for Juniors and Seniors held with indoor track meet, refreshments, followed by card game bunco and dancing in 1922-23
• Helen Club provided an opportunity for senior class girls to engage in school projects as early as 1922-23.
• Interscholastic tennis for both boys and girls [briefly] began in 1925-26           
• Junior class party in the “Domestic Science” room with a movie shown in 1924-25.  The new auditorium had a state of the art movie projection system.
• Junior/Senior Reception [prom] first held in the new gymnasium in 1923.  In 1924, the Junior/Senior Reception in the gym with a dinner, speeches, and a dance
• JV teams became part of the sports program in 1927
• The Latin Club joined the language extra-curricular opportunities in 1928.
• Manual Training began by 1927

• Microphone [school newspaper] published first in 1926
• Musicals performed starting in 1927 entertained Buchanan
• Oratory opportunities were by added in 1927
• Orchestra began with the new school in 1922-23
• Pep “meetings” began in 1924-25
• Phi Kappa, the Honorary Literary Society began in 1923-24. Phi Kappa, the Honorary Literary Society with picnic on Moccasin Bluff the next year
• Radio, Camera, and Science Club installed a five tube “neutrodyne” radio set in this the first year of the club in 1924-25
• Science Club became an activity option in 1926
• The Senior Boys Club started in 1923-24 and was likely the forerunner of the “B” Club.
• Soccer first played at Buchanan High School involved interclass but only for girls in 1927.  By 1928, Buchanan played their first interscholastic game against Niles at Plym Park with a win
• A school song was sung by the student body as early as 1922. Our school colors of MAROON AND WHITE were already part of the Buchanan High School history by the first year of our new building in 1922-23.
• Student government group began in the fall of 1925.
• Tennis came to BHS in 1925 and was coed by 1928
• Track was established by the first full year of the new school in 1922-23
• The Usher Club was formed by 1926.
• Velmarian Literary Society first year in 1923-24.  It was named after Mrs. Velma Dunbar, the teacher. Velmarian Literary Society in its second year with emphasis on parliamentary procedure, public speaking and literature.  By 1926, there were two literary clubs with an Honors group being added.