The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-15

secured. This was a building which had been formerly used for a hotel and while 1t did not suit very well for school uses, still it was better than the one then in use, and would do for the five years for which 1t was leased, after which time it was thought the Birmingham High school would be located in its own build ing. This building was leased beginning with the session of 1S9O-91, so 1t Is now in its fifteenth year of school use.
 Finally, however, the people of Birming- the graduates of the Birmingham High school, voted that we would Issue $20O,Oo0 worth of bonds with which we would build a High school that would be strict ly modern and up to date, have the latest appliances, plenty of room for every Birmingham boy or girl who was that far advanced to attend, and one of which ev- cry graduate from that school could, in later years, point with pride and say, there Is my alma mater" At the polls when this question was being voted many graduates were on hand to work for the passage of the resolution to issue these bonds and the bond issue was carried with very little opposition. Every body wanted Birmingham to have new High school building and one that showed the progression of Birmingham in educa- tic nal matters, as well as industrial ac- tivity. We decided that we wanted one than which no other city of our size and our wealth could have better.
 The matter of plans, specifications, etc., were left to the honorable Board of Ed ucation as to what we would have. The Board of Education has decided that we 1x,.t1+ ..f rayfa non brick on all its walls brick that has been relegated to the rear by nearly every business house in Birmingham of recent construction. Even our livery stables and laundries have decided that 1t would pay them to use a nicer looking brick Tor the fronts of their buildings, and have used a pressed or enameled brick in their puild- ings.
 Can we, as citizens of Birmingham, af ford to allow our new High school build ing to be built of brick that has been cut out by very near every business house that has been erected in Birming- ham during the past years? Suppose the First National Bank building, the Wood- ward building. the Title Guarantee build ing,s the Birmingham Trust and Savings cimpany bank or any of the modern bus iness houses here were built of common brick instead of pressed brick, could we
 
 our new buildings, modern in every thing?' No, if they were built thus we couldn't say to any visitor, we expect to have some modern buildings some time"
 Our Birmingham High school building is one which we expect to stand for generations and we want it to be modern in every respect. We want a building .o which the pupils attending can point ,.tifl, v1,.fA hof crr-a 6 Q Tod there. We want our new High school building clothed with something better than common brick. Either give us stone or a nice pressed brick. The Board of Education say that they have not the money to pay for this. What has be- come of it2 There was an amount of S150, 900 which was to be set aside for the new high school together with a site for same; $17,500 has been paid for the site, which lelaves sls2, 500 with which to build and equip a modern school. For the sum of S96, 300 we can get a school having the two street sides made of stone, for $SS, J0 we can get a school having these sides made of pressed brick. and for sS7, 200 be- ing only $500 under the cost of stone and Sl700 under the cost of pressed brick we can have a building with these two sides of common brick. Now can we af- ford, for such a small saving have this
 
 respect built of a common brick, and one that we, every one of us will be ashamed as soon as 1t is far enough along to see how 1t looks? It would seem from their action that the Board of Education had dropped back fifteen to twenty-five years when they decided that we would use a common brick In this building
 Look at the new grammar schools we have been building in the past f1f- teen years. Can't we afford to put as good or better brick in our new High school as those which were used in them? The writer does not believe there is a single school built in Birmingham dur ing past fifteen years in which common brick were used for the facing, and are we going back and use common brick on our best school? Even our suburb, Woodlawn, which has built two schools very recently has used a pressed brick in their Construction. Can we afford to