Evening star., 1938-06-12
By John Clagetf Proctor.
boys and girls who are about

~HE boys and girls who are about
to graduate from our local high
schools will have undoubtedly
i acquired considerable amount
: Of knowledge, and, Of course. they
know great many things, though
1t has probably never occurred to
them that in all likelihood their an
cestors Of a generation or two back
were denied the opportunity Of a
similar public school education, which
= now theirs for the asking. But
this was DUE. Of course, to the fact
that prior to 1880 there was no public
high school in the District of Column
bia, though the advanced grammar
schools Of the District, conducted for
q few years prior to this date, gave
q limited higher course Of instruction.
The need for high school in the
city manifested itself at an early date,
and in the report of the Public School
for 1849. we find provision made by
the City Council for such higher
learning, the provision being dated
November /, 1848, and was "to go
in operation on the first day of Sep
tember, eighteen hundred and fifty
one, or as soon as this Corporation
shall provide accommodation for the
same" But here the matter ended.
The next move toward this OBJ
jective took place in 1875. when all
the pupils in the girls eight-grade
schools, sufficiently advanced to take
up high school studies, were placed
under a competent teacher in one
school. designated an Advanced Gram
mar School, with a one-year course
Of study. BY the end of the school
year, this experiment proved so sue
cessful that a similar school for boys
was established in 1877, and two years
later this course, also designated as
the ninth grade. was made to cover a
two-year period.
MISS GEORGIA LANE formed the
A first Advanced Grammar School
for Girls, and Edward A. Paul instruct
ed the boys in the same grade. Miss
Lane and her pupils occupied quarters
in the Seaton School Building, then
comparatively a new structure, as 1t
was dedicated in 1871. From the first
Mr.. Paul taught his boys in the old
Thomson School, on Twelfth street,
between X and L, but in the autumn OF
1873 the school was moved to a building
once used for church purposes on G
street between Fourth and Fifth
streets northwest, where its sessions
continued to be held until September,
1880, when its increased enrolment
necessitated the securing of more am
pie quarters, and the top floor of the
Franklin School Building was given
up to Its use.
A few nights ago, the writer had a
nice talk with two scholars of the first
class to graduate from old Central
high School, Mr.. and Mrs. Appleton
p. Clark, jr This was in 1888.
Mr.. Clark, it seems, did the unusual
thing Of graduating twice from the
high school, when in 1882, the course
covered only two years, and the fol-
lowing year, again. when the course
had been increased to three years. He
said that the advanced grammar
school he attended was the one-story
building on G street opposite the old
Pension Once, before referred to, and
which probably occupied the site where
Is now the Typographical Temple.
CONGRESS made an appropriation
to build old Central High School
On o street, between Sixth and Sew
enth streets. in 1881 $4,000 coming
from funds accumulated between 1912
and 1880, from lotteries authorized by
Congress. The building was occupied
the following year The first COM
mencement exercises took place on
Tuesday, June IL, 1888, and the pro-
gram for the occasion, loaned by Mrs.
Clark, follows:
WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL.