page_title: Great Falls High School
section_title: Founding and first high school building
hierarchical_section_title: Great Falls High School / History / Founding and first high school building
caption_attribution_description: English: The "Central Building" of Great Falls High School (GFHS) in 1900. Great Falls High School is located in the town of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. Founded in 1890, the school did not get its own building until the construction of the "Central Building" at 1400 First Avenue North in 1896. GFHS moved to its current building at 1900 2nd Avenue South in 1930. The "Central Building" was occupied by Paris Gibson Junior High School from 1931 to 1975. Since 1975, it has operated as the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. The structure was added to the en:National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
context_page_description: Great Falls High School is a public high school for grades 9 through 12 located in Great Falls, Montana. Established in 1890, it was the city's first high school. The school's original building, constructed in 1896, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. GFHS began construction on its current building in 1929 and occupied it in the fall of 1930. The high school marked its 80th year in the structure during the 2010–2011 school year. The school's current building, constructed in 1930, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2013.
context_section_description: Great Falls was founded in 1883. Businessman Paris Gibson surveyed the city in 1883 and platted a permanent settlement the south side of the river. It was incorporated on November 28, 1888. By 1890, Black Eagle Dam had been built within the city limits on the Great Falls of the Missouri River, a meat packing industry (the largest between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Spokane, Washington) had arisen, a railway had come to town, and a copper smelter had been built. The city's public school system was established in 1886. That year, the city opened the Whittier Building (later known as Whittier Elementary School) and began holding ungraded educational instruction for all students there.
  Great Falls High School was founded in the fall of 1890 by the city of Great Falls after four teenage girls (newly arrived in the city) asked to receive a high school public education. The four young women constituted the first class, which met in a corner of a classroom in the Whittier Building (which, by that time, featured instruction in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades). By September 1892, Great Falls High School was an independent school within the city public school system. Its 23 students also had a specified course of instruction (rather than general classes).
  In 1896, the Great Falls Public Schools built the first Great Falls High School building. City voters passed an initiative in 1893 to sell bonds to build a high school, but the Panic of 1893 delayed construction. A design by local architect William White was chosen over three other proposals. White's Romanesque Revival three-story structure featured a small central circular building, two rectangular wings, and an eight-story, four-faced clock tower. Construction on the building, located at 1400 First Avenue North, began in 1894. The high school was built of gray sandstone obtained from quarries near both Helena and Great Falls. The walls, which were 5 feet (1.5 m) thick at the bottom of the building but only 4 feet (1.2 m) thick at the roof, were sunk 16 feet (4.9 m) into the earth and stood on shale bedrock. To compact the foundation's backfill, a herd of sheep was driven around the structure 100 times. Wood for the interior supports, roof, and steps were cut from massive trees logged in the Rocky Mountains and floated down the Missouri River. The finished building featured a tin mansard roof (molded and painted to look like tile), gables, and an attic suspended from the roof joists. The interior woodwork was solid oak, all rooms had 3-foot (0.91 m) high wainscoting, the solid doors were 2.5-inch (6.4 cm) thick, and highly detailed molded pediments were emplaced over each door. Ornate brass doorknobs and hinges were used throughout the building, and heat was supplied by cast iron radiators with delicate, filigreed covers. The building (whose original cost was estimated at $59,940) was completed by McKay Brothers in 1896 at a total cost of $110,000. The structure, which was designed to educate 500 students, contained 14 classrooms, a physical laboratory, a chemical laboratory, an art studio, and an assembly hall that could seat 400. A boiler system was installed in the basement.
  The first class of nine boys and 37 girls helped open the school on November 1, 1896. Helen Edgerton was the first principal. The graduating class of 1897 (the high school's first) contained five students, but commencement ceremonies were held in the Great Falls Opera House because the crowd attending graduation was so large.
  A brick annex, designed by W.R. Lowery, was constructed against the high school's south side in 1913 at a cost of $200,000. At this time, the boiler system was moved from the basement of the high school to the area between the main building and the annex. An urban legend (which may have begun as early as the 1910s) began to circulate that the old boiler room was turned into a swimming pool, and that a student drowned in the pool—leaving the high school haunted. An investigation in the 1990s revealed that although student Grant Mill from Great Falls High School did drown in 1915, he
caption: The original Great Falls High School Building, constructed in 1896.
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