Hutchinson High School is capping its week of Homecoming festivities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. Friday in the H Courtyard by the school’s main entrance. This event is celebrating the $45 million renovation of the high school.
Following the dedication, community events continue with tailgating from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Wall of Fame induction at 6:40 p.m. and the Homecoming football game with the Tigers hosting Rocori at 7 p.m. Tigers After Dark, a fundraiser for the ISD 423 Foundation, is from 8 to 11 p.m. Friday at Bobbing Bobber Brewing Co. It features live music, food vendors, raffles and more. Saturday morning the public is welcome to tour the school from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
In a flash to the past, the original Hutchinson High School building, which is at the heart of the new building, was celebrated almost 60 years ago with a public open house on Oct. 29, 1961.
The new, state-of-the-art school cost $2.4 million.
According to a brochure provided during the open house, “The classroom areas are equipped with slate chalkboards, display boards and rails. Each room also has a supply case and teacher’s wardrobe combination. There are classroom areas for art, science, home economics, industrial arts, music, mechanical drawing, commercial, language, remedial reading, agriculture and farm shop that are equipped for special project activities.”
More than 5,000 people were estimated to have visited the the new Hutchinson junior-senior high school during the open house. People began arriving about a half an hour before the scheduled opening.
“At the height of the afternoon ceremonies, there were no empty parking spaces left in the huge school parking lot, and people arriving late were forced to park along the roadway as far as three blocks away from the front of the school,” the Leader reported.
According to Superintendent S.R. Knutson, more than 3,800 brochures were passed out, and guests signing the register represented more than 52 communities, some as far as California. Guests were served coffee and cookies in the new school cafeteria.
Faculty members in their classrooms greeted visitors. The school choir, orchestra and band performed in the auditorium, while several youngsters provided entertainment as spectators watched them splashing and romping in the new swimming pool.
HUTCHINSON SCHOOL BUILDINGS
Education has been a hallmark of Hutchinson since its founding. The first school started in 1855. It had six students and their teacher, Mrs. William Todd, taught classes in her home at the corner of Franklin Street and Second Avenue.
From there, the first school district was organized in 1857. W.W. Pendergast taught 17 students in a log cabin. In 1860, citizens voted to provide lumber to Pendergast to build a two-story school. It was built near present-day Maplewood Academy. It lasted two years until it was burned down during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
Next, the wood-frame Pendergast School was built in 1866. The first brick school known as the South School, or Tower School, was built on Glen Street in 1886. It housed primary-grade students. The brick Pendergast School came in 1898. It served students in fourth through eighth grades. In 1912, the Merrill Building was constructed. It was in North Park and faced Second Avenue Southwest. Next came the new public school, or what is now called Park Elementary, in 1938.
A NEW SCHOOL
Hutchinson voters on Jan. 22, 1937, approved a $175,000 bond issue for an addition to the Merrill Building. It would replace the Pendergast and Tower schools.
The cost of the new school building, including the equipment, was approximately $450,000. Of this amount, the Public Works Administration, or PWA, contributed a total of $209,375. The balance was furnished by the district, out of the proceeds of two bond issues.
It took one year to build. Students moved into the building in December 1937.
According to the Leader, “The new building is a marvel of construction. It has a large band room, a sheet metal shop, the latest types of lockers, the corridors are beautiful and there are 584 fixtures.”
The dedication ceremony took place at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1939.
“Every seat in the new auditorium was taken at the dedication of Hutchinson’s new school,” the Leader reported.
George Selke, president of St. Cloud Teachers College, delivered the main address “The School as a Social Agency.”
“The building is a monument to an investment in your own community, and after all, they are the ones that pay the most dividends, and keep paying them,” he said.
Junior and senior high school students moved to the new high school at 1200 School Road in 1961.
Each school has served Hutchinson’s students and community. The new 2018 high school will continue this tradition.
In the Leader’s New Look for Hutchinson High School publication, Superintendent Daron VanderHeiden reviewed the renovated high school project and said he was more than pleased with the outcome.
“I really believe it is better, and we have more building than I ever imagined we would have,” he said. “We are very proud of the final product. We think it is going to serve education well, and as a center for the community in Hutchinson for years to come. That has been the role in the past, and I believe it will serve that capacity.”
