A century at Huntington High

A LOOK BACK

I was recently reminded by Ann Minnie of the Huntington Beach High

School Alumni Assn. that on Sunday, the Huntington Beach High School

will be holding its class reunion picnic at Lake Park.

If you are looking for a good old-fashioned hometown picnic that’s

fun for the entire family, this is it.

The picnic will begin at 11 a.m. and last to 3 p.m. For those of

you who attended this picnic in prior years, you know how much fun it

is to meet old school chums and bring up long lost memories. Ann told

me that this year’s alumni president is Sharon Drubin.

I was also reminded that this is also the 100th anniversary of the

Huntington Beach Union High School District as well as the Huntington

Beach City Elementary School District.

This week we will look at the early history of our high school. It

was in 1902 that the school district was founded as the Los Bolsas

Union High School with 20 students enrolled.

Because the school changed from one location to another so often

in those early years that people began calling it the “school on

wheels.”

This new school district was comprised of Bolsa, Chico, Fountain

Valley, Garden Grove, Alamitos, Newhope, Ocean View and Westminster.

All of these attempts were successful in starting a school except

Alamitos. Only one student showed up and so after four days the idea

of a school there was abandoned.

The school received 40 acres out on Bolsa Avenue for a second try

at starting a school, but locals objected strongly and got an

injunction against the school board. So they relocated to the second

floor of the Garden Grove Grammar School in 1904 with Edward Solomon

as the high school principal.

In 1905 the school relocated south to Wintersburg, inside the old

armory building on Warner Avenue and the railroad tracks.

About this time, most of the schools pulled out of the district

except Fountain Valley, Ocean View and Springdale.

Huntington Beach and Newport Beach petitioned to be part of the

district and were received into it.

The high school took to the road again and in 1906 relocated the

high school to the Methodist Camp Ground auditorium at Orange Avenue

and 11th Street.

In that year the California legislature approved a bill submitted

by Senator J.N. Anderson to change the name of the high school from

Los Bolsas Union High to Huntington Beach Union High School and in

1906 the school graduated its first class.

The students were taught English, science, chemistry and languages

from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4 p.m. and at first there were only

two teachers -- Mr. Crookshank and Miss Wilson.

In that first class were Morris Cain, William Johnson, Stella

Preston and Willis Warner. Cain went on to practice law in Santa Ana,

Preston moved to Athens, Ore., Johnson took up ranching in Tulare and

Warner became an Orange County Supervisor.

A new three-story high school was established here in 1908 at the

corner of Yorktown Avenue and Main Street and in January 1909 the

personal effects of the old school were transferred to this new

school building.

Arthur E. Paine became the principal of Huntington High in 1910

and he also taught history.

About 1913 the school board purchased a two-ton truck and

outfitted it with seats for use as a school bus.

The 1913 graduation class included Mary Hill, Vernon Heil, Flossie

Murdy and Locksley Livernash.

By 1914 enrollment reached 127 students and the faculty included

Paine as principal, Frederic Trover teaching English, M.E. Ross

teaching Algebra, Grace Moore teaching Domestic Science, John Ogle

teaching Agriculture, Vida Ross teaching Latin, Leona Mudgett

teaching Music, Irene Parsons teaching Math and Robert Kegg teaching

Manual Training.

Included in the 1914 graduation class were Clinton Newland, Albert

Isenor, Ruth Harding, Edwin Pann and Theresa and Paul Hallicy.

As the years came and went, the old Mission-style school became

too small, and a new and bigger school was proposed.

The architectural firm of Alison & Alison was hired to draw up the

building plans for this new school. They were chosen because of their

fine work on Royce Hall at UCLA.

The new school was begun with a groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. 8,

1926 at which several students pulled a ceremonial plow guided by

William Newland who was head of the school board.

It was on Sept. 22, 1926 that the Grand Masonic Lodge laid the

cornerstone for the new school. The polished stone was inscribed

“Erected Anno Domini MCMXXVI.”

Behind this stone was placed a time capsule that contained a list

of students, a list of the high school board members, a copy of the

school’s yearbook “The Cauldron,” a copy of the student manual, the

names of the architects, a copy of the Huntington Beach News on that

day, a list of Masonic Lodge members, a copy of the building

contract, photographs of the old school and a copy of the Holy Bible.