Emmerich Manual High School

History

Establishment

Beginning in 1883, a group of Indianapolis residents established the Mechanics Institute with classes in mechanical drawing and crafts. Enrollment quickly grew and the small private school could not meet the demand, leading to calls for a free trade school funded by the government. Otto Stechhan, one of the proponents, traveled to Germany in 1888 to examine the trade schools in that country. Upon his return in 1889, he tried unsuccessfully to persuade a group of manufacturers in the city to support the effort, but the Central Labor Union supported the plan enthusiastically.

Already in 1888, John P. Frenzel, president of the Indianapolis Public Schools board, had become a supporter of the effort. On June 14, 1988, the board voted to establish two manual training classes at the Indianapolis High School. Forty students enrolled in the initial classes.

On February 19, 1891, House Bill 811 was introduced in the Indiana House of Representatives to allow the school board to levy a property tax of 5 cents for every $100 of assessed value to establish an industrial training school. The bill was passed by the Indiana Senate on March 7. Planning for the new school began immediately. A committee of the school board recommended that a four-year school be established with classes in general education included and "that in no case should it descend to the mere practical details of some handicraft making its possessor able to practice these details without making its possessor able to practice these details without intelligent comprehension of the principles on which such a practice is founded".

The committee also recommended that the school be located on Washington Street somewhere between Alabama and Illinois streets, but that recommendation was not followed. A site on the south side was favored because there was no high school already in that area. In 1894, a triangle of land with a frontage of 420 feet (130 m) on South Meridian Street, 183 feet (56 m) on Merrill Street, and 331 feet (101 m) on Madison Avenue, was purchased for $40,000.

The board held a nation-wide competition won by Wilson Brothers and Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to design the new school. The building had three distinct units, separated by two towers, for the science, literary, and manual training departments. Construction of the $230,590 project began in 1894. The first classes were held on February 18, 1895, with 526 students (278 boy and 248 girls) enrolled the first year, exceeding the design capacity of 500. Dedication ceremonies for the Industrial Training School at 525 South Meridian Street took place on May 31, 1895. That fall, 700 students were enrolled.

Renaming

In 1899, the school was renamed Manual Training High School because many outside of Indianapolis inferred from the Industrial Training School name that it was a reformatory, resulting in numerous inquiries. In 1916, it was renamed Charles E. Emmerich Manual Training High School, in honor of the first principal of the school.

Building additions

In the spring of 1903, work began on a three-story addition at the southeast end of the existing building. This addition included 12 class and session rooms along with a gymnasium, at the time the largest one in the city. Moreover, a third floor was added above the woodworking department and the building was extended to the north. The $100,000 project included machinery such as a 100-kilovolt direct current generator powered by a Curtiss-Wright steam engine that provided power for motors in the shop area and lighting for the entire school.

On June 7, 1920, the cornerstone of the South Building extension was laid. It included an auditorium seating 2000, a cafeteria, and a larger gymnasium. A portion of this wing collapsed while under construction in November 1920. The addition opened in the spring of 1922.

In 1924, the original building was modernized and classrooms were added along Madison Avenue. Locker rooms and a new heating plant were included in the project. The entire facility now had a capacity of 2,500 students.

Relocation

By 1940, concerns were being raised as to the desirability of the school's location, which had become almost entirely commercialized as the city grew. Meetings of various groups in 1941 and early 1942 supported the construction of a new school at a location near Garfield Park, but the onset of World War II prevented any further action for the time being. The school board resolved on October 19, 1943, that construction of the new school be given special consideration, and Mayor Robert H. Tyndall's post-war planning committee supported the project in January 1944. A site selection committee appointed by the president of the school board reviewed five possible sites and, on December 27, 1944, the board accepted its recommendation of the current site on Madison Avenue south of Pleasant Run Parkway. On February 20, 1945, the board authorized the issuance of $200,000 in bonds to purchase the 21-acre (8.5 ha) site.

Progress on the project was slow. In mid-1948, the bids received and increasing building costs caused the board to reduce the scope in order to stay within a $3 million budget. The revised plans consisted of a three-story classroom building with a gymnasium, cafeteria, and auditorium and the issuance of bonds was approved in December 1949. The revised plans were completed by the project architects, D. A. Bohlen and Son, with a projected construction start date of August 1950. However, increased building costs resulted in further revisions, with the construction contracts not being awarded until July 5, 1951. Even so, construction of the auditorium was postponed due to rising costs.

Groundbreaking was held on August 2, 1951, with the laying of the cornerstone on August 21 of the following year. In the spring of 1952, the school board responded to requests by the high school's supporters to build the auditorium, and two months later awarded a $600,000 construction contract. The entire new facility was dedicated on May 24, 1954, with the first classes being held that fall with 1,734 students.

Total cost of the new facility was $4.5 million. It had 75 classrooms, a cafeteria for 600 to 625 students, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and, in a separate building, gymnasium with a capacity of 2,500. The school had a capacity of 2,200 students. The main structure is in the shape of a wide V or horseshoe around an open court. On one end (Building A) are the industrial arts rooms, the bookstore, and the cafeteria. Next to them in Building B are classrooms and science, home economics, art, and business education lab rooms. Classrooms and the school business offices are in the Building C. The Auditorium Building at the opposite end includes the library and music department.

Curriculum

The student-teacher ratio is 14:1, below the state average of 17:1.

Performance

In 2018–19, the school's average scores in standardized English/Language Arts and Math tests were below the Indiana state average scores. The four-year graduation rate was 51%.

Notable alumni

Joe Rand Beckett (1910) – attorney and member of the Indiana Senate representing Johnson County and Marion County in 1929, 1931, and the special session in 1932

Simon Baus – impressionist artist, member of the Irvington Group of artists

Maria Cantwell - U.S. Senator

Paul Hadley – artist and the creator of the current flag of Indiana

Jay Hall Connaway - artist

Glen Harmeson (1926) – former head football coach at Lehigh University (1934–1941), Wabash College (1946–1950), and Arkansas State University (1954); also head basketball coach at Lehigh (1934–1937) and Wabash (1950–1951)

Maria Cantwell (1977) – United States Senator from Washington, serving since 2001

Hooks Dauss (1907) – Major League Baseball pitcher

Elizabeth Miller (1878–1961) – novelist

Skiles Test (1889–1964) – businessman and namesake of Skiles Test Nature Park; also one of the original owners of the Test Building.

Dick Nyers – player for the NFL's Baltimore Colts and football coach of University of Indianapolis

Lutah Maria Riggs (1914) – architect and first woman in California to be named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects

William Edouard Scott (1903) – artist

Walter Bedell Smith – senior officer of the United States Army who served as General (United States) Dwight D. Eisenhower's chief-of-staff at Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) during the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 during World War II; later named as an Ambassador to Moscow, Director of the CIA, and Under Secretary of State