Over the next 65 years, every state in the Union would follow suit. Over 150 years ago, Massachusetts became the first state to provide all of its children with access to a free, public education. One individual who radically transformed the country was a politician from Massachusetts by the name of Horace Mann. In the history of America, there are few people who have profoundly changed the country for the better or for the worse. He was best known for promoting universal public education and teacher-training in “normal schools” which was heavily influenced by the educational system of Prussia. (Excerpts of this information are courtesy of Sometimes Interesting and the Idiot Photographer who brought the reader a rare and unique insight to the history of Gary, Indiana.Horace Mann was an American politician and education reformer. When it opened, the finished school served Kindergarten through 12th grade. It also contained two libraries, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a refectory, two gyms, and two swimming pools (at the time the boys and girls used separate facilities).
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The central building featured 48 classrooms as well as offices for principal, assistant principal, and their immediate staff. The Horace Mann School was about to receive a landscaping makeover which would set it apart from every other Gary school and turn Mann into the premiere school in town. On November 8th, 1926, the cornerstone for the central building at 524 Garfield Street was finally laid. By 1922 the east building had been erected, and the west building followed two years later in 1924. A year later Wirt realized permanent structures would need to be built, and in 1921 construction on the present-day Horace Mann School would begin.
Firstclass horace mann portable#
Demand for the west side school was greater than initially thought, and in 1919 three more portable units were added behind the first two. The first class consisted of 45 students who had previously attended Jefferson School. Mann would be the steel city’s third high school when it was established at West 5th Avenue and Garfield Street in 1918 – but it would be constructed in pieces and not officially completed until 1928.Īt first Horace Mann consisted of two portable trailers near the street on the large property. Wirt’s public school to serve the growing west side was named after education reformer Horace Mann, who pioneered the concept of public funding for schools regardless of sex or race. The schools – Froebel, Roosevelt, Horace Mann, and Lew Wallace – were all 3-stories tall and to be constructed in a similar red-brick-with-white-trim classical composition style as Emerson. Wanting to expand on his earlier success, the aggressive superintendent drew up plans to add at least four schools over the next two decades. Wirt’s new platoon-style method of education called “ Work-Study-Play ” was deemed a success during its launch at nearby Emerson School in 1908.
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When the residents appealed to Gary Schools Superintendent William Wirt, he listened. As the town of Gary grew, so did the need for more schools.
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The upper west side was pleasant if not beautiful, but growth was limited if the neighborhood lacked its own school. Homes in the neighborhood would boast similar design cues as the region grew and established an identity. The Horace Mann-Ambridge neighborhood was defined by classic Georgian brick and stucco architecture. Steel executives and their families once lived on the tree-lined streets of the town’s upper west side. The campus set a new standard for the area’s public schools by featuring landscaped rolling hills, multiple gyms, and pools, and even a man-made pond. A creation of innovative educator William Wirt, the unique school took seven years to build and was finished in 1928. Horace Mann School of Gary, Indiana is on the short list of American high schools that have graduated more than 75 classes of students.