First High School; Wichita, KS

An approximately 1884 photo (August / September) of the first official High School in Wichita, KS, a confirmed Sternberg-built structure. Sternberg built more of the government and commercial buildings and fine homes in Wichita, KS from about 1875 - 1906 than any other designer and builder during this time. Indeed this was a time of tremendous growth in Kansas. A few hundred to, at the height of the boom, a few thousand buildings were being completed in Wichita each year.

 

The 1888 book, "Portrait and Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kansas" (Chapman Brothers; Chicago, 1888) noted the following about the buildings Sternberg erected in the Wichita area...

 

“Ninety brick stores in Wichita stand as monuments of

his skill and industry, besides numberless other

buildings, probably twice as many as have been put

up by any other contractor in the city.”

 

This brick structure is no longer standing. It appears to be virtually complete minus a few windows and a marble insert over the side door. The front door to this school (to the right in the picture had marble inserts over the doorway. Before this brick building was built the grade school and high school were co-located together in a wood frame building (about a half a block north of this site). That building burned down in 1879. In building back, it was decided that the grade school and high school should be separate, hence the erection of the first high school in this photo. As of 1884, the grade school and high school were no longer co-located. Construction started on this in the Spring of 1884. It was located between Second Street and Third Street on the east side of Emporia. This high school opened, Sept. 16, 1884, with an attendance of 34 students. By December of 1884, the enrollment had increased to 42. This structure cost approximately $41,500 to construct, originally. As enrollment continued to increase, a large addition was made to this structure... the tower was removed and extra rooms were added in 1886. This was not a small addition. It at least doubled the size of the High School and may have been more space than was needed in 1886, but it needed to accommodate future population growth. See Photostream for photo of the expanded high school: "First High School - Expanded; Wichita, KS". In this photo of the expanded high school note the square windows on the right side of the building (2nd floor) yet all the new windows on the expanded (left) portion have arches.

 

Wichita's population growth was indeed rapid during this time 1880s. For example Wichita's population in 1880 was 4,911, but by 1890, it was almost 24,000. This type of growth wasn't unusual for Kansas towns at this time. After the Civil War ended in 1865, black people began moving to Kansas to take part in the great prosperity being promoted through Kansas agriculture. Printed flyers were circulated encouraging colored people to go to Kansas and blacks generally associated Kansas with the underground railroad and abolitionism, so indeed they moved. Nicodemus, Kansas in particular was at one point a community entirely comprised of colored persons. Many towns in Kansas including Great Bend, Garden City, Larned, Kiowa, Dodge City were experiencing explosive growth. The people moving to Kansas came from many places (of course eastern states like New York and Pennsylvania) but mainly the Ohio Valley region (i.e, Ohio and Illinois). Immigrants from countries such as Germany, Russia, and Ireland also came to Kansas because of deliberate recruiting efforts by the railroads. These immigrants brought with them unique customs (which although unusual by local standards were generally well accepted by locals). Indeed early Kansas was very open to different races and cultures, even though this changed in the early 1900s. These foreign immigrants also brought with them wealth which was used to buy land and land offices were very busy places in many small Kansas towns. In fact they were so busy not uncommonly, people camped out over night in front of the local land office in order to get a good spot in line the next day to either buy or sell. Because of the pandemonium in front of many land offices, rules were established (a "pecking order" of sorts) to ensure that people waiting outside were being served in a fair and systemmatic way. This undoubtedly cut down on many a fist fights.

 

W.H. Sternberg designed and built up more of the area (by about twice) than any other contractor and all during one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. In fact, he was such familiar name that in some years, simply listing him in the city directory by name only (no address) was sufficient. An address was not required for Mr. Sternberg (at least this year). All other contractors, however, required an address. Given that this was a directory, an ommission of an address is unlikely. Also in those early directories, it was not unusual to simply list commonly known buildings and people by name without an address, for example, "Fletcher Building" or "Bitting Building". Because they were commonly-known, an address was really redundant and was frequently omitted. In New York City this would be similar to saying, "Empire State Building"... and if anyone needs an address at that point, there may be a problem! Following is a "copy & paste" of the Contractors and Builders from the 1890 Wichita City Directory:

 

Contractors and Builders

Downing B H, ab 211 n Main

Gribi S G, 201 n Water

Minick Andrew, 114 s Lawrence

Parsons F F, 118 s Main

Sawyer J K, 208 Sedgwick

Smith A, rear 447 n Lawrence

Stem W P, 124 s Lawrence

Sternberg W H

Woody Enoch, 1055 n Topeka

 

Your thoughts, comments, ideas, stories and/or additional information about this place and/or this photo are welcome and appreciated!

 

This photo is courtesy of the Wichita Public Library, (www.wichita.lib.ks.us).

 

 

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