1906 postcard
With the season of high school graduations upon us, we have a look now at an era where the construction of a high school in town was something akin to the raising of a temple, a landmark, and a symbol of civic pride. When fewer people went beyond eighth grade, the achievement of a high school diploma was the mark of an educated person and pointed to the rise of a new middle class. The style of building reflected that prestige.
The first high school in Holyoke was established in 1852. The first school on Elm Street, built in 1862, was a simple two-story brick schoolhouse design. The postcard photos here are of the second high school building, built in 1898. It was used until 1964, when the new and current building was constructed on Beech Street.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;
Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;
A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.
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