Oklahoma County, OK Schools

includes names of some schools http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/OK/Oklahoma/state.html

Oklahoma County

1920 Choctaw High School

1924 Classen High School

1927 Roosevelt Junior High School
1929 Classen High School, Oklahoma County, OK Submitted by Angie Long

1932 Oklahoma High School Honor Society

1944 Choctaw High School

Sunnyside Elementary School
1970 Webster Junior High, Oklahoma County, OK Submitted by Angie Long
1971 Webster Junior High, Oklahoma County, OK Submitted by Angie Long

Central High School

Did You Know . . .

Three of Central’s most popular teachers ever - Maybelle Conger, Doris Taylor, and “Coach” Van Meter - were fellow Central High School classmates. All three graduated in the Class of 1924.

Wilma (Vaughn) Jackson (’59) is the current incumbent in that position. [Alumni Historian]

With much fanfare, the new Oklahoma History Center opened to the public on November 19, 2005, and is truly an imposing facility. Occupying 18 acres to the northeast of and across N.E. 23rd Street from the Capitol, the facility includes both indoor and outdoor exhibits. The state-of-the-art main building houses the indoor exhibits, distributed among five large galleries. A full-size replica of Wiley Post’s airplane, the Winnie Mae, is suspended from the entrance rotunda’s ceiling, and a gift shop, library, and the Winnie Mae Cafe are also housed in the main building.

--------------------------------------

BIG CHANGES DUE FOR WEBSITE
By Vernon Copeland (’49)

The Central High School Alumni Association website (www.centralhighokc.com) will soon look brand new, and, for all intents and purposes, it will be. The home page is in for a complete
redesign, featuring graphically integrated school logos and images and an index/menu for accessing the various pages inherent in the site. A web manager feature that will allow real-time updates to the site, and among the various pages be a Board of Directors’ page, a bulletin board, a school history page, an alumni email address list, a news page, an alumni biographies page, and a calendar of
planned activities and events.
This new site will be designed to allow for maximum expansion of its contents, and your comments and/or suggestions will be very important in that regard. Joe Ludwick should be contacted in
that respect, at gijoeludwick@cox.net.

CENTRAL’S FLAG POLE ERECTED IN 1921

A flag pole wasn’t included in Central’s original construction plans (an oversight?), and one wasn’t erected until 1921. This article from the September 15, 1921, issue of the Sooner Spirit (at
that time called merely “The Sooner”) chronicled the event.

NEW FLAG POLE ON CENTRAL GROUNDS

Flag Unfurled First Time On Monday Morning hat students of the Central High School are proud of the new flag pole erected by the Board of Education is evidenced by the numerous comments of those passing the southeast corner of the building each day. The pole is of iron, ninety feet in height, and is set in a concrete base. It carries a flag of ten by fourteen feet, one of the largest to be found in the city. New flags will be supplied as needed by the Board of Education. The first flag raising on the new pole took place Monday morning at 8:00, Mr. C.W. Gethman, Principal of the
High School, officiating. This is the first time in the history of Central High School that a flag has been flown on the grounds. Hitherto, no flag pole has been available, none having been erected when the building was constructed. The graduating class of 1918 purchased and erected a small pole as a gift to the school, but two weeks after its erection, before it had carried a flag, it was broken at the base by a windstorm, and had to be removed.

Did You Know . . .
The first ever high school football game played on the University of Oklahoma’s Owen Field pitted Central vs Norman on Thanksgiving, 1926. Norman won 7-3.
And . . .
The first ever football game played in Taft Stadium was Central vs Classen on October 19, 1934. Construction of the stadium had just been completed, and it was formally dedicated immediately prior to the game. With 15,000 fans in attendance, Central won 8-7.
------------------------------

Such Is Life
If we print jokes, folks say we are silly; if we don’t, they say we are too serious. If we publish original stuff, they say we lack variety; if we publish things from other papers, they say we are too lazy to write. If we stay in the office, we ought to be out rustling news; if we are out rustling news, we are not attending to business in the office. If some old reprobate dies and we tell the truth about him, we are slanderers of a good man gone wrong; if we try to help his folks cover up the fact, we are neglecting our duty to print all the news. If we wear old clothes, we are too slovenly; if we wear new clothes, they are not paid for. What is a poor editor to do anyhow? Like as not someone will be mean enough to say we swiped this from an exchange.
We did - all of it!

Horace Thompson, editor of the Sooner Spirit at the time, admittedly swiped it, so I do too, and adopt it as my mantra for as long as I am privileged to occupy this position. So, with apologies to Abraham Lincoln, while I’ll no doubt be unable to please all of you all of the time, I hope I can at least please some of you most of the time and most of you some of the time. You’ll no doubt notice a few changes, but for the most part I’ll try to carry on within the exemplary framework that outgoing editor Wilson Meek established. The most noticeable change in that respect will be several recurring fea-

------------------------

ROSTER OF ALL OHS SENIORS COMPILED
The compilation of a roster inclusive of all Central High School seniors, including non-graduates as well as graduates, has been completed and is archived at the Alumni Association Office.
Comprised of more than 24,000 names, it encompasses all of Central’s senior classes, from 1895, the first ever, through 1968, the last. Included are graduates of summer school, special World War II veterans programs, and night school (adult education), as well as General Education Test Diploma (G.E.D) recipients. Anyone wishing to search the roster for a particular student, or to access it
for any other purpose, can do so by contacting either the Alumni Office or Don Wood. ¦

Central High School

Central High School Museum
Closed in 2005

1895 to 1968

students were known as Centralites

Oklahoma High School

700 block of N. Robinson aka Oklahoma High School built in 1911 (National Register )

In 1892, the Oklahoma City School Board rented a one-room store front building at 319 Northwest California Street to use as a school. This location is now in the midst of the Myriad Gardens. It was in this setting that Mary D. Couth conducted the first classes of Oklahoma High School. She was twenty-two years old, and had been married just one year. She was capable and her teaching skills were very much appreciated.

In 1893 the High School was moved east of town to the Military Reservation at Northeast 4th and Walnut Streets, where abandoned military quarters that were used by the commandant were used as a classroom. Mrs. Selwyn Douglas served as the principal and Miss Alice Baitman became her vice principal. Those were primitive days and youngsters usually walked to school, although on occasions a pony or a bicycle was used.

After a fire on the military reservation in 1894, the third year of the High School was spent in a Methodist Church where space for classes were rented for the school's use until the new Irving Building could be built. This church was located at 119 Northwest 3rd Street. It eventually became Saint Luke's Methodist Church.

By 1895 the Irving Building at Fourth and Walnut Streets was ready to be occupied. This was at approximately the same site as had been the commandant's quarters. The land of the Federal Military Reservation was eventually given to the city for school use, and the remainder of the land was otherwise sub-divided and sold as homesites. Although this structure was used until 1910.

The high school was never named Irving High School... it always retained the name "Oklahoma High School"..... though sometimes it was known as "The High School".

The Solomon Andrew Layton artectural firm is the contractor of record that set this building in place. It was inovative on the inside and contained a structure that combines Classic and Gothic design that used Batesville white stone.

Finally the grand building on Robinson was sufficiently completed (work went on during the entire first school year) in order for it to be used for the graduation ceremony of the class of 1910. This was a building expressly designed for the needs of such a school, and it was a point of cultural pride in Oklahoma City. It was "Thc High School"!

The academic achievements of Oklahoma High School (OHS) students often reached national heights. There was always great pride and school spirit in which athletics played no small part. Then as the city's population increased Central was no longer centrally located. In 1926 other high schools were brought into the city in order to serve the sprawling population and Oklahoma High School became Central High School. It is noteworthy that it had been called by that name for a number of
years in the writings of editors of the Sooner Spirit and annuals as well as the city papers. The transition was easy and Central High School set a pattern for competition and academic achievement throughout the state.

In 1981 the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company purchased the building to be used as their regional offices. From the time remodeling plans were first considered, the east entrance and the foyer were dedicated to our high school's museum. As the structure was refurbished, the north east and south facia of the building was faithfully retained; the flag pole and green tree of Lebonon were carefully retained; the slope of the faded auditorium floor was leveled but the proscenium arch was refinished in its original colors and the plaster work of the leading edge of the balcony was repaired. It's a beautiful place to visit and refresh dreams. And we, the living alumni of Central High School, are mindful of the teachers who made the school a true place of learning. We remember our classmates who studied, laughed, cheered, roamed the halls, participated in all sorts of clubs and activities ... and we sing the Fight Song with true reverence when we proclaim: Hail Alma Mater.