1918 HIGH SCHOOL

    De Leon’s High School building just after construction was completed in the spring of 1918. 

  The terracing appears to have been finished but no trees had been planted.  The Class of 1918 never attended school in this building but held their graduation ceremonies in the upstairs auditorium on May 20, 1918.  The school was located on the present site of the First United Methodist Church.  The brick used in the building was a very dark red almost maroon color.  Coupled with the white trim it was a perfect fit for De Leon.

The second floor auditorium looking south from the small stage.  The west double door is on the right side of the photo.  To the rear is the nearest thing the school had to lockers, a hat and coat rack.  Notice the lone light bulb hanging on the left side of the picture and a large skylight at the top center.   The door on the left exited to the south stairway.  An identical door and stairway was located on the north end next to the stage.  The second floor had three large class rooms which are not shown.  They were along the east (left wall).  At some point the seats were removed from the auditorium and were replaced with school desk.  The coat closet was replaced by shelves to house the library and a counter was added in front of the shelves.  After Comyn consolidated into De Leon and the building was being used as the Grammar School the seats from the Comyn school were installed in the auditorium. 

1922 all the students of De Leon High School gathered for a school photo on the south end of the building.  On the right side of the In school, the Travelers Hotel can be seen in the distance over the rooftops of the Home Economic house and the T.P. Weaver home.

   Trees had grown significantly by the time the photo on the left was taken in the mid thirties and a band hall and two plumbing stand pipes had been added by the late thirties in the photo on the right.  The present high school was completed in late 1951 and classes moved at mid-term.

    The building next housed what was called Grammar School which consisted of the 4th and 5th grades.  The fourth graders used the two northern class rooms while the fifth graders used the two southern class rooms.  During the 1955 -1957 school years, Mrs. Dickey taught fourth grade in the lower left corner of the building while Mrs. Katie Kuhn’s (Miss Katie) class would have been on the back left.  Mr. Bob Menzel had the fifth grade class on the right while Mrs. C.E. Irby had the east classroom.  The lower floor was perhaps four feet below the exterior ground level.