Manitowoc County WI Archives History - Schools .....H. P. Hamilton School - Two Rivers 
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H. P. HAMILTON SCHOOL — TWO RIVERS 
By History Committee

    The H. P. Hamilton school located at the northwest corner of 18th and East
Park streets was named in honor of H. P. Hamilton, the founder of the Hamilton
Manufacturing Co. As an educational leader, he served on the Two Rivers school
board at the time that the Two Rivers schools were organized under a city system
with a city superintendent of schools.

    It was not until 1865 that the several schools located in various buildings
throughout the pioneer village were housed in one building on the present H. P.
Hamilton school site, consisting of Lots 1-2-3-4 and the N 3/4 of lot 5, block
56, was purchased from Hezekiah Smith and Jos. Mann on May 3, 1866, for $475.
The S 1/4 of lot 5 and the N 1/2 of lot 6, block 56, were purchased from Henry
Kahrs for $1,300 on October 5, 1900. The first frame building was located at
about the center of the north half of the block bounded by East Park, 18th, and
Jefferson streets. The whole site was enclosed by a picket fence. A picture of
this school is to be found in a book about Two Rivers written by Arthur Lohman.
It is said that the white two-story frame building was about 40x140 it. The
building had two entrances, one near the center of each long wall. These
entrances opened into hallways and stairways separating the building into north
and south wings with two classrooms on each floor. Until about 1870, only three
departments were used. During 1870 and 1871, the sum: of $1,500 was spent to
complete the fourth classroom and then five teachers were employed to teach an
average enrollment of 400 pupils. Each room was heated by a separate
wood-burning stove. A well on the schoolgrounds furnished the water which was
dispensed in each room by a pail and dipper. Outdoor toilets were used until the
new Hamilton school was built in 1903. The rooms were lighted by windows in the
three outside walls. The "blackboards" were placed along the inside wall
partition. The furniture consisted of crude homemade desks and seats. The texts
used in this building were Electic, Swinton, and McGuffey spellers; McGuffey and
Swinton readers; Rays arithmetic; Mitchell's geography; Clark's grammar,
Guffey's history; and. Hatch's physiology.

    By 1877 the enrollment had grown to about 500 pupils. Then, too, there was a
demand for a high school which was established in 1877. These conditions, made
necessary the erection of a second school building on the site. County records
in the superintendent of school's office show that the sum of $3,200 was spent
to erect a four room, two-story structure on the northeast corner of the
schoolyard, the corner of 18th and Jefferson streets. This building is said to.
have been about 30 x 80 feet, of frame construction, and painted white. The
building was built so that the long side faced 18th street and the width side
faced Jefferson street. The entrance to this building was built on the
playground side at the center of the structure. This entrance led into a hall
and stairway which separated the school into an east and a west wing. The rooms
were heated with woodstoves. The janitor was John Miller who had only one arm,
but who did his work efficiently, bringing in all of the wood and keeping the
two buildings clean in spite of his handicap. For some time only one of the
upper rooms was used, for high school classes. The lower rooms were used for the
grades as five elementary teachers and one high school instructor were employed
by 1878. The county records show that additional sums were spent to complete the
unfinished rooms lip to 1890. Eight teachers were employed in the grades and
high school by that year.

    Still another school building was erected on the present Hamilton school
site in 1897 for about $1,500. It was a small auxiliary school building of the
barrack-type to care for the crowded grade conditions. According to Arthur
Lohmann this temporary structure was of frame constructure about 30 x 60 feet
and was built at the southwest corner of the present Hamilton school site
housing the sixth grade. This one-room barrack was used until the new Hamilton
school was erected in 1903. Sixteen grade and high school teachers were employed
by 1900. Credit for the information about these three schools on the Hamilton
school site must be given to Fred Dicke, Sr., Peter Schroeder, and Arthur
Lohmann. Miss Edna Smith, a clerk in the city superintendent's office, states
that the buildings were -torn down by Henry Kappelmann and the lumber sold for
construction of homes in the city.

    Leading Two Rivers citizens and the school board opened the campaign for a
new and modern school building to replace the three frame buildings as early as
the 1900's. As usual when faced with the expenditure of a large sum of money,
the citizens first voiced much opposition since many felt that the old frame
buildings were meeting the educational needs of the community. But the wise and
future-minded community leaders kept agitating until finally in 1903 a large
bond issue was floated to pay for a new school. Building operation began in 1903
and the school was completed in 1905 with appropriate dedication exercises
presided over by Mayor John R. Currens.

    The new and present H. P. Hamilton school was constructed of pressed brick
and finished in oak trim for about $54,000. The mason work was done by Frank
Wolf while Ira Stehn did the carpenter work. It is a two-and one-half story
building with a full basement. The basement at first housed the lavatories,
.heating-ventilating plant, and store rooms. When built, the second floor was
used by the grammar grades and the high school classes, for by that time there
was a city superintendent who taught some high school classes as well as four
other secondary instructors in Latin and German, English, manual training, and
music. The first floor of about six classrooms was used for the kindergarten and
grade children. The city clerk's school report to the county superintendent in
1905 for the school year 1904-05 records the fact that seven departments were in
operation — the high school section was counted as one department. The report
also records the fact that there were 614 grade pupils enrolled, but some of
them were attending the Roosevelt school. The bonded indebtedness of the
district in 1905 was $37,000. The high school report on file for the same year
shows that 26 young men and 20 young women were attending high school. Three
young men and three young women graduated from the four year high school course
in the spring of 1905.

    The H. P. Hamilton school remained the high school and one of the two grade
buildings until 1921 when the new Washington high school was completed. After
the high school classes moved out of this school, it became a grade school
building which cares for the public school pupils from kindergarten up to and
including the sixth grade for those children living between the two Twin Rivers
and for those living on the East Side. With the establishment of the vocational
school in Two Rivers, a part of this building has been used for vocational and
adult classes. A three room barrack was constructed along the west side of
Jefferson extending north to 18th street about 1912 and kept in use until 1922
for grades 3-4-5. Those were sold to private people for homes when the new
Washington school was erected.

    Leading county educators served as the principal of the Hamilton school.
Those known through county and high school records were: John Faville 1872, G.
A. Williams 1873, A. R. Ames 1874, John Nagle 1875, C. L. Powers 1876-7, J. M.
Roit 1878, Alfred Thomas 1879-81, Arthur Burch 1881-6, C. O. Marsh 1886-92, A.
W. Dassler 1893-94, E. R. Smith 1895-6, E. E. Carr 1896-99, A. B. O'Neil
1899-1900, C. W. Vande Walker 1900-1903, A. A. Thompson 1903-05, S. E. Pearson
1905-07, and W. J. Hamilton 1907-1917.

    The city clerk's records for the years between 1880 and 1890 list the
following as texts for that decade; Watson's complete spellers; Watson's and
Appleton's readers; Robinson's and Fish's arithmetic, Montieth's and Harper's
geographies, Greene's and Swinton's grammars, Barnes' Brief and Ridpath's
histories, and Hitchcock's and Steele's physiologies.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

1848 - 1948

CENTENNIAL HISTORY
of the
Manitowoc County School Districts and Public School System

EDITED BY JOS. J. RAPPEL, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 1948 


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/manitowoc/history/schools/hphamilt253gms.txt

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