This is one of two cards in the "Red Back" series that show the new High School, which opened in 1909. Perhaps there are two because this one misidentifies the school as "Lyon High School." The official name was "Salem-Washington Township High School," and the second card may have been issued to correct the mistake. The pictures on the cards are very similar but not identical. (This photograph was evidently taken while the building was still under construction during the late fall of 1908: the same photograph is used to announce the High School Dedication program on Nov. 27, 1908. Also, if you you look closely at the large version of the card the lawn looks suspiciously not like lawn, but like bare dirt painted green. Another clue: there are not yet any blinds on the windows, and blinds are clearly visible in the second card.) While it wasn't the Lyon High School, there is a Lyon connection. The board of historical consultants to this Web site remembers it this way: the Lyon family of Salem, which owned the Lyon Block on the west side of the Square (the buildings occupied for many years by the Farmers-Citizens Bank and the Allen-Thompson law firm), donated the land on which the school was built. It was first opened to students in 1909, the same year this card was used -- the postmark is Sept. 4, 1909 at 9 a.m. Later (the historical consultants remember the date 1929 but can't quite remember why) a gymnasium was built behind this building, and named Lyon Hall. Still later, in 1957 when a new high school building was opened and this structure became Salem's first junior high, there was still a plaque in the first-floor hallway commemorating Mr. and Mrs. Lyon. The card was mailed from Salem on Sep. 4, 1909, addressed to Harve Overshiner, Shattuck, Oklahoma. The message reads, " Well, Harve, they tell me you have gone to Oklahoma to teach. I am very glad you have decided to do that. I was down there last week, saw every one and had a good time. Let me hear from you. Lina Fultz." (It's interesting to note that there several cards of the old High School in this collection and most are taken from almost exactly the same position, although decades apart -- the corner of Water and Mulberry streets looking northwest. Similarly there are several views of the old Elementary School, and most of them were taken from the corner of East Walnut and Hayes, looking northeast. Both buildings were symmetrical -- there's no reason why a view from one corner should have been favored over the other, except that if you were the photographer making your approach to each school from the town square those corners provide the view you would have seen first.) (9/29/00) Home | The 1900s | Next card