The caption reads, "Last Day at Old High School, Salem, Ind." The picture poses something of a puzzle. One would think the last day would have been a beautiful day in May of 1909, the last day of the school year, with the new high school standing ready for occupancy that September. But look at those trees. By mid-May in Salem, the trees should be in full leaf. The trees look more like mid-March. Or perhaps late March -- nobody in the picture seems chilly, they aren't wearing coats. So what was the last day at the old high school? And for that matter, what was the first day? The history books don't report the exact dates, but they present a general history of the school. The only problem is that it is short on specifics. The 1916-1976 History reports that the first school building on Hackberry was the Salem Seminary, built to replace the Grammar School conducted by John I. Morrison in the building that later became the the birthplace of John Hay. Morrison was so successful that he started a school for girls, the Female Collegiate Institution on a neighboring lot. An article in the Salem Leader of Aug. 28, 1985, identifies this as the building that eventually became the first Salem High School, at the corner of Hackberry and College -- a three-story brick building erected in 1835 as the girls' boarding school and Morrison family residence. Morrison sold the school in 1849 and the building burned in 1851, but was promptly rebuilt. Morrison returned for a few years, then two men, M. M. C. Hobbs and James G. May, conducted a private school in the building, apparently until 1872, when Salem opened its new public school on Hayes Avenue, which held all 12 grades. May's son, W. W. May, reopened the building as the Eikosi Academy in 1878. He died in 1885 and two sons, James W. and Ben, continued the school until they left to take charge of DePauw College in New Albany sometime in the late 1880s or early 1890s. The town, perhaps feeling some population pressure in the public schools, took over the building and moved the high-school grades into it at this point. (Meanwhile, the public school on Hayes Avenue burned in 1900, and was replaced by the Elementary School.) The high school evidently outgrew the Eikosi Academy building a few years later, and the new high school opened -- and this building closed -- in 1909. (That means, incidently, that the dedication program for the new high school building on Nov. 27, 1908, was held before the building was actually finished and in use.) It's too bad the image isn't sharp enough to pick out individual faces. Somewhere in this crowd I should have some relatives -- my grandmother, Helen Wiggs, was in the class of 1910, and my grandfather, Louis DeJean, the class of 1911. This card was mailed from Pekin on July 25, 1911, addressed to Mr. Walter Saunders, R.R. Four, Box 75, Atwood, Ill. The message reads, "Kind Friend, Received your card some time ago. I am at my grandma on a visit In Wash. Co. I have been having a very good time. Rosa H." The card was evidently kept in a postcard album for a long time, pressed against a sheet of soft blue paper that at some point suffered from excessive damp -- hence the blue dye and the diagonal clean lines in the left corners. (10/18/01) Home | The 1900s | Next card