These were Ashland's first and second real high schools;  for a time they stood together,  as both of these postcard views were taken from the intersection of 4th and Cottage streets looking SE.   The newer school was built in front of the older school,  for about ten years the old school functioned as a separate Junior High building for 7th and 8th grade.  The top of the Junior High building's bell tower can be seen poking up behind the new building in the above view.   The old building was torn down in 1925 and the auditorium and the new gymnasium were built in its place, using much of the original foundation.   The new building included a basement gymnasium which later became the girls' gym,  it may have had a matching south wing the same length as the one going along 4th street but I suspect it only went about one classroom.  Both wings were extended almost to Church Street in 1926 as part of the auditorium project.

The exposed part of north foundation of the first high school (the side facing 4th Street and visible on the left of the black & white photo) can still be seen in the courtyard of the second high school,  the new gymnasium is built on top of it.  In fact it appears that the basement of the first high school was used as the basement of the gymnasium which would account for the lack of room under each basket - when they squeezed in a regulation size basketball court there was only about six feet remaining on each end.  The odd configuration of the boys locker rooms under the gym is most likely the result of using the supporting piers originally constructed under the first high school.

 The blue shaded area in the diagram is my guess for the footprint of the first high school,  which is consistent with there still being two "un-excavated" areas in the basement,  one a few feet along the front of the old foundation and the second around the back of the foundation.  This would have been done to avoid risk to the foundation walls.  And of course there was no excavation done along the north wall which faces the courtyard.  Only the south wall had to be excavated so that the south wing could be built along that side and the topography would have made this relatively simply - most likely they simply opened up the side of the old school and moved the two huge heat exchanges and the blower into the basement, then ran ducts to the tunnel under the new school.

Below are the floor plans of the structure,  the oldest part (the west side bordering Cottage Street) was completed in 1915.  What we found as entering 7th graders in the fall of 1962 was basically what I found yesterday (September 1, 2015) at the auction.  Not even the condition had changed much during those 53 years.

There was one major change during these years.  A cafeteria was created on the 3rd floor;  taking over space that had been occupied by the library,  a small classroom,  a girls' rest room,  and a large classroom.  The library was relocated to the corresponding spot on the 1st floor which had been a large study hall.  Prior to this students either went home for lunch or brought their lunch and ate in designated lunch rooms, segregated by sex to minimize disruptions. 

The creation of a cafeteria was not an uncharacteristically visionary idea by the Ashland Board of Education.  Rather Congress had passed the National School Lunch Act in 1946 after an investigation found that the poor health of men rejected for the World War II draft was associated with poor nutrition in their childhood.

I still have my old Thorndike dictionary and inside I wrote Room 208 as my 8th grade English classroom.  Which would make Room 201 my 9th grade English classroom and either 204 or 205 as my 7th grade one.   Oddly I can recall a bit of my 7th and 9th grade English classes,  but I cannot dredge up a single memory of 8th grade English.  When I salvaged this floor plan from Room 208,  it never registered that I had spent a whole year in that specific room.

Room 216 was the Little Theater,  run by the Thespians Club;  note the two entrances.  The west end of the room had a raised stage and a ticket window to the hallway.

Above is the layout of the first floor of the Junior High School / Middle School from Fall 1962 until demolition in early 2016.  Below is the same area in 1943.  Very little changed other than the room numbering system.  In 1943 what was to be the library was a large study hall.  And the storage rooms next to it were boys' and men's rest room.  In 1943 there was a student run snack shop below the Cottage Street stairs called the School Store. Candy,  ice cream,  and cold drinks were sold before and after school as well as at lunchtime.  Money raised was allocated to student clubs allowing these organizations to do away with money-raising sales.  The space was still there when the building converted to a Junior High but I believe the student store concept ended at that time.   The 1943 floor plans specify what vocational activities were held in each room along Cottage Street. 

Note that the two rooms in the vestibule of the auditorium had different functions.   The one on the south was a ticket office and the one on the north was a coat check.

Above is the layout of the bottom level of the Junior High School / Middle School from Fall 1962 until demolition in early 2016.  This is drawn roughly to scale.

Technically there was a sub-basement below the north wing,  consisting of the girls' gym and the boiler room.  Although both extend up through the normal basement level of the structure they are also below street level and below the remaining areas of the structure.

Above is the layout of the bottom level of the High School in 1943,  not drawn to scale but giving proper curvature to the hallways.   Note the relatively few structural changes between this and the Junior High layout just above it.  This plan labels each room by function.  Far more area was originally devoted to shop classes,  the entire area under the auditorium steps was for printing classes;  unusual for a high school but probably because A.L. Garber was one of Ashland's largest employers. 

Also notable is a boys' rest room in the hallway by the General Shop area,  shop classes being exclusively for boys in those days.  This was decommissioned by 1962 and turned into storage.  To junior high boys the absence of a general boys' rest room on this level had seemed rather strange.