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The History of Palos District 118
The History of Palos District 118
By Emily Stefaniak
By Emily Stefaniak
Usually, when kids go to school, most of the time, they don’t think about everything that worked up to make the school they go to today. But how does a school with 61 classrooms start out? Was it always made to be this big, or did it start out small? Read more to see just how interesting this school’s formation can be.
Figure 1-One of the earliest photos. Children standing behind the one-room schoolhouse.
Where’d It Come From?
Where’d It Come From?
What was originally donated by Richard Swift McClaughry and constructed in 1858 was just a one-room schoolhouse. It only taught about 200 students, being a bit much for just the one room. Catherine McClaughry, Richard S. McClaughry’s family member, began teaching in this schoolhouse in 1895, and in 1903 she became the principal, or leader at the time, of the school. Then, in 1908, the school was upgraded with another room. Nellie G. McMahon was the new teacher as well. McClaughry soon raised up in the roles of the school, quickly becoming the Assistant County Superintendent of Schools in 1915. This also upgraded McMahon to be the principal. However, McMahon quickly takes over as the Assistant County Superintendent of Schools in 1920, McClaughry either retiring or passing away. Suddenly, in 1928, they had a plan to make a new Central building. This construction took place for the whole year and ended in 1929, where the new building was finished and dedicated.
The first of many rewards would then be granted to District 118 in 1934. It would be named as the “Superior School” by the Illinois State Superintendent, Francis Blair. Now, what seems very surprising is that 118 is actually made up of District 119 and 120 as well, making it combined, or consolidated, thus giving it the name “Consolidated District 118”. And finally, now we get to the schools that are still around today.
Figure 2-Palos East in construction in 1950.
From 1950-1951, Palos East, the oldest of all three Palos Schools, was constructed. In a newspaper article from 1951, Palos East was in fact just a 7-room school. It taught grades from kindergarten to eighth grade, making it the first middle school in District 118 as well. They still taught kids in the Central building, but only up to third grade. After the first addition, the second was added shortly after during 1953-1954. They didn’t just stop expanding with the Central building though. They also expanded that building in 1955, shortly constructing Palos West from 1957-1958. Palos South Middle School actually doesn’t become its own place until 1969. Further big events in the district’s existence do not appear until 2018.
Before 2018-2019 school year, students that went to East, West, and South would have the same routine every day. This would change when late start Wednesdays were established, the reason being so that teachers and staff to have meetings and plan what they will be doing for the upcoming weeks.
Soon, the oldest of the three schools gets awarded when Palos East earns the Illinois Exemplary School Ranking in 2020. This also goes for Palos West, which was named the National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2022. Palos South also earns what Palos East has, but not until 2023, but in 2024, the school also gets named the National Blue Ribbon School.
From all the events leading up to now, it looks to be that the district has come a long way through its 166 years of existence, but was the schedule the same? Or did they even have the same curriculum? It may be hard to believe, but the kids back then weren’t much different than us.
Figure 3-Children learning to tie knots in the schoolhouse in 1920.
The Average School Day of a Kid in the 1850s
The Average School Day of a Kid in the 1850s
If they weren’t helping their parents out on a farm or in a store, they would be at school. A major difference from now and back then was that kids didn’t really need to go to school. Sure, it was a good and privileged thing to go to school, but if the parents really needed help on growing and harvesting crops, then they would pull their children out for that year and have them work. This made the size of each class change year after year.
The hours that school was open is actually almost identical to the times we have today. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, school would start at 9:00 a.m. and end at 3:30 so that kids could do their chores before the day ended, or to help out with work. As far as curriculum goes, the kids in those times also learned what we all do today: English, geography, reading, and science. They were also taught how to grow crops, like corn, and basic skills, like tying knots. Along with curriculum, they’d also have fun activities, like hot dog days and even a picnic jamboree (event where people come and do races, verse each other in games, etc.).
Figure 4-Children participating in a picnic jamboree in 1916.
Look at your surroundings. You’re probably in a classroom or at home, supposed to be doing homework, but what are you reading this on? Your school laptop? Most of your work is probably on your laptop, and you probably use it every day for school. You also have homework on paper, and you most likely think that the kids back then just used paper to work too, but you’d be wrong. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, books, paper, and most materials we use today were too expensive or just nonexistent. Plus having the Great Depression occur during this time, it certainly impacted the schools. Students would do their work on pieces of slate, much like the shingles on rooves, and chalk to do their school and homework. Chalk was pretty cheap and could smudge easily, making it simple to rewrite something and reuse the slates.
Dress codes were certainly a major difference between then and now. For instance, if you were a young girl from the start of the school’s existence all the way to the 1960s, you would have to wear a dress, skirt, or dress culottes (pants that look like a dress). Makeup was strictly prohibited, and you could only ever wear pants if it was below 20 degrees. Other things that wouldn’t be allowed were baggy clothing, cowboy boots, blue jeans, shorts, overalls, messy hair, cleats, and engineer boots (big black boots with buckles on them). Other than that, the dress code didn’t look all that bad.
Figure 5-The original Palos South song from the 1969 Cardinal Pep Book
Palos South 1969 Vs. Now
When Palos South opened as a Junior High School in 1969, their student council created a “Pep Book”. This book contained dress code, clubs, cheer songs, and an official Palos South song. However, it wasn’t actually named Palos South Middle School. At the time, it was the Palos Junior High School. It consisted of a few clubs, some that would definitely be interesting to have today. Along with a whole layout of the school at the time in the book, it holds some interesting information.
To begin, there surprisingly wasn’t a sixth grade. The school only held seventh and eight grade, a very small range. This explains why there was only 464 students as well, including 26 faculty. Additionally, the students would all have lunch at the same time, which makes sense since there was no lunchroom. There was also a small range of clubs stated in the book, the few options being student council, heavyweight and lightweight basketball, track, cheerleading, and even wrestling.
Figure 6-The plaque for the first part of the school in the Commons.
In the old layout of the school, the parts of the building that exist today are the library hallway, the hallway from Mr. Berard’s room to the washrooms closest to the main entrance of the commons, and the hallway with the eight grade science rooms, including Mr. Buvala’s room and the room across it. The auditorium and gym also existed. There was no known lunchroom in the building, and the main office was behind the library. The main office would stay this way until 2006, when the school would get an upgrade which would include the entrance hallway, the steam room, capstone rooms, the hallway on the other side of the little theater and gym, and a second hallway on the bottom floor. This new addition would change the location of the main office and add a lunchroom for all the children, which makes it into the school we all know today.
From 1858 all the way to 2024, the district has come a long way from where it first started, and it just goes to show how much history we walk past every day.
Figure 7-The plaque for the second part of Palos South by the front office.
SOURCES (Check them out, they’re all interesting.)
History of Palos 118 - Palos School District 118
SKM_C65823071911250 (finalsite.net)
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