The Building of the Current High School

During most of the first half of the 1900s, the high school students in Washington attended classes in the school on Spruce Street, which now houses the Washington Park District.  The building was originally built for a 100-student capacity.  As early as the 1920s, the students and members of the community were lobbying for the construction of a new school.

In 1934, the High School had an enrollment of 141 students, which made the building overcrowded, especially when you consider they shared it with Washington Grade School. Post-depression, Washington was growing and expanding rapidly, and by 1937, the high school enrollment had ballooned to 170.

In September 1938, the idea of a new high school was brought before the Kiwanis Club, asking them to help circulate petitions to get enough votes to put it on the next ballot. The property recommended as the proposed site for the new school was on South Main Street between Melvin and Oakland. The site was owned at the time by the Denhart Bank, which had foreclosed during the Depression.

The club acquired 342 signatures from the public, and the vote was set for October 8, 1938. The public would vote on the best site for the school and the issuance of $90,000 in bonds as part of a WPA (Work Projects Administration, part of the New Deal) grant program. It was a tremendous opportunity.

The ballot included seven potential sites in addition to the original recommended site.

The vote carried by a 5 to 3 margin. As to the location, the top two locations were the original recommended site with 246 votes and the corner of Jefferson and Bondurant with 122 votes. The problem with having seven locations was that none received a majority of the vote, which was required.

On November 5, 1938, a special vote was called to decide between the top two locations from the previous vote. The committee settling the affairs of the Denhart Bank lobbied in the paper for their site on South Main Street to be chosen to help settle the affairs of the failed bank.

On November 5, 1938, Washingtonians came out for the vote, and the Bondurant site edged out a victory 434-403.

Two days after the vote, the school board received word that the WPA grant had fallen through and that they would not get the funds. They could not afford to build a school now, so the project was put on pause.

A year later (1939), the school board made an offer on the Bondurant property.  They were not fiscally able to build a school yet, but they felt that with Washington expanding at its current rate, satisfactory sites for the school might be lost if they waited much longer.

Through 1940 and 1941, the cries of the inadequacies of the Spruce Street school became louder and louder.  The previously mentioned 1937 enrollment of 170 at WCHS had ballooned to 269 by 1940.  In 1941, the University of Illinois High School Visitor’s Office made its yearly report.  The report was lengthy and lauded the students and teachers but was critical of the Spruce Street building.  In the end, the report had only one terse recommendation for Washington schools: “Provide a building suitable to the needs of modern secondary education.”

In April 1941, a petition was signed by 313 Washingtonians asking that an election be held on a bond issue for a new school. This did not take the school board by surprise. For months, they had been working with architects and local attorneys to develop the plans for a new school when the opportunity presented itself. Their intention was to build a school for approximately 400 students, with expansion expected in the coming years.

The votes came back as a strong victory, with 851 voters tallying a 601-239 margin in the affirmative.  The new school was going to be a reality.   After contracts were signed, the different contracted entities were given a year to build the school so it would be ready for a Fall 1942 opening.

The opening of the school year was delayed just a bit due to construction, but on October 5, 1942, the school opened for the first time at 115 Bondurant Street.