The 65-acre campus of Evanston Township High School stands in bold contrast to the single room it was founded in.
In its 125-year history, Evanston’s only public high school has undergone changes of almost every kind, from the adoption of new education practices to the growth of students.
“We’ve been here since basically the beginning of the history of Evanston,” said Kathy Miehls, director of public relations at ETHS.
The story begins in the upper room of the Benson Avenue School, where superintendent Otis E. Haven taught the school’s first secondary-level class.
Haven, however, was given little encouragement and was forced to compete against the Preparatory School of Northwestern University, Evanston’s successful private four-year school.
Though he struggled to formally establish a public school, Haven’s luck changed when the Board of Education voted to organize and open the school in September 1875.
For seven years, the school continually moved to different halls on Davis Street.
Despite the relocations, the school continued to gain more students. While the original graduating class consisted of two students, the school succeeded in graduating 118 pupils over eight years.
When the school had outgrown the single classroom, community voters passed a referendum and bond issue in 1882 that formally established it as the township high school.
Though debates raged about the particular location of the new school, a compromise site was chosen at the corner of Dempster Street and Elmwood Avenue.
Under the direction of Henry L. Boltwood, the school’s first principal, ETHS adopted a classical, well-rounded educational curriculum.
By 1904, Boltwood reported that one-third of all students completed the 50-course graduation requirements, and 45 percent continued on to college.
After Boltwood’s death in 1906, Wilfred F. Beardsley was appointed principal and worked to get approval for the construction of a new site when annual enrollment grew by 10 percent from 1911 onwards.
From 1912 to 1921, six referenda were held to approve and raise money for the site.
Finally, in 1924, the new campus opened on Dodge Street.
Miehls said the opening of this campus has since allowed the school to expand without building a second school.
“We’ve been blessed that we could expand and contract on site, and I think that’s helped with the cohesion of Evanston,” she said. “We pay a lot of taxes for this public high school to exist, and we have resources that rival or better many colleges in the country. Education is extraordinarily important in this town and city.”
Editor’s Note: As a preview of ETHS’s 125th anniversary festivities this weekend, this week The Daily will feature different aspects of the school’s history.
