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CENTENNIAL SPOTLIGHT
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As important as people like J. Stanley Brown and William Rainey Harper were to the origin of Joliet Junior College, there would have been no college in Joliet in 1901 if a new high school building had not been built. The old building at Chicago and Webster Streets had become so crowded that hallways and closets were being used for classrooms. A recently enacted state law permitted the establishing of township high school districts, and on April 4, 1899 local voters approved the creation of the Joliet Township High School District by a vote of 2,725 to 329. Two months later in a special election, voters overwhelmingly approved (1,446 to 1) a proposition to select and purchase a site and to erect a new township high school. The creation of the new township district in 1899 broadened the tax base sufficiently to fund the junior college in its infancy, and the building of a new high school in 1901 provided modern classrooms and laboratories for teaching freshman and sophomore-level college classes. The new township high school board of trustees supported Superintendent J. Stanley Brown's efforts to use the new building to expand the curriculum beyond the high school level and to create a well-defined two-year college program, which eventually became known as Joliet Junior College. At the dedication of the new Joliet Township High School building on April 4, 1901, each speaker poured lavish praise on the design and durability of the structure. Board member Henry Leach described the imposing new structure as a "lasting monument to the progressive spirit of a wide-awake community." He went on to prophetically suggest that the building would be "standing in excellent condition one hundred years hence." The architect who designed the school, F. S. Allen, characterized its general style as Gothic but with a flat roof. At a total cost of $220,382 for both the property and furnished building, the school |
board had spared no expense in providing students with the most modern high school imaginable. Built of Joliet limestone with Bedford trim, the new building had eighty-seven rooms. The hallway floors and wainscoting, as well as the stair treads, were made of Vermont marble accented with darker Tennessee marble. The classroom floors were constructed of maple, while the doors and interior trim were crafted of oak. The switchboard in the central office provided telephone contact between the superintendent and teachers in 40 different rooms. C. E. Spicer, head of the science department, was especially proud of the science labs, the quality of which surpassed those found in most small colleges. The new school even had an assembly hall that seated 1,500 people, nearly three times more than the students enrolled in 1901. Judge A. O. Marshall, president of the school board, captured the feeling of those at the dedication ceremony when he described the new township high school as "the pride of Joliet and a monument to the liberality and enterprise of its people." This new building with its ample space and modern labs provided the setting for the nation's first public junior college. |
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