Of Schools and Learning

First Avenue at Washington Street, showing Phoenix National Bank at left.

Although the city has changed, the beauty of the setting remains the same.

(more often called "Gardiner's Hotel") which stood on the northwest corner of Third and Washington Streets. It was an adobe structure -fairly large and pretentious for that day.

The Capital House and Saloon, of adobe construction and located on the north side of Wash ington, between First and Center Streets, was the first two story building erected in Phoenix. It belonged to Johnny George and Jack Walters, and was saloon below and lodging house above.

The first private dwelling for family use was erected on the Phoenix Townsite by Judge William H. (Bill) Kirkland in the late spring or early summer of 1871. It was an adobe building and stood on the north side of Wash ington, between Center Street and First Avenue.

On January 17, 1871, Colonel James D. Monihon, an Arizona pioneer of 1862, planted the first cottonwood tree upon the townsite.

Among the first regularly ordained ministers of the Gospel to be appointed for Arizona by any church denomination was Rev. Alexander Groves. This occurred in November, 1870, soon after the Los Angeles Conference of the M. E. Church, South, and almost immediately the reverend gentleman set out for Prescott, Ari zona, the field of his future labors. In February, 1871, Rev. Franklin McKean, another minister destined for religious labor in Arizona, arrived at the Phoenix Settlement, and immediately commenced the work of salvation. He was a representative of the M. E. Church, South, the same denomination to which Rev. Groves bore allegiance, and many of the settlers were pleased "to know that this church will hereafter take great interest in our spiritual welfare."

Rev. McKean gradually aroused interest throughout the valley in religious work and preached to large and appreciative audiences at whatever rancher's house seemed most con venient. With his arrival, concerted religious effort in the Salt River Valley may be said to date, and has never become dormant since that time.

In October, 1871, Rev. Groves left Prescott for California to attend the annual conference of his church. Although during his stay in Pres cott he had been able to establish a church or ganization, he did not return to that place, as the Conference sent him back to the Salt River Valley, where he was held in high esteem.

The first Catholic priest came into the Salt River Valley in the spring of 1872, and con ducted church services in the valley on Sunday, April 12th, and then in the town on the fol lowing Tuesday. Having performed his duties at Phoenix, the Catholic leader (whose name unfortunately is not known) next visited the settlement around Tempe, which was then be coming a populous community. This priest came to the valley from the Florence Settle ment, where he was regularly established in charge of a fairly large number of Catholics residing in that vicinity. Phoenix was, at that time, a place of secondary importance to Flor ence from a religious standpoint and until a permanent parish was established at Phoenix, Catholic priests from Florence continued to pay frequent visits to the settlers of their faith in the Salt River Valley.

The first business men to locate upon the Phoenix Townsite, based their hopes of success, of course, upon the future growth of the town and the agricultural development of the sur rounding valley. With but a handful of settlers located upon nearby farm lands, from which a great expanse of desert stretched out in every direction, the outlook for commercial pros perity was not at first very promising. As a matter of fact, many of those who were the pioneers in putting up the first buildings and starting the first stores and other business enterprises gave up in discouragement when business did not pick up as fast as had been ex pected and after a short stay sold out and moved to more inviting fields. Heyman Manasse, Miguel Peralta, Barnett and Block, Morgan and Dietrich, William Bichard and Co., the Goldwater Brothers and many others stayed in Phoenix for a time and then departed for other sections of the country. A few, however,stuck it out and eventually made good. Jim Cotton, John Burger, Johnny Gardiner, Jim Monihon, John Y. T. Smith, Johnny George, Ed Irvine, Mike Wormser, the Goldman Broth ers and a few others not only were successful in a business way but became leaders in shaping the affairs of early-day Phoenix.

After William Smith, who started the first store in Hancock's building, came Murphy and Dennis, who for some years had operated a store to the east of the townsite. This firm, composed of James Murphy and John T. Den nis, put up a store building near the northeast corner of Washington and Montezuma (now First) Streets to which they moved the stock of goods formerly kept at their country store and adding thereto a new and varied stock from the outside. They remained at this loca tion until they sold out to Charlie Stearns, of Yuma, who had formerly been in the employ of David Neahr, a leading merchant of that town.

Following the opening of the Murphy and Dennis store, came that of William Bichard and Co., a widely known firm which had been located for years near the Pima Villages on the Gila. When hard times visited the Salt River Valley in the middle 70's and trade became dull, the Bichard Company closed out their business here and the Washington Street build ings, which they had purchased from Johnny George, remained vacant for many years.

In the footsteps of these pioneer storekeepers quickly followed other business men and soon the newly-selected Phoenix Townsite began to (Continued on Page Fifty-six) EXAMINING THE PHOENIX SCHOOL SYSTEM AND FINDING IT TO BE AN OUTSTANDING ONE-ANSWERING THE NEEDS AND DESIRES OF AN INSPIRED CITIZENRY WHO BELIEVE THAT THE BEST EDUCATION CAN BE NEITHER TOO EXPENSIVE NOR TOO GOOD FOR ITS CHILDREN.

BY HARRY L. CROCKETT TEACHER OF PRINTING, PHOENIX UNION HIGH SCHOOL.

Phoenix Schools are top ranking in the nation. They have been developed in a relatively short time by a group of vigorous, inspired educators. Within her bounds may be found train ing for the youth of Phoenix from kindergarten through second year of college.

The grammar grades are the fundamental basis of any school system. In Phoenix proper this work is done by the Phoenix Public Schools, a system of nineteen units, offering training from kindergarten through the eighth The Phoenix high schools have a very large Reserve Officer's Training Corp, which ranks very high.grade. The largest unit in this system has an enrollment of twelve hundred students trained by thirty-four teachers and the smallest unit two hundred students trained by eight teachers, their combined enrollment totaling thirteen thousand students, taught by three hundred eighty carefully chosen teachers. These teachers each have an A.B. Degree and many of the principals and supervisors have a Master's Degree.

This year there have been added five guidance teachers who are to maintain a closer than ever link with the home in an effort to reduce juvenile delinquency.

The course of study is constantly examined to see that it is measuring up to the standards Phoenix Junior College, fronting beautiful Encanto Park, had an en-rollment exceeding 700 students in 1941, and offers a program of education, culture and recreation.

of the community. At present the language courses are being revised with an accent on functional and oral language which meets the need of the students' present and future use. The Phoenix Schools above the sixth grade are organized on the platoon system which gives the pupil such activities as music, art, home economics, manual training under specialists and often in especially equipped rooms. These courses for boys include sheet metal, woodwork, leather work, and mechanical drawing, which lead to the pre-engineering courses in high school. Special courses in art are offered leading to more active use by the student.

Special teachers of music offer instrumental music for piano and other orchestra instru-ments to students above the fifth grade. As the student advances in his music ability he is put in his school orchestra and when abil-ity warrants, is placed in the Second All City Orchestra with membership in the First All City Orchestra as a higher goal. Several of the city's outstanding young musicians have come from this group.

The system is supplied with a corps of special remedial reading teachers, who help the students with reading difficulties. Their trouble may have been caused by physical handicaps, too frequent changing of schools or other deficiencies.

The Phoenix Public Schools organized May 15, 1871 in a building on what is now Cen-tral Avenue, grew so rapidly that in 1909 it had 1,750 students; in 1919, 5,887, and in 1943 thirteen thousand students. Its grounds cover sixty-five acres in nineteen places in the city. The buildings are modern and ad-ditions and changes made to keep up with the changes of the community life. As a great part of Phoenix is not in the city limits the children out of this boundary are served by a group of eleven grade school districts. Each grade school district is a com-plete unit with an elected board of education, administrative officers, and teaching staff. Some of these systems have several campuses. These schools work in close harmony through the county school superintendent. Their close proximity to the city system and competition with each other have made high grade, active school systems, covering, with the Phoenix Public Schools, two hundred fifty-six square miles. These districts including the city sys-tem compose the Phoenix Union High School District.

The new North Phoenix High School campus is striking in its simplicity of design. It was erected a few years ago when the Phoenix Union High School reached capacity.

During the spring months of each year every eighth grade room is visited by the Phoenix Union High School Superintendent and the Director of Research and Guidance. They examine these groups with standard tests and measurements, which help to keep the work up to par and uniform.

The Phoenix Union High School System was organized in 1895 when it was realized the community would grow at a rapid pace in the years to follow. In the first forty-five years of its existence the school grew from a one room to an educational plant covering over eight city blocks, with buildings valued at two and a quarter million dollars. The enrollment during this period kept pace, for dur-ing this time the enrollment had grown from a handful to 5,409, in 1939, when the graduating class consisted of 866 seniors. This rapid growth so taxed facilities of the school that it was found advisable to go to the people for a bond issue in the fall of 1938. This bond issue was for two million dollars to supplement a Federal Grant and was approved by the property owners. With this amount two campuses were laid out approximately twelve blocks East and West of Central Avenue on Thomas Road and an ultra-modern gymnasium built on the original campus. This gymnasium built under the W.P.A. effort has the second largest Lamella roof in America, and gives an unobstructed floor space one hundred by one hundred and forty feet or enough room for a full sized tennis court where the students have seen top ranking tennis stars perform for an assembly program.

During the winter months, girls and boys enjoy play periods in the warm sun. The girls wear play suits, and the boys take advantage The striking architectural design of the North Phoenix High School stadium is a new innovation in combining structure and night light-ing into one unit.

When these new plants were completed the high school was divided and one group went to the thirty acre campus on East Thomas Road which was called North Phoenix High which last year served a student group of 2,167.

The Colored School on a separate campus at Fifth and Grant Streets was erected in 1926 and has shared the rapid growth of all the other departments of Phoenix Union High Schools and last year served 209 students.

These three high schools last year gave instruction to 5,792 students in twenty-two carefully organized courses. These courses vary from Art and Agriculture through College Preparatory, Pre-induction, to specific Vocational Training. All these through the choice of the student.

The high schools have a strong guidance program with a personnel of seventeen persons who devote their entire time to helping solve the problems which arise in the school, the home, and society. Even though the school is large many personal contacts are made and much good comes to the student from this service.

The teachers in the schools of Phoenix are a cosmopolitan group, coming here from almost every large school of the Nation. The lure of the West has brought them. They have scholastic training and ability far above the average and are steadily raising the standards. For example in 1927-27% of the high school teachers had a Master's Degree, while in 1943 -75% have a Master's Degree.

The Phoenix Union High School System is at present training for the war emergency while at the same time keeping alive the values needed for long range education. As soon as it was apparent we were headed for war those in charge of planning set up special work for students going into service as it was found many boys would go directly from high school to the army or navy. These courses were a Pre-flight course for those boys who wanted aviation and would seek training, a Pre-induction course consisting of added work in radio, physics, internal combustion engines and mathematics as the government suggested.

As many boys were reaching induction age before finishing high school an accelerated program was devised where the student could attend summer schools, take extra work dur-ing the school year and graduate or be certified as having completed fifteen units as much as a year earlier There are six main buildings of modern architectural design which plan to meet the growing enrollment. The school holds membership in the American Association of junior colleges.

This stress of the emergency has brought the Military Department to the front and the R.O.T.C. in charge of a Lieutenant Colonel of the Regular Army, assisted by three sergeants has made a fine record. This year the Brigade was rated as a R.O.T.C. Honor School. The Rifle Team was rated second in the Ninth Service Command and sixth in the Nation. The Rifle Team rating was gained through telegraphic competition.

The Phoenix Schools were selected by the U.S. Office of Education as one of the twentyfive school systems to be known as InterAmerican Demonstration Centers. Through class and club activities and by means of assemblies, movies and radio the fact and story of Latin America were presented to students and citizens because of a belief that through study understanding will come.

The Arizona Vocational School organized in 1935 spent the first few years of its existence in rented quarters and was forced to move often until 1939 when they took over the buildings vacated by the Phoenix Junior College on Seventh Street. There they taught basic trade and industrial preparatory subjects in carpentry, plumbing, air-conditioning service, general sheet metal, automobile mechanics, air craft motor mechanics, automobile body and fender re-conditioning and painting, commercial dressmaking, mechanical drawing, aircraft sheet metal, radio, electrical work, acetylene and electric welding, and related trade sciences.

With the advent of the war this school has become the center in this area for the National Defense War Production Courses. Many of their shops are in use twenty-four hours per day in a training program which moves along so rapidly it takes constant contact to even keep abreast of the figures. For example: In round numbers, the Arizona Vocational School has trained from July 1, 1940 to July 1, 1943, twelve thousand persons and nine thousand had been employed in the work for which they had received training. They now offer seventy courses necessary in preparing war production workers. Arizona Vocational School is one of thirty-one approved co-operating schools for pre-service training for the Air Service Command.

The Phoenix Junior College was established in 1920 and has shown a rapid growth. In 1928 a separate plant was built on Seventh Street where the college was maintained until 1939 when it was moved to the thirty-acre campus on West Thomas Road where it has continued to grow. The Phoenix Junior College is planned with the idea in mind that a comprehensive Junior College is economical, and that it offers the greatest opportunity for the largest number of students. The school offers two years of college work acceptable to other institutions of higher education for students who plan to transfer. The Phoenix Junior College makes it possible for Phoenix students to get two years of college work while living at home and maintaining social and parental contacts unbroken. The College is accepted by more than three hundred fifty institutions of higher learning as it belongs to and works under the rigid specifications of The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. There are employed twenty-eight full-time and eight part-time teachers having the highest qualifications as to scholastic and academic training, leaders in their fields of academic and vocational training. The present war has effected for the time Phoenix Junior College much the same as