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The History of Central High School
The History and Backgound of Champaign Central Central High School
Table of Contents
General History of Champaign from 1833 to 1871
The History of Champaign Central High School from
1866 to 1996
General History of Champaign Prior to 1875
- 1833
- Champaign County, formerly a part of Vermillion County, legally became
a separate county.
- The first school in the county was taught by Charles Cooper in a log
cabin about a half-mail south of Mahomet.
- 1852
- Champaign, although still not named so, was founded. It was created
around a line of the Illinois Central Railroad, which bisected the
county North to South. A station of it was located two miles due
miles due West of the Urbana courthouse, and thus the station was
called West Urbana Station.
- 1855
- The United States passed laws that created the public school system.
Dr. Shoemaker taught the first school in West Urbana in a small frame
building located on University Avenue just west of First Street.
- Champaign's first public school was built, which was later to become
the site of Champaign's first high school. It was located on the
corner of Randolph and Hill. This building was known as "Little
Brick".
- 1857
- In April, the citizens around the station organized themselves and
officialy created the Town of West Urbana.
- 1860
- The citizens voted in favor of the creation of a city government, and
elected to change the name of the city to Champaign in April.
- An elementary frame schoolhouse was built on the site of what was to
become by 1912 the Marquette School. It cost about $7200.
- 1861
- A religious seminary (school) was established in 1861 between Champaign
and Urbana.
- 1867
- The Illinois legislature decided in favor of Champaign-Urbana as the
site of the Illinois Industrial University (which is now the University
of Illinois).
- 1868
- On the first Monday of March, the Illinois Industrial University was
first opened to students.
- 1869
- The elementary school building was enlarged and remodeled.
- 1870
- A seminary known as the Female Seminary was opened for the education of
women. Miss Chapin was the principal and her two assistants were Miss
Whipple and Mrs. Richards. In its first year, 40 young women enrolled.
- The elementary school burned down on November 7, 1870. The remaining
classes that year were held in the Methodist church.
- 1871
- Women are first admitted to the Illinois Industrial University.
- A new building for the elementary school was dedicated on August 7.
It was another frame building. It burned to the ground on December 4.
Central's History
- 1866-1867
- The school known as "Little Brick", on the corner of Randolph and Hill,
became Champaign's first official high school.
- 1889-1890
- The "Little Brick" school building was torn down after the
consolodation of school districts 1 and 2 on April 28. The
new building was going to be placed near the center of the
high school-age population.
- 1892-1893
- The new high school building, located on High and Randolph, was
completed.
- 1897-1898
- On November 9, the school board pledged $260 to help Champaign High
School build its first industrial arts shop, where both Industrial Arts
and Home Ec. were going to be taught. It was completed on March 8,
1898.
- 1908-1909
- Two girls from the class of 1912 created a handwritten newspaper, the
"Daily Gossip", possibly the forebearer of the Chronicle.
- 1909-1910
- A new athletic association was formed. It officially started on September
30, 1909.
- The first edition of the "Maroon" yearbook was published. It even
included the entire text of a play to fill up space, as not many students
were present yet.
- 1910-1911
- A new annual oratorical (speech) contest was created.
- A new debating class was created.
- 1911-1912
- The enrollment jumped . . . to 480 students.
- 1914-1915
- After a fire, a new building for Champaign High School was built.
The building is now Edison Middle School.
- 1933-1934
- The current building was constructed and became Champaign's new
junior high school. It was constructed in accordance with
and by order of the Federal Emergancy Administration of
Public Works.
- 1942-1943
- The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, bringing the United
States of America into World War II.
- Some Seniors are drafted into the army, and other Juniors and
Seniors voluntarily enroll, dropping the population of
Champaign High School from 925 to 815.
- 1953-1954
- The current CHS building building ceased to be a middle school.
- 1954-1955
- The "Peparoons", one of many Champaign H.S. school spirit
groups, created "Max Maroon", a large, huggable bear
who was the mascot of this school until recently. He
has gradually faded away, and is no longer seen at most
school events.
- 1955-1956
- This building and what is now Edison Middle School switched
functions, making them what they are today; Edison became
a middle school and this building became Champaign High
School.
- 1965-1966
- In June of '66, three sisters who went to Central opened a
successful dress store.
- 1966-1967
- Centennial High School was completed. This school's name was
still kept "Champaign High School" for a few months.
Centennial was named so because 1967 was the "Centennial"
(hundredth) anniversery of the first Champaign High School.
- The name of this school was changed from Champaign High School
to its current name, Central High School. It was changed
around late December 1966 or early January 1967, with
heated controversery among the students.
- 1969-1970
- For the first time, a Junior was the editor of the Yearbook.
- 1975-1976
- Central and Centennial work together to build a house. It's starting price
was $55,000.
- 1977-1978
- Edison Junior High becomes Edison Middle School
- 1979-1980
- Four PLATO computers with the FORTRAN IV programming language
were loaned to Central from the University. Although crude
by today's standards, PLATO was state-of-the-art at the time.
- Peer Ears, a CHS group devoted to resolving conflicts between
students peacefully, was started in February 1980, with an
initial membership of 24.
- 1987-1988
- Over 10,500 different Jazz Bands from around the world submitted
audition tapes for the International Jazz and Orchestra Clinic.
Only CHS was chosen to perform at the clinic.
- 1988-1989
- Central was presented with the "Excellence in Education" award
by the U.S. Department of Education. On September 28, 1989,
Dr. Wojtena, the principal, Mr. Beck of the English
deptartment, and Ms. Rassmusen of the Physical Education and
Health department traveled to Washington D.C. to receive the
award from President George Bush himself!
- This school was rated one of the top 218 in the country.
- 1991-1992
- On October 28, 1991, Jesse Jackson visited Central High School.
- 1994-1995
- Enrollment: 1164
- The deans began to use walkie-talkies to communicate with the
office and each other.
- Two Central WWW sites were created; one unofficial one by two
Central students, and the other official one, by four
Central students in Desktop Publishing. Alas, both sites
have since died.
- This Central History page was first started.
- 1995-Today
- Champaign Central High School continues its tradition of
scholarly, artistic, and athletic excellence.
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