Tales from School – Part 1

As Hibbing High School celebrates 100 years since it was dedicated, it seems like a good time to look back at some of the interesting stories in its history. This will continue on next weekend’s Years of Yore page.

The stories that follow come from a variety of sources. Enjoy reading about the “Castle in the Wilderness” while you raise a toast the school, its builders, the many teachers and staff through the years, and the thousands of graduates. Maybe you are even enjoying a piece of cake!

Happy 100th Anniversary Hibbing High School!

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The following information was gathered in 1968.

The high school was built from 1920 through 1923 at a cost of 4 million dollars. It is constructed of red brick and trimmed with Bedford stone. It is 416 feet long, 180 feet deep, and 90 feet high. It is arranged in the shape of a printed capitol letter “E.”

The building was planned to house 2,000 students in kindergarten through two years of college. Grade school classes moved out of the high school building and into new grade school buildings throughout the 1950s. In the 1960s, with the large number of Baby Boomers moving through the school system, 2,900 students were in the high school building, which at that point housed some of the 7th , 8th , and 9th Graders and all of the 10th, 11th, and 12th Graders. In June 1968, Hibbing State Junior College moved into its own campus on the east side of Hibbing. That helped to ease the crowded conditions in the building.

The school includes a magnificent auditorium, capable of hosting all sorts of performances from symphony orchestras to high school plays. Libraries, one for the high school and originally a separate one for the college, lecture halls, science labs, and classrooms of different sizes are found here. There is also a swimming pool, indoor running track, and gyms.

Over the years, more than 30 nationalities have been represented in the Hibbing Schools.

Remodeling has taken place throughout the building’s existence. Classroom, including those devoted to cooking, visual arts, science labs, industrial arts, automotive, world languages, and band have all been updated as technology has changed.

(Since the above information was written in 1968, of course, even more upgrades in technology have taken place. Also, things such as security systems and a fire suppression system have been added. In 1991, a 4 million dollar addition to the school was opened. Built on the south side of the building, where the original football field, Cheever Field, had been located, the addition holds a new band suite, double gym, and an eight-lane, 25 yard long pool.)

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One of the renovations which has taken place twice in Hibbing High School has been the reupholstering of the 1,800 auditorium chairs. This was done for the first time in 1974. It was done again in 2018 as part of the auditorium restoration.

The following is from the Hibbing Daily Tribune, August 25, 1974. The article was written by long-time staff writer Doreen Lindahl.

Hibbing High School has been justly proud of its auditorium over the years and for the past 50 years members of the community and area have enjoyed the elegant surroundings.

But time took its toll, and after 50 years, according to the insurance company, the stage curtains and chair upholstery was no longer fireproof. Up went the insurance until the replacement of these items to establish the proper level of safety for insurance purposes.

Arthur Judge of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, came in with his son, Ed, to undertake the huge task of reupholstering all 1,800 chairs in the auditorium. For two months, 10 hours a day, six days a week, the pair filled the high school halls with the rhythmic whirring and pounding sounds of their work.

The old blue and dark gold upholstery has been removed. Extra foam padding has been added in the seats and backs, finished off with luxurious nylon and rayon gold velour.

The sight of the finished auditorium is indescribable.

Mesaba Concert Association will test the seats out for the first time when the concert season opens October 5.

Everyone not only has commented on the “new look,” but also about the amazing endurance and dedication of the Milwaukee pair. “They just never seem to stop, except when Ed goes out to pick up a lunch for them. Then his dad keeps working and eating at the same time!”

It’s his 40th year of reupholstering auditorium chairs and when asked how he got started, Judge grinned. “When I got out of high school during the Depression, I took any work I could get and this was all that was available. I got stuck with it and have worked at it since, first for a company and then after the war I went out on my own.”

No need to advertise. After every job is completed he gets at least five or six calls asking for his services. During the past decade the work has taken him through about 30 states and through his whole career he has been in all but ten states. About six years ago he gave up installing chairs, which was “hard on the knees.”

Ed is not planning to carry on the business, though he works with great skill alongside his dad. It’s just for the summer, and then he plans to return to the University of Wisconsin in the fall. Basically a wildlife journalist, Ed follows the nature trail and is interested in many wildlife and ecology areas, having a special interest in areas of Canada.

Of German-Irish descent, Arthur Judge displays a steel-like quality in his manner of working. He never stands still. As he talks he continues to stretch and staple the fabric with unhurried but deliberate regularity.

He said that about 2,000 yards of gold velour have gone into the recovering of the chairs. Also used were 55,000 new screws (50-year old screws have served their time), 1 ½ million staples, and approximately 480 hours during the past two months. Only a few days of work are left.

His cigar is as much a part of his appearance as is his quick smile and the kindness that twinkles in his eyes. “This has been a wonderful place to work,” he said with firmness. He explained how he has worked in theatres and auditoriums where cockroaches and nests of baby mice were in the seats when they were taken apart.

“I really like Hibbing,” he repeated many times. “The people here are so friendly and everything is clean.” In his quiet way, his son Ed agreed.

And they kept on working.

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The following is part of an article written for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, December 17, 1978, by Susan Willoughby.

The year was 1920. Iron ore was king. When the city of Hibbing moved south to make way for more mining, it went first class when building a new school.

Walking through the school today, the lavish care bestowed on education is evident all around. Classroom doors are golden oak, gates on each wing are wrought-iron, wide halls are decorated with marble, hand-worked plaster designs edge the ceilings. Assistant Superintendent (who later served as the District’s Business Manager) John Slattery says, “You can look for a long time and not find even a hairline crack in that plaster.”

In the astonishing auditorium with its 1,800 seats, chandeliers of cut-glass and brass imported from Europe soar from the ornate ceiling. A brass rail edges the orchestra pit. Here, music students and professionals alike can play the concert grand piano or the massive Barton organ, almost a complete orchestra in itself. The organ plays strings, reeds, flutes, chimes, and percussion.

Tiffany stained glass announces the auditorium’s exits.

In the library, students study beneath a powerful mural painted in 1913 by David Tice Workman. The 50-foot long mural depicts the iron industry. Originally located in the Lincoln High School in North Hibbing, when the new school was built the mural was moved to the new school. It has been declared a national treasure by the Smithsonian Institution, Slattery noted.

At times, the school seems more like a church or a museum than a building educating 1,500 students.

Structurally, the school is a fortress, with 36-inch thick masonry in basement walls and a double roof which has needed few repairs since the school opened 55 years ago. “This is the way they built them in the old days,” said Slattery proudly. “You couldn’t do this now even if you wanted to—it would simply cost too much.”

Until the 1950s, public tours were conducted during the summer months, and summer courses were offered on the building’s history, Slattery said. “People come back here all the time, and they bring their children and grandchildren to show them where they went to school. People show up from all over who have just heard about this school and want to see if what they heard is true. They say it’s even more impressive than what they heard.”

The secret of the school’s long-lasting beauty is the pride its students and staff take in it, says Slattery. “It would be criminal to ever let this place deteriorate,” he says. The students realize that they are a part of caring for this place. “The older kids install pride in the younger ones.”

Slattery speaks from experience. A 1935 Hibbing High School graduate, Slattery returned as a teacher in 1941. But, he points out, even if the students are careful, maintaining the building is still a lot of work.

For example, floors are swept several times a day to help protect them. The original linoleum has lasted so well that major flooring companies have taken samples to try to duplicate it. The have been unsuccessful. “They can’t figure out why it lasts so well,” says Slattery.

The plaster on walls and ceilings has only needed one touch-up painting in 55 years, he notes. The plaster work itself would be almost impossible to duplicate today because “it’s a lost art. Horsehair was woven into the wet plaster. That gives it strength. Doing this type of workmanship would be cost-prohibitive, even if you could find someone to do it,” Slattery points out.

“About 25 years ago the school district estimated the coast of reproducing the building at $14 million. But really, much of what’s inside is just simply irreplaceable. A lot of happy factors happened to meet in Hibbing for this school to be built in this way.”

Most Hibbing residents in the early 1920s were immigrants who worked in the mines. They didn’t have much education themselves, but they wanted the best for their children. “Education was a means of getting up from poverty for them.”

Hibbing’s mayor Victor Power proposed taxes assessed on mining companies for every ton of ore estimated to be in the ground. The companies fought it, but Power kept the pressure on them through the legislation and the courts. After his proposal was approved, school boards across the Iron Range soon could afford fine schools with those iron ore taxes. Schools here were among the first in the country with swimming pools.

But just as significant was the high quality teaching staff who could be hired for the excellent wages available here.

“You can thank our forefathers for all this, “said Slattery. “This is the greatest investment they could ever have made.”