Tales from School – Part 2

The grand celebration of Hibbing High School’s 100-year Anniversary this past week has brought many visitors into the “Castle in the Wilderness.” Of course, year-round people come to see the school whose reputation has spread far and wide. But the anniversary events this week have made for even more alumni, past staff members, and just people passing through town who hear about the celebration to come in for a visit.

There are so many notable things to see when walking through the school. People are interested in the murals in the front entrance and the 50-foot mural in the Library. There are the marble-lined walls and staircase that get visitors’ attention. There are also the ornate grates, the golden oak-framed doorways, large windows, and high ceilings which elicit comments and exclamations from guests. And then, there is that spectacular auditorium!

The stories that alumni tell while returning to their alma mater are always delightful to hear and those stories are also a very important part of this historic building.

As tour guides, Joe and I never get tired of sharing this special place with visitors. Today’s Years of Yore takes a look at a couple of fascinating things within this remarkable school that people enjoy knowing more about.

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Some of the following information comes from a document prepared in 1968.

Near the entrance to the Hibbing High School Library is the Doll Case. This is very unique. Like other schools, Hibbing has plenty of trophy cases and other cases displaying student art work. But a Doll Case is quite special.

The collection here contains dolls of many sizes from 3 inches to 12 inches or more. Some depict children while others appear to be adults. Some are male and some are female. What makes these dolls truly special is that they each wear the costume of the country (or region within a country) from where the doll originated.

At one time, the Junior Red Cross was one of the most active student organizations within Hibbing High School.

Right after World War One, the Junior Red Cross of America asked its Chapters to help the children of Europe who were suffering from a lack of many items in the aftermath of the war. American student groups raised money and collected items which the Red Cross suggested, then packed those items up and set them to the National Red Cross office. There, the items were sorted and sent overseas for distribution to schools and organizations in Europe. Names and addresses of the American Junior Red Cross groups who had contributed were often included with the packages.

To thank groups who helped them in those difficult days, European schools sent dolls in their native costumes to the Americans. Pen Pal letter-writing campaigns also developed.

Junior Red Cross Chapters soon also helped schools and organizations in other parts of the world, after the success of the European program. In the same way, as a means to thank their friends, native-costumed dolls were sent to America from countries around the globe.

Hibbing High School soon had quite a fine collection of dolls from all around the world and it was decided to put them all together on public display.

Although the Junior Red Cross no longer is active in Hibbing, the dolls on display inspired students who came to Hibbing High School from foreign lands as part of student exchange programs in more recent years. Seeing that Hibbing enjoyed having “dolls from many lands,” students studying in Hibbing for a year have thanked the school by presenting them with a doll in the native costume of their home area.

The main objective of the display is to continue to encourage the establishment of good-will between students living in Hibbing with students in other countries.

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Inside the Hibbing High School Library is displayed another doll collection. This one was donated by an alumna, as recounted in the following article published in the Hibbing Daily Tribune on February 8, 1988.

Recently, a foreign doll collection has been donated to Hibbing High School by Dawn Patricia (Pat) McKusick MacDonald from Tuscon, Arizona, following the 50th Reunion of her Class of 1935, which was held in August 1985.

It was the first class reunion she had attended. While she was re-visiting her alma mater, she developed the idea of giving her extensive doll collection to the school.

She was born and raised in Hibbing, living in a log cabin across from Cobb-Cook School where she attended for the first six years of her schooling. For 7th Grade, she came to Hibbing High School, which at that time had classes from kindergarten through Junior College. Six of her family members graduated from Hibbing High School, with the seventh going to school in San Diego where her parents moved in 1942.

During her four years of high school, she remembered that J.W. Richardson was the School District Superintendent, Roy Martin was the high school’s principal, and Bes MacAllister was the girls’ counselor.

“My favorite teacher in Junior High was Catherine Cunniff. My love of reading, especially history and geography, stem from her class.”

She credits her love of Shakespeare’s plays to the teaching methods of Myrtle Philman in 9th Grade English. Agnes Tennyson was her Latin teacher, who also taught her a lesson beside Latin.

“One day in the library I found a “crib sheet” and used it the following day. Agnes Tennyson had me up in front of the class stating that if I cheated with a “crib,” I would never learn to figure it out for myself. That was the first and last time I cheated in school!”

Ken Peterson, who taught history, was MacDonald’s favorite high school teacher, and she enjoyed visiting with him during the 1985 Reunion.

She was active in the Masquers club where she was secretary one year and president the next. The group took the profits from the play they put on, “Mr. Bob,” and went to Duluth to see Katherine Cornell in the play “The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” She became hooked on the theatre.

She was active in many organizations during high school, including the school newspaper, National Honor Society, Thespians, life saving and the swim team.

Contributing to her decision to donate her doll collection to Hibbing High School is her enjoyment of Hibbing and her school days there. “I really and truly loved school. Those were very happy days and I still see or correspond with many of my classmates.” She added,“No knowledge is ever lost and no one should ever stop learning. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, ‘The world is so full of wonderful things, we should all be as happy as kings.’ “

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George Fisher was the long-time editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The following is part of an article he wrote in 1956 about the Hibbing High School Pipe Organ. The following also includes information gathered from articles in the Hibbing Daily Tribune in the 1970s, and the booklet “The Hibbing High School” by Dan Bergan, written in 2001.

Just in front of the grand stage in the Hibbing High School Auditorium rests the beautiful Barton pipe organ. The organ was purchased by the school district from the Chicago Vaudeville Theatre in 1923 for $26,000. It was manufactured by the Barton Pipe Organ factory and is a member of the so-called “Bartola” family of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Originally, the organ’s console was able to be raised on a cylinder piston to the level of the stage. However, in 1928 this mechanism was disabled after an organist was injured in a fall. The console was originally a horseshoe shape. The motor or blower which provides the wind for the organ is located far below the auditorium. The pipes are found in the so-called “pipes compartments” located high above the auditorium floor, on either side of the stage, above the royal boxes.

Back in the days of silent movies, a theatrical pipe organ was “de rigueur” for a quality picture house. In design and tonal composition, this entertainment instrument differed from traditional church and concert organs.

The Barton is really a complete orchestra in itself with all the percussion, wind, and string instruments it can play. It also has some very the unique instruments that it can play such as castanets, orchestra bells, chimes, tom-toms, snare drums, bass drum, xylophone, harp, and even thunder effects. However, the thunder effects were disconnected in the Hibbing auditorium to prevent breakage of glass and light bulbs!

It is estimated that of thousands of theatrical organs built in America during the era from 1910 to 1930, only a small fraction are left, with Hibbing’s thought to be one of only three Barton organs left in existence. Many of the pipe organs were destroyed by the wrecker’s ball and bulldozers as old theaters were torn down. Others were sent into deep neglect at the development of films with sound.

By the 1960s, Hibbing’s Barton organ was in need of major repair. Its 100,000 working parts were wearing out and much of the rubber tubing was falling apart. During the years 1974 to 1976, the organ was rebuilt by Norbert Berschdorf from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This master organ builder was assisted through the long, careful job by Hibbing school’s maintenance staff member Carl Peterson, who learned what it takes to refurbish a big organ.

Much of the rebuilding took place in Milwaukee with pieces then transported back to Hibbing. Carl Peterson made many trips to Milwaukee and back to Hibbing also, as he learned how to take apart the organ parts and then reassemble them in a way to please the perfectionist Berschdorf. It was Peterson who built the new console box since the original console had to be discarded and who, along with Silvio Badiali, paneled all the walls and ceilings of the organ chambers with plywood prior to re-installation of the pipes, bellows and countless other parts.

The rebuilt organ had additional pipes, for a total of 1,949 pipes and 29 ranks which allow for different tones or pitches from a pipe.

The renovation of the big instrument cost over $65,000.

A grand dedication of the new Barton-Berschdorf organ was held on October 12, 1976. C. Edward Thomas was the guest performer. The public was invited and he played both classical and theater music for the audience of over 1,200 who attended that special evening and then enjoyed a reception in the high school cafeteria. On the morning of the dedication day, he presented an informal demonstration and recital for the high school’s music students.

Frank Stanlake, a well-known local organist in the 1950s, described the beauty of organ music this way: “To me, it is a living soul that conveys to you in music the exemplifications of different moods in mankind. An organ to me is majestic, lifting our hearts and our souls to the finest things in life.”