Ipswich History

 


The Ipswich Historical Society is sharing articles written by IHS students. The students visited the museum, researched and wrote about events, people and businesses in the community.

Ipswich School

by Angeline Rye

I chose the Ipswich School as my topic because I wanted to learn more about the school throughout the years. I did research in some Ipswich Centennial books that I looked at from Mrs. Wolff at the school. I learned that there are lots of changes that have happened and many surprised me. Some of these changes surprised me more than others.

According to the Ipswich Centennial book, the first brick school was built in 1886, while classes began in 1883 and were held in the upstairs parts of downtown businesses. Also in this source, I found out that the original high school curriculum consisted of geometry, algebra, English, Latin, American history, English history, physics, physical geography, and bookkeeping. According to information at the school, the first graduating class was in 1906 with one student. Also according to the same source, in 1908, there was an addition added to the east side of the building because the population of the town continued to grow.

According to the Ipswich Centennial book, there was a fire in September of 1934, which destroyed most of the building the night before school was to start. According to the same source, while the damage from the fire in 1934 was being repaired, classes were held in various places in town for most of the school year. The band and vocal programs have grown since the 1950s and continue to grow now. Also according to same book, the first record of kindergarten being held was in 1959. According to the same source, before November of 1960, there was no hot lunch program at school. According to the Ipswich Centennial book, parent-teacher conferences did not exist before the year of 1962. According to information at the school, the largest class to graduate was the class of 1971, when 60 students graduated, while the smallest classes to graduate were in 1903 and 1906, where there was one student to graduate. The graduation rates have not been nearly this high since then.

 

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