Highland Park High School Class 1898. Left to right: Ira Hole, George Millard, Frank McCaffrey, Newmn Finney. (From the Highland Park Schools, Handout)
The creation of Township High School District 113, which operates Highland Park and Deerfield high schools, evolved through the democratic process.
In 1876, the Illinois Supreme Court case Richards versus Raymond ruled that the April 1, 1872 "Illinois School Law: An Act to Establish and Maintain a System of Free Schools," did not violate the Constitution of the State of Illinois.
The law permitted and outlined the establishment of township high schools and the maintenance of free schools by local taxation. It provided the blueprint for the surveyed township districts for secondary education in Illinois.
The process was not precisely linear. As early as 1856, a form of public school existed in a Highland Park school district. An 1857 school board ledger entry notes Deerfield Township paid Electa Hoyt $26.21 for teaching school in the summer of 1856.
The first secondary or high school classes were taught at the grammar school, Elm Place. In 1885, Milton Baker received the first high school diploma in Highland Park.
However, Highland Park High School and the Township District mark its official birth as September 1887, when high school classes began in three rooms above the Brand Brothers paint store. Township taxes paid for rent and renovations for this new school.
As the school served the entire township, Professor Elisha Gray presented the first diplomas from Deerfield Township High School on May 20, 1890. (Note: East Deerfield Township changed its name to Moraine in 1998. The original Deerfield Township split into East and West in 1889 — school taxes played a significant role in that split.)
Bells rang in a new building at Deerfield Township High School on Vine Avenue in 1900. That building no longer stands as buildings have been re-purposed and replaced to provide the up-to-date facilities.
The school district consolidated with Shields Township to create Deerfield-Shields High School, 1907-1936. (Lake Forest opened in 1935 with 450 students who previously attended Deerfield-Shields.)
One year after, the name Highland Park High School officially returned, despite the fact that students from Fort Sheridan, Highwood and other communities attended. The current Deerfield High School opened in 1960 for township students living west of Skokie Highway.
Webster is the archivist at the Highland Park Historical Society. This article was written using resources in the society's Archives and Research Collections, funded in part by Henry X Arenberg Archives Preservation Fund. Visit highlandparkhistory.com for more information.