Today, it is well- known as Jordan High School. But at the turn of the century, it was called The People's College, and it was open to anyone "up to 100 years of age."
In addition to a basic academic program, it offered courses in wood shop, millinery and sewing, health occupations, gas-engine maintenance and agriculture. Students were to leave the school ready to work.Boys were expected to devote half their school time to practical work, and they got experience helping to construct public or church buildings. Girls prepared meals for public occasions and also were responsible for planning, preparing and serving routine cafeteria meals - at 21/2 cents per dish. The school subscribed to the theory that "when you educate a boy, you educate a man, but when you educate a girl, you educate a whole family."
"Utah is the only state that has attempted to eliminate idleness from 12 to 18 through the public school system," wrote then-Jordan Superintendent D.C. Jensen of the school's work ethic.
A dental office was located in the school, and there was a cooperative project with the county health department to see that children who needed it had diseased tonsils and adenoids removed. In one year, 234 took advantage of the service.
High school-age children from 12 Salt Lake Valley towns and villages attended Jordan High. School activities were year-round. "We no longer believe in nine months' rush and three months' rust," Jensen said.
It was a different campus in those days. Cottages were provided for the superintendent and principal, while instructors lived in a "teacherage" in Draper. Students came to school from all over the south end of Salt Lake County, many riding for miles in horse-drawn "kid wagons," which ultimately gave way to buses.
Salt Lake County was experiencing the beginning of the spread to suburbia, and U.S. 89 was a major thoroughfare connecting Salt Lake City to points north and south. For almost 80 years, it has been an ideal spot for Jordan High School, an imposing edifice that first rose out of agricultural acreage with its four handsome pillars symbolic of the education within.
Jordan is not alone. The central location of the highway has made it a good address for such high schools as Ogden, West, Murray, former South, Gunnison and Piute.
Jordan's history began when the educational needs of Salt Lake Valley outreached the capacity of church basements and home schools - even though some taxpayers still felt that the building of actual schools was superfluous.
When Niels Lind, a turn-of-the-century school board member, proposed that taxes be raised to build a 12-room school, fellow board members concluded he had "lost his mind" and drummed him off the board, a history of Midvale says.
But as the needs became more pressing, taxpayers dug into their pockets to the tune of $165,000 to build the original Jordan High.
By contrast, the current Jordan Board of Education recently approved purchase of land several blocks to the south which, along with extensive land work, will cost more than $5 million. By the time the school is completed, the costs are expected to approach $40 million.
Now bursting at its seams and feeling its age, the old building has outlived its usefulness and will be vacated in a couple of years as students move to the new U.S. 89 location. During deliberations on the site for a new school, many patrons pressed the current school board to retain the State Street tradition for Jordan.
Many Jordan supporters also hope that someone will purchase the old building and keep it in use.
The present building has served students since its dedication in 1914, when people came by buggy and on foot to take part in the ceremony. But Jordan High School had existed as an entity since the early 1900s, with students attending class in a church basement, a bishop's storehouse and in Central Elementary School in Midvale before the new school was built. The first Jordan graduating class in 1911 had 11 members. The other 52 who began as freshmen in 1908 had dropped out - a typical statistic for that era.
Beetdigger athletic teams were racking up wins before the building was occupied.
In 1910, coach O.H. Dutton concocted unique "showers" for his team - 50-gallon wooden barrels commonly used for scalding butchered pigs. At the end of a workout, the boys jumped in to rinse off the grime of their exercise.
The school's Beetdigger designation could easily have been something else. It was common for boys, in particular, to be excused from school during harvest time to help in the fields.
"Just think, we could have been called `potato diggers' instead," said former Principal Jerry McCleary. But the Beetdigger ensignia became a proud symbol for hundreds of students who spent their high school years at Jordan.
In 1935, Jordan garnered the first state championship in basketball. That trophy joined awards from earlier triumphs in football. Over the years, Jordan's trophy display cases accumulated numerous such awards.
Principals over the years have included Jorgensen, Henry Peterson, A.M. Merrill, E.W. Robinson, L.W. Nielsen, O.D. Ballard, T.H. McMullin, G. Reed Sanderson, Donald J. Parr, Sherman Crump, Clement Bishop, McCleary and Fred J. Ash.
The current Jordan District superintendent, Raymond W. Whit-ten-burg, like several of his predecessors, graduated from Jordan.
Over the years, the activities inside the old school have changed to accommodate the times, but for thousands of Utahns, it holds happy memories of high school days.