Although they did not get to enjoy the new facilities for very long, by the time the class of 1938 graduated the school had a new library building, tunnel under Division Avenue. A lighted football field, tennis courts, baseball field, swimming pool, and playground, now occupied the ten acre farm previously owned by Frank Rackett. Only his house on the northwest corner of Allen Road ( later 36th Street ) and Division Avenue was kept intact, and would be until he died in about June or 1959.
As so many were in the mid 1930s, the class of 1938 was largely defined by the Great Depression. But it does appear that by 1938 the school was supporting a fairly typical high school experience. The next decade would see both prosperity of a sort, and a four year war of a kind few today, in an era when a four day war seems excessively long, can really imagine. For those lucky enough to escape service, there was prosperity on the home front. Longer term the class of 1938 would see some very prosperous times in the U.S., and by the time they were 50 years old people were walking on the moon. While no one lives in certain times, the class of 1938 can look back on perhaps some of the best times that America has had to offer.
The cover of the 1938 class annual.
The entire 1938 class annual is presented below. To view the pages, simply left click on the page numbers. Each page has been scanned at about 150% of its original size in order to make some of the details easier to see. You might have to move the image around in your browser in order to see it all. Be sure to make your browser full screen size for easier viewing.
Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of each page; comments and notes are included on some of the pages. Use the "Back" button on your browser to return to the main menu. People should consider contacting me if they have additional information, or comments.
If anyone has any other photographs pertaining to the class of 1938 they'd like to see included here please contact me.