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The Louisville Historian <br />A Publication of the Louisville J-fistoricarJlrluseum, <br />Issue #107 Louisville.-fistory 'Foundation, and Louisville .-listoricatCommission Summer 2015 <br />Louisville's Neighborhood High School <br />by Bridget Bacon, Museum Coordinator <br />Jt's hard to believe that a precursor to Monarch High <br />School's large, modern campus was a humble <br />building that still partially stands in a neighborhood in <br />downtown Louisville. Starting in 1907 with just three <br />students, young people in Louisville began to graduate <br />with a high school degree. The public schools in <br />Louisville at that <br />time consisted <br />of a small brick <br />building for first <br />and second <br />graders (now the <br />Louisville <br />Center for the <br />Arts) and an <br />even older large <br />frame building <br />at Spruce and <br />Jefferson (at <br />what is now <br />Memory Square <br />Park, but gone) <br />that held all of <br />In fact, a factor that brought Louisville into the modern <br />age that was at least as important as the closing of the <br />last coal mines, the paving of streets, and the installation <br />of a sewage system was the emphasis on giving good <br />educations to the town's young people. The 1940 census <br />records, which include the educational attainment level <br />of each person, <br />Students and faculty in front of th <br />the other grades. at Garfield & Walnut in <br />Since there had already been one large addition made to <br />the main school building, town leaders and the <br />Louisville School District sought to construct a new <br />building for the education of its high school students. <br />This school would in many ways become the epitome of <br />a neighborhood high school in this small town of about <br />2,000 people. <br />Underlying the efforts of those who planned for the <br />construction of a high school were the hopes of parents <br />in this coal mining town. Many hoped for their children <br />to reach levels of education and success never before <br />achieved by members of their families. Despite the pride <br />that Louisville coal miners took in their work, not all <br />wished for their sons to follow in their footsteps. <br />provide evidence <br />of young people <br />receiving high <br />school degrees <br />and some college <br />education, even <br />while many of <br />their parents and <br />grandparents had <br />6th grade, 3rd <br />grade, or even no <br />formal education. <br />For Charles <br />Newton Dixon, <br />e Louisville High School who left school <br />early to work on <br />the early 1920s. <br />his parents'farm, <br />the 1940 census records show that he went to school <br />through the 7th grade. However, his daughter, Vera <br />Dixon Taylor, graduated from the new high school in <br />1925 and eventually was able to support herself and her <br />family by becoming a teacher in Louisville. Similarly, <br />Eliseo and Ann Jacoe, who operated the small Italian <br />grocery store at 1001 Main Street where the Historical <br />Museum is now located, both received 8th grade <br />educations, but their son, Pasqual, graduated from <br />Louisville High School in 1931 and went on to obtain <br />his bachelor's degree in chemistry and became a <br />nationally recognized leader in radiation research about <br />uranium mines. <br />Edward Affolter and George Longmore supplied the <br />land for the new high school that was to be constructed <br />1 <br />