History
The school traces its roots to 1852 when Racine High School, the first public school in Wisconsin opened. In 1926, the Racine School Board decided to replace Racine High School with a new school that would eventually become Park. The new Washington Park High School opened in 1928. About the same time, malted milk magnate William Horlick opened his own school on the north side of Racine, setting up the long-time rivalry between the two institutions.
Much of the history and memorabilia (including art, awards and traditions) from Racine High School were moved to Park. The statue of Joan of Arc that was donated by the Racine High School Class of 1904 is displayed in Park's foyer. The school's newspaper, The Beacon (a reference to Racine's Wind Point Lighthouse), and the school yearbook Kipikawi (a Native American name for the Root River), were also both carried over from Racine High School.
Read more about this topic: Washington Park High School
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Attributed to Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)