HOOKER COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL, MULLEN

by Claudia Tompkins

Entry T25 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Old High School built in 1917

Mullen High School, addition completed in 1928

Junior-Senior High School - 1987 Addition and
remodeling of older building in 1965

Buses used to transport rural students into Mullen
Schools - 1973

The Hooker County High School students
attended the frame Elementary School build-
ing, located in the northeast part of town.
Their classes were held on the second floor
above the Elementary students. The year
1912-13, they had one room and one teacher.
The next two years they had two teachers and
in 1915-16, they had three teachers and about
30 pupils, occupying the top floor. The first
graduates of Mullen High School were Elvia
Fox and Sylvia Fox in the class of 1916. Their
graduation was held in the Roseberry Hall.

Seeing a great need for a High School
building, one was planned and built in 1917
on top of a hill, northwest section of Mullen.
The Senior class of 1917; Helen Durfur, Sara
French, Kathryn Schmidt, Esther Stickley
and Ray Roseberry finished their year in the
hew building. Their graduation was also held
in the second floor of the Roseberry Hall,
which was used for graduation exercises till
a new addition was made to the original High
School building. (Roseberry hall was later the
Senk Mercantile Co., Johnson Mercantile Co.
and most recently the Macke store that was
completely destroyed by fire, November
1974.)

In March of 1918, County Superintendent
Garrett and Miss Mae Clayton, principal of
the Hooker County High School, received
word from the State office in Lincoln that the
school had been recognized as a Normal
Training High School. The school would
receive apportionments of $700 with which to
carry on the work. Inspector Woodard stated
that this award came from the closest
investigation by state school officials, of the
Course of Study, equipment and teaching
qualification. This gave the school a prestige
such as was enjoyed by but one other High
School in the state, that of Kimball County.
Miss Clayton's untiring efforts to bring the
school up to the high accredited standard,
was fully appreciated by the community. The
fall of 1918 the Mullen High School opened
with an enrollment of 43, the largest enroll-
ment in the history of school since 1912.

The new High School building, an addition
joined to the left of the original 1917 building,
(Frank Stoughton did much of the masonry
work.) was completed in 1928. A notice was
posted for the dedication November 21, 1928
as follows: "The building will be open from
6 o'clock on, for inspection. Ushers will escort
and explain the use of the different rooms
and equipment. Speaker, F.W. Bowers, is
from the office of State Superintendent
Taylor's office. Mrs. E.C. Pickett, president
of the P.T.A. will take charge after the
dedication." An Auditorium, office, rest-
rooms were built on the first floor and on the
second floor to the left of the stairs was the
new assembly room. There were 14 members
of class 1928 to graduate in the new auditori-
um.

A new Junior-Senior High School building
was in the planning in 1964. This was joined
to the left of the 2nd addition of '28. The old
1917 building was razed and parking space
added in its place. The '28 building was
remodeled for a multipurpose room (old
auditorium), (stage) converted to a small
remedial class room, athletic dressing rooms
(old office and hall), and on the 2nd floor the
assembly room was remodeled for a music
and band room.

The new section, all built on the ground
floor, has a number of large classrooms, 3
offices, teacher's lounge or Board Meeting
room, a nice sized Library, Home Economics,
Science, Typing rooms and of course the
restrooms and storage rooms. Registration in
this new building was in the fall of 1965. The
7th and 8th grades were happy to move in
from the old `Ag' building where they had
classes while waiting for the new structure.
The school has had Senior classes with as
many as 40 to graduate, which is quite a
comparison to the first class of 1916. Gradua-
tion exercises are held in the Lariat Auditori-
um which is now the property of the School
District. Our community can be very proud
of our school buildings and the school class
curriculum and the sport activity programs.