Milwaukee Lutheran High School (MLHS) is a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The school was originally known as Lutheran High School (LHS). LHS was established in 1903, making Milwaukee Lutheran the oldest

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. In the 1950s, doctrinal differences between the two synods operating the school resulted in each church body forming its own school. MLHS is owned and operated by forty-six

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The L ...

(LCMS) congregations, the Lutheran High School Association of Greater Milwaukee (LHSAGM), and accredited by the

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It ...

. Milwaukee Lutheran has twice been recognized as a National Exemplary School (

Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

) by the U.S. Department of Education. In 1995, the LCMS honored Milwaukee Lutheran as a "Recognized School of Excellence".

History

In 1903, a group of Lutheran pastors, teachers, and laymen from congregations affiliated with the Wisconsin and

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

synods started a high school in an unused classroom of Immanuel Lutheran School in Milwaukee with 18 students.) In 1904, it relocated to the former site of the Wisconsin Synod's seminary at 13th and Vine streets. Enrollment increased to 340 in 1929 and led to construction of additional buildings at the site. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

caused enrollment to decline to 265 in 1938, but with the end of the depression, enrollment steadily increased to 848 in 1948. Plans were initiated to build a larger school at a new site, but doctrinal differences between the two synods resulted in the decision for each synod to build its own separate high school and dissolve the joint operation. The Missouri Synod congregations opened MLHS in September 1955, marking the end of the joint operation of the school. The Wisconsin Synod congregations continued to use the old campus for their school,

Wisconsin Lutheran High School Wisconsin Lutheran High School, commonly referred to as WLHS or Wisco, is a private preparatory religious high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. WLHS was formed when the Lutheran High School in Milwaukee, founded in 1903, split in the 1950s over ...

, until their new building opened in September 1959. Twenty-seven Missouri Synod congregations formed "The Lutheran High School Association of Greater Milwaukee" on January 23, 1952. Margaret Schnellbaecher donated approximately of land at 97th Street and West Grantosa Drive for the new Milwaukee Lutheran High School, and the association obtained approximately of adjoining land from the city to form a campus. Plans for the new school were prepared by the architectural firm Grassold-Johnson and Associates. The cost was projected to be about $2 million, and pledges for that amount were raised by June 1953. Ground was broken on August 22, 1954, and construction of the main building was sufficiently complete to accept students on September 12, 1955, on which date 806 students and 27 faculty members entered the facility. By May 1956, the music rooms and the gymnasium with its swimming pool had been completed, and the formal dedication occurred during the senior graduation ceremonies on May 6. MLHS received accreditation from the

in 1959. An additional six classrooms and other facilities were added in 1960. Enrollment increased to 1,250 students by 1963, which was over the facility's capacity. The Milwaukee Lutheran Fieldhouse opened on the campus in 1979.

Notable alumni

Fred Kessler Frederick P. Kessler (born January 11, 1940) is a retired American lawyer, arbitrator, judge, and Democratic Party politician. He served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly for 24 years between 1961 and 2019, and served 11 years as a st ...

, judge and former Wisconsin state legislator *

Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

- author of ''

The Art of Computer Programming ''The Art of Computer Programming'' (''TAOCP'') is a comprehensive monograph written by the computer scientist Donald Knuth presenting programming algorithms and their analysis. Volumes 1–5 are intended to represent the central core of com ...

'' * Brian Mueller, president and CEO of Grand Canyon University *

Don Pridemore Donald Pridemore (born October 20, 1946) is a Wisconsin electrical engineer and politician. Early life Pridemore was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated from Milwaukee Lutheran High School in 1964. From 1965 to 1969 he served in the U ...

, legislator and politician * John Rhodes, assistant men's basketball coach at Duquesne University * Nick Roach - NFL football player for the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

* Tina Salaks, former

ASPCA The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective mea ...

officer, star of ''

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...

s " Animal Precinct" show * Martin J. Schreiber, Governor of Wisconsin, 1977–1979. * Barbara Ulichny - Wisconsin State Senator

References

The first section of the book (pp. 3–28) is a reprint of the article of the same name published in two parts in ''Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly'', 33 (4), January 1961, and 34 (1), April 1961.

External links

Milwaukee Lutheran High School official site
High schools in Milwaukee Private high schools in Wisconsin Educational institutions established in 1903 Lutheran schools in Wisconsin 1903 establishments in Wisconsin Secondary schools affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod {{Wisconsin-school-stub