Washington High School was a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
high school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
in
Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Two Rivers is a city in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 11,271 at the 2020 census. It claims to be the birthplace of the ice cream sundae (though other cities, such as Ithaca, New York, make the same claim). The c ...
.
History
The first public school in Two Rivers was built in 1866 for $5,000 at the site of the current city hall and named the H.P. Hamilton School. In 1905, it was moved to the back of the lot and a new, red brick high school was built for $80,000. It was also named the H.P. Hamilton School and would eventually become City Hall. Several years before the Community House renovation, the city debated tearing down that old building. They decided to do extensive remodeling instead. Today, the two buildings gaze upon one another across the historic Central Park.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Washington High's facilities were used for summer training by a number of
professional football teams, including the
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...
in 1941 and 1942, the
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...
, the
Columbus Bullies and the
Chicago Rockets.
In 1976, the Washington High chess team won the United States national high school chess tournament. They had won the Wisconsin high school championship for four years running.
In April 2000, after a three-year battle, a referendum narrowly passed to demolish Washington and replace it with a new school, later named
Two Rivers High School in 2002. Advocates of the demolition (including the school board) claimed that rehabilitation would be too expensive; Washington supporters claimed that the figures were being manipulated, and that the real goal was to move the high school to a more suburban setting ("a cornfield on the edge of town") outside the historical center of Two Rivers.
Notable alumni
Notable alumni include professional wrestler Ken Anderson, alias
Mr. Kennedy
Kenneth Anthony Anderson (born March 6, 1976) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is known for his tenure in WWE from 2005 to 2009 under the ring name Mr. Kennedy, and his tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, T ...
. The father of U.S. Senator
Thomas J. Walsh was in part responsible for the school being built, although the future Senator does not appear to have attended the school himself.
References
External links
1949 postcard of Washington High School from the State of Wisconsin Digital Collection
{{Portalbar, Schools, Wisconsin, Education
History of Wisconsin
Schools in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin
Defunct schools in Wisconsin