Special Buildings

This page will provide space for those buildings that have since been razed or replaced by school districts which are still in operation. So many of our memories of our school days center around the high school building we attended and its unique character. If you attended high school in a special building that has been replaced by a more modern building write to us and let us know. We, as always, are looking for photos to share of your high school building. Some buildings, like the first one we will list, have great stories regarding their contruction and development. We hope you will share this information with us as well.

Payson Seymour High School Building

The building pictured above was the original Payson Seymour High School building. It was submitted to us by a good friend of the Glory Days site, Richard Heitholt. This is the Seymour High School building of Payson which was dedicated in 1916. The building was financed by the Seymour family and dedicated to Charles Seymour who was killed in the baseball accident in 1915 at the age of 16. The Seymour family also built a library for Knox College. This building now serves as a grade school for the Payson Seymour School District.

Jeffrey Hughes also provided this bit of information on Payson Seymour High School:

"I believe the school was built and it served as the high school, as a lot of small towns served still today by the district had grade schools. Later (50's or so) a High school was built across the street as Seymour High School. The old school was renamed Seymour Grade school at that time. Payson High was there before the Seymour family built theirs, and some structural stuff existed during completion, including the gym. This will explain the different names. There is actually a large trophy cabinet in the grade school containing all high school athletic trophies from the old days, and another few in the "new" school."

Galesburg High School / Knox College Seymour Library

Galesburg High School - Original Building

Galesburg Seymour Library

Galesburg's original high school buiding is the top of the photo above.

"Galesburg built a new HS building and closed the old one in 1959. A few years later the old building burned to the ground. The old school had a building called Steel gym with a boy's basketball gym and swimming pool and identical facility for the girls. There was also a separate building for Home Ec. The new school had a gym and no swimming pool."

The Seymour Library is in the bottom of the photo above. If you read the excerpt from beneath the photo at the top of the page you know that the Seymour family donated the money to build the library at Knox College.

Hillsboro High School

Hillsboro Community High School 1939 - Present

Submitted by Don LeMay

Hillsboro High School ?? - 1939

Submitted by Don LeMay

From Don LeMay regarding Hillsboro High School:

"The two photos above show the original Hillsboro High School and the current structure although a separate structure (new Gym, indoor track, and several classroom for band, industrial arts and Agriculture were added in 1938-1939 in the area immediately to rear of the main building. When the Hillsboro Community High School opened approximately 1939, the older high school began functioning as the city's Junior High School. Students were later transferred to a new facility abutting the property where the current high school sits. That alignment occurred in 1954-1955 time period."

WALTON SCHOOL BUILDING - 2010

Walton, Illinois

Moline High School

1894-1914

Moline High School

1915-1958

Moline High School --- Before the current Moline High School campus was built in the late 1950s on 23rd Avenue, Moline's high school was housed in two different buildings. The picture on the right was MHS from 1894-1914, and the picture on the left was MHS from 1915-1958. The 1915 building still stands, now used for lofts.

The following information comes from Dan Sand (MHS '82):

MHS 1894-1914: The most prominent school building in the history of Moline School District No. 40 was probably the Moline High School building, erected in 1894. This imposing structure, which overlooked the Mississippi River on a hillside between 15th Street A and 16th Street north of 11th Avenue, was known as "The Castle" to barge and river boat passengers who could see the twin turrets of the brick building as they traveled on the Mississippi. "The Castle" served as the high school for twenty years.

MHS 1915-1958: In 1914 a new high school was built on land adjoining the site of "The Castle". The former high school then became Central Grammar and served as a citywide eighth grade school. In the early 1930's, John Deere and Calvin Coolidge schools were built as three-year junior high schools, and old Central was converted to an annex with classrooms for the high school next door. In the next decade, it was used infrequently as a classroom annex until the Moline Community College used its space for classes. In the forties, the basement of the annex became known as the Rek --- a large recreation center for Moline teenagers.