History

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School

Formerly Central Junior High School, Liberty Memorial High School

 

Old High

Built in 1889, Old High is one of Lawrence's oldest school buildings and played an important role as a predecessor to Liberty Memorial High School. Despite the name, Old High was a state-of-the-art facility for its time. The large bell in the building's steeple is reminiscent of Lawrence's first high school in the Unitarian church.

By the early 1900s, Old High was already beginning to show its age. The school was severely overcrowded, serving a population of students three times its maximum occupancy. Located at 9th and Kentucky — only a few blocks from where the Liberty Memorial building would stand — Old High also found itself firmly in the heart of Lawrence's bustling business district.

The Bell

This bell (pictured right), purchased by Lawrence's Unitarian church in the early 1800s, is presently mounted in a display at Lawrence High School.

Though, the bell's long, arduous journey to modern day LHS began all the way back when it was cast in New England. The bell was then shipped to the Gulf of Mexico to be transported up the Mississippi by boat. However, the delivery ship wrecked before it arrived at the Gulf and resulted in the bell sinking to the ocean floor, where it sat untouched for three years.

Once the bell was eventually recovered and sent to Kansas City, the Civil War was on the verge of breaking out across the country, turning Lawrence into intense hot spot. The bell was hidden in a horse-drawn hay wagon and smuggled into Lawrence, where it was finally mounted at Lawrence's first high school in the Unitarian church. Since then, the seasoned bell has been passed down to each new high school up until 1976, where it was moved to its present location at Lawrence High School.

The 1919 School Board

Following the end of World War I, then Superintendent of Schools H.P. Smith observed the need for a monument to commemorate the deceased and devised a fitting solution which could simultaneously address the overcrowding problem at Old High. In 1919, the school board decided to adopt Smith's proposal and build a "functional monument in grand style." In result, Liberty Memorial High was constructed nearby to better accommodate the area's learners and recognize the U.S. and Lawrence heroes whom gave their lives during the Great War.

Pictured are the members of the 1919 school board (from left to right, top to bottom): Hosford, Pine, Hill, Kirchoff, Boynton, and Guisea.

Liberty Memorial High

Completed in 1923, the newly constructed Liberty Memorial High School at 15th and Massachusetts Street served as a monument to the many heroic Lawrence High School students and graduates whose lives were cut short by World War I. Altogether, 300 young people from Lawrence served during the war, 144 of which had not even graduated from high school yet.

In total, nineteen of these young students were killed — six during their deployment in France and the others at home and abroad from disease. Six high school girls also bravely served overseas as nurses; two did not return.