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CONTENTS
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Lincoln School
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Abraham Lincoln School was established in 1881
at an unknown location. The second Lincoln School was built in 1885 at
Lincoln Street and Emporia, just east of the present school
Lincoln and Park schools were identical in style, cost
$10,300 and had space for 360 students. The tower was 90 feet high and the
main building was 60 feet high. It contained three "recitation" rooms on
each floor and two play rooms in the basement. The architects were George
Bird & Willis Proudfoot.
The children of the Schweiters, Schnitzlers and the Morgan
twins Theo & Leo attended school in this building. |
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Title:
Lincoln School
Photographer: Unknown
Date: Circa 1900
Description: Interior view looking
toward front of room. Teacher, Miss Eva Minnich.
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The 1885 building was
replaced in 1938 with this present structure.
According to Sondra Van Meter, writing in her book, Our
Common School Heritage, A History of the Wichita Public Schools,
"Architect Ed Forsblom introduced new
materials in the Lincoln building: glass brick which admitted light, cast
stone for decorative paneling in brown at the building base, center and
top, and the school name lettering. The hallways consisted of tile and
terrazzzo. Rooms were painted in bright colors. The average classroom cost
$6000 in 1938.
"Installation of terrazzo floors...was
subcontracted to a 'family' of Italians who were based in New Jersey, but
traveled from job to job, similar to a wheat harvest crew. They...prided
themselves in being superb craftsmen and kept their trade secrets to
themselves. The whole process of laying terrazzo--beginning with a
concrete base, setting of metal dividers, pouring of a mixture of marble
chips and concrete between these dividers, curing and then grinding off
the rough places to smoothness then a high gloss--took weeks. Upon their
arrival at the project, the Italian craftsmen and their families moved
into the school builing, cooked on braziers and slept on cots. "
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Go to
Lincoln Elementary School Site |