The Best-Laid Plans
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Twenty years later, in 1943, plans for a new University High School building were under way. Although the project got no further than the planning stage, the preliminary scheme called for a structure that would have been one of the University’s most imposing buildings.
The basic plan for a new University High School goes back to 1937 when a proposal was brought before the Board of Trustees to extend Main Street through Illinois Field. The construction of a new College of Education practice school would then have been undertaken — moving the school from its present site about two blocks north and adding facilities for prekindergarten-age children. The southern part of Illinois Field would have housed the practice school, and the Men’s Old Gymnasium was to be assigned wholly or partially to Uni. The Gymnasium “Annex” was tentatively scheduled for conversion to some other use. The proposal suggested that the old University High School building be remodeled for the use of the College of Engineering or the Department of Journalism.
In 1944, the College of Education noted in a 17-page report:
“On the whole, the (Uni) building is not very satisfactory and in many respects inadequate for the educational program which this school is expected to provide. It is indeed too bad that a school of this design and purpose should be so handicapped in regard to a gymnasium, locker rooms, and showers … .
“Lacking an auditorium, the University High School has been using a fourth-floor attic for this purpose. It is now necessary to question such use as a result of unsafe conditions reported by the University Fire Station. In view of the University’s obligation to follow the accepted public building codes, it seems that serious consideration should be given to discontinuing the future use of this area.”
Along with these criticisms of the present high school building, the College of Education also included in the report an outline of a proposed new site in what is now north of Illini Grove, the site of the Lincoln Avenue Residence Halls.
Preliminary plans called for a building of 225,000 square feet to house a nursery school, kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, and the classrooms and administrative offices of the College of Education. The entire complex included two gymnasiums, one two-story auditorium, a swimming pool, and a cafeteria. Some members of the College also suggested the building of a junior college next to the laboratory school. Obviously, most of the changes called for in this proposal never moved beyond preliminary consideration except for the turning over of the Old Mens’ Gym (Kenney Gym) to Uni High for its physical education and athletics programs.
More recently, in December 1962, a College of Education committee reported that funds for a new school were urgently requested. The committee’s tentative plan called for an experimental school to accommodate an enrollment of 700 pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 on an unspecified 25-acre site. Like earlier proposals, this one also failed to materialize.