Establishment
Beginning in 1883, a group of Indianapolis residents established the Mechanics Institute with classes in mechanical drawing and crafts. Enrollment quickly grew and the small private school could not meet the demand, leading to calls for a free trade school funded by the government. Otto Stechhan, one of the proponents, traveled to Germany in 1888 to examine the trade schools in that country. Upon his return in 1889, he tried unsuccessfully to persuade a group of manufacturers in the city to support the effort, but the Central Labor Union supported the plan enthusiastically.
Already in 1888, John P. Frenzel, president of the Indianapolis Public Schools board, had become a supporter of the effort. On June 14, 1988, the board voted to establish two manual training classes at the Indianapolis High School. Forty students enrolled in the initial classes.
On February 19, 1891, House Bill 811 was introduced in the Indiana House of Representatives to allow the school board to levy a property tax of 5 cents for every $100 of assessed value to establish an industrial training school. The bill was passed by the Indiana Senate on March 7. Planning for the new school began immediately. A committee of the school board recommended that a four-year school be established with classes in general education included and "that in no case should it descend to the mere practical details of some handicraft making its possessor able to practice these details without making its possessor able to practice these details without intelligent comprehension of the principles on which such a practice is founded".
The committee also recommended that the school be located on Washington Street somewhere between Alabama and Illinois streets, but that recommendation was not followed. A site on the south side was favored because there was no high school already in that area. In 1894, a triangle of land with a frontage of 420 feet (130 m) on South Meridian Street, 183 feet (56 m) on Merrill Street, and 331 feet (101 m) on Madison Avenue, was purchased for $40,000.
The board held a nation-wide competition won by Wilson Brothers and Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to design the new school. The building had three distinct units, separated by two towers, for the science, literary, and manual training departments. Construction of the $230,590 project began in 1894. The first classes were held on February 18, 1895, with 526 students (278 boy and 248 girls) enrolled the first year, exceeding the design capacity of 500. [10] Dedication ceremonies for the Industrial Training School at 525 South Meridian Street took place on May 31, 1895. [11] That fall, 700 students were enrolled.
Building additions
In the spring of 1903, work began on a three-story addition at the southeast end of the existing building. This addition included 12 class and session rooms along with a gymnasium, at the time the largest one in the city. Moreover, a third floor was added above the woodworking department and the building was extended to the north. The $100,000 project included machinery such as a 100-kilovolt direct current generator powered by a Curtiss-Wright steam engine that provided power for motors in the shop area and lighting for the entire school.
On June 7, 1920, the cornerstone of the South Building extension was laid. It included an auditorium seating 2000, a cafeteria, and a larger gymnasium. A portion of this wing collapsed while under construction in November 1920. The addition opened in the spring of 1922. [11]
In 1924, the original building was modernized and classrooms were added along Madison Avenue. Locker rooms and a new heating plant were included in the project. The entire facility now had a capacity of 2,500 students.
Relocation
By 1940, concerns were being raised as to the desirability of the school's location, which had become almost entirely commercialized as the city grew. Meetings of various groups in 1941 and early 1942 supported the construction of a new school at a location near Garfield Park, but the onset of World War II prevented any further action for the time being. The school board resolved on October 19, 1943, that construction of the new school be given special consideration, and Mayor Robert H. Tyndall's post-war planning committee supported the project in January 1944. A site selection committee appointed by the president of the school board reviewed five possible sites and, on December 27, 1944, the board accepted its recommendation of the current site on Madison Avenue south of Pleasant Run Parkway. On February 20, 1945, the board authorized the issuance of $200,000 in bonds to purchase the 21-acre (8.5 ha) site.
Progress on the project was slow. In mid-1948, the bids received and increasing building costs caused the board to reduce the scope in order to stay within a $3 million budget. The revised plans consisted of a three-story classroom building with a gymnasium, cafeteria, and auditorium and the issuance of bonds was approved in December 1949. The revised plans were completed by the project architects, D. A. Bohlen and Son, with a projected construction start date of August 1950. However, increased building costs resulted in further revisions, with the construction contracts not being awarded until July 5, 1951. Even so, construction of the auditorium was postponed due to rising costs.
Groundbreaking was held on August 2, 1951, with the laying of the cornerstone on August 21 of the following year. In the spring of 1952, the school board responded to requests by the high school's supporters to build the auditorium, and two months later awarded a $600,000 construction contract. The entire new facility was dedicated on May 24, 1954, with the first classes being held that fall with 1,734 students.
Total cost of the new facility was $4.5 million. It had 75 classrooms, a cafeteria for 600 to 625 students, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and, in a separate building, gymnasium with a capacity of 2,500. The school had a capacity of 2,200 students. The main structure is in the shape of a wide V or horseshoe around an open court. On one end (Building A) are the industrial arts rooms, the bookstore, and the cafeteria. Next to them in Building B are classrooms and science, home economics, art, and business education lab rooms. Classrooms and the school business offices are in the Building C. The Auditorium Building at the opposite end includes the library and music department.
The old Meridian Street facility was renamed the Harry E. Wood Vocational Training School, which operated until 1978. Indianapolis Christian Schools, Inc. purchased the building in 1978, and the Brougher Insurance Group bought it in 1984. The South Building was razed in 1986. [11]
A $400,000 addition was approved in February 1962, and by September 1963 a new third floor with 11 classrooms in Building B was opened. The project also added two rooms to the industrial arts area. An addition to the library was opened in October 1963; it included, on the lower floor, an orchestra room for the music department.
On January 11, 1969, the name of the school was officially changed to Emmerich Manual High School, the school's curriculum having become similar to other high schools in the IIPS district.
Declining enrollment in IPS led to the district deciding to close Manual. In 2020, IPS reached an agreement in which charter school operator Christel House Schools would move its grades K–8 Academy South and its grades 9–12 high school to Manual's campus, and also run the winddown process for Manual's existing IPS students through the 2022–23 school year. [3] The high school is now known as Christel House High School. [19]
