Lawrence High School's heritage is rich, with a fine tradition of excellence in both academic and extracurricular activities.

Timeline of Lawrence High School:

Jan. 16, 1855 - Five months after the arrival of the first settlers in Lawrence, a school is established in the back room of the Emigrant Aid building, attended by 20 students for a three and a half month term.

1857 - Public donations built the Quincy School, named for Josiah Quincy of Boston, which was held in the basement of the Old Unitarian Church on Ohio Street

1860 - Lawrence receives an amended charter, enabling the city to establish a public school system of eight grades.

1865 - Central School, at Ninth and Kentucky, is built at a cost of $11,100.

1869 - Ninth grade is added.

1870 - A three-year high school course is organized, offering only the following subjects until 1880: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, English, Latin, Greek, general history, civil government, natural philosophy, and geology. The "high school" was held in one room of Central.

1873 - Records show that there were three high school teachers and 1 out of 110 inhabitants was attending the top four grades. Modern ratios are closer to 1 out of 15.

1875 - The first graduates of the high school are Frank C. Miller and Mary V. Murray.

1889 - The "Old High School," at the southeast corner of 9th and Kentucky, is build at a cost of $35,000, said to be "A marvel of beauty, convenience and cheapness."

Nov. 1889 - First school paper, The Mercury, appears and is issued every two weeks.

1893 - The Budget begins publication, at 28 pages in length.

1890 - First club is already organized: Debate Club.

Early 1890s - Athletics begin at LMHS, with basketball, football and track most popular.

1892 - German club formed. Students stop taking German during WWI, thinking it "unpatriotic."

1895 - YMCA organized. Sororities begin but, since they are then against state laws, are soon discontinued.

1898 - A fourth year is added to high school study.

1901 - The Budget discontinues printing, for a while reappearing as "The Windmill"

1903 - First student government body is organized.

1905 - Lawrence has the only high school band in the state of Kansas.

1907 - The LHS football team wears red and black stockings, beginning the tradition of our school colors.

1912 - First Red and Black annual (which will eventually become the yearbook) published.

1914-1918 - Two new departments added: physical education and vocational agriculture

1919 - Regular music instruction begins at the high school.

1920 - A $300,000 bond issue leads to new building, and the junior high school takes over the old high school buildings. Liberty Memorial High School, also known as "Old High," at 14th and Massachusetts, was brought about when the students supported a bond issue for a memorial to 18 service men students that had lost their lives in World War I. To raise the money for their campaigning, the Budget was delivered by 102 students to each home. A circus was given, and a junior-senior play was presented with debates on the bond issue between acts. Liberty High School Week was declared, and they had such bond issue campaign slogans as "It Shall Pass", "Give Us Room to Grow", and "Things Go Wrong When We're All in a Throng". One of the wounded soldiers returned to school and led the mile-long parade for the campaign.

1930 - The lion is first used as a school symbol.

1946 - The Chesty Lion debuts as school mascot. See below.

1949 - A similar bond campaign to the 1920 one begins when students of Lawrence assisted in a successful drive to build Lawrence High School at 19th and Louisiana Streets. From that has come the slogan, "a gift of the citizens of Lawrence to their Children". The amount of the bond proposal was $2,620,000. From this came $1.8 million for the building, including furniture.

March 26, 1954 - The high school was moved from Liberty Memorial High School at 14th and Massachusetts to Lawrence High School at 19th and Louisiana.

1954 - Alma Mater written. See below.

1962 - the cafeteria facilities are expanded and a new addition of thirteen classrooms is built at the southeast corner of the building.

1965 - The Administration Center is completed. This separate building to the south housed district administrative offices, and had eight classrooms where most of the business classes are still located.

November 1966 - a bond issue was passed providing for a new cafeteria, library, and additional physical education facilities. The wrestling room and two additional dressing rooms were available for use at the beginning of the 1967 school year.

1968 - the cafeteria and library, complete with central air conditioning, are ready for student use. The old library and cafeteria areas were converted into six additional classrooms.

May 1973 - an ad hoc committee was formed to study the need for expanded facilities at Lawrence High School. Out of this study came the recommendation for expansion in the areas of vocational practical arts, physical education, and fine arts.

Fall 1976 - All three of these areas were ready for use. In the fine arts area, a large rehearsal room for the band and orchestra was added along with an art classroom. In the physical education area, a separate building was constructed. This building houses a full-sized gymnasium with a seating capacity of 500, a second-story wrestling area with showers, dressing rooms and offices. The vocational and practical arts area was expanded with the addition of a power mechanics shop, an agriculture mechanics shop, a metal technology shop, and two classrooms. Extensive remodeling took place.

January 1980 - A short-course standard swimming pool built adjacent to the new physical education facility was completed and opened to the students. The pool is equipped with six lanes for swimming competitions, a diving well with two one-meter boards, special equipment for the teaching of adapted aquatics, bleachers for approximately 275 spectators, and patio for sun bathing.

Fall 1984 - the theater area was remodeled and a new stage construction area added. The remodeled theater included new dressing rooms for both boys and girls, an auditorium ceiling to provide better lighting and acoustics, and an electronic control panel.

Fall 1985 - the practical arts area was remodeled to improve classroom facilities for mechanical drawing, journalism and cooperative industrial training, A new woodshop with an adjoining classroom was added to the facility at this time.

Fall 1987 - the administration center was moved from the LHS campus. Lawrence High School moved several classes and offices into this facility. It is called the LHS Annex.

November 1995 - A renovation at LHS was completed.

Fall 1997 - a second high school, Lawrence Free State High School, is opened to accommodate the growing population of Lawrence.

Fall 2007 - From bond issue funds, LHS is able to add three state-of-the-art chemistry classrooms, a new entrance to the East Gym, and some improvements to the special education facilities.

The lion was first used as a school symbol in 1930. The Budget (school newspaper), Friday, November 8, 1929, carried the following:

" Lawrence High School has long needed a mascot and the suggestion, growing out of the recent pep rally, to call ourselves the lions, has been whole heartedly accepted. A mascot should symbolize the characteristics of the school and no other animal expresses our strength of purpose better than the lion, the King of the beasts, his strength, bravery, and aggressiveness which our competitors find we also have."

The Chesty Lion symbol is as was drawn by Paul Coker in 1946. A Lawrence Memorial High School graduate, he is now a well-known cartoonist. The Lion is chesty because he is proud of LHS and the things for which it stands.


As far as can be ascertained, our school colors date back to 1907 when our football teams wore red and black long socks.


We praise thee, Lawrence High School; To you were always true; And through the years fond memories; Bring back the friends we knew. Sportsmanship and courage; We will never lack; And evermore we lift our hearts; In praise of Red and Black.
By R. Wayne Nelson, Judie Anderson, Jan Rosenbaum, Sandy Smith, Darlene Trovillion, and Francis Ward - 1954


Stand up and cheer; Cheer loud and long for dear old Lawrence; For today we raise the Red and Black above all others; Our sturdy band now is fighting, and we are sure to win the fray; We got the vim; Were sure to win; For this is dear old Lawrence day.

 

The Principals of Lawrence High School listed by dates of service:

1859-1859: C. L. Edwards
1859-1860: Chas. W. Adams
1860-1862: Simeon M. Thorpe
1862-1865: Miss M. E. Barber
1863: A. C. Farnham
1863-1867: Mrs. Mary Carpenter
1867-1868: M. B. Beals
1868-1870: Sarah A. Brown
1870-1874: Ephraim Miller
1874-1876: Miss E. J. Clark
1876-1878: F. O. Marvin
1878-1885: J. W. Cooper
1885-1886: J. L. Dumars
1886-1891: A. J. May
1891-1892: W. H. Johnson
1892-1925: Frank H. Olney
1925-1929: John R. Barnes
1929-1932: H. Leigh Baker
1932-1942: Neal M. Wherry
1942-1947: Ralph E. Graber
1947-1963: Neal M. Wherry
1963-1965: Dan Kahler
1965-1972: Bill Medley
1972-1973: Max Rife
1973-1997: Bradford Tate
1997-2003: Richard Patterson
2003-present: Steven Nilhas

Map and directions to this school (from Mapquest)

Lawrence High's Report Card (2004-2005)

The 6News TowerCam (Live Pictures from Lawrence)