Danville
High School was founded in 1870 with a staff of two. Today it is
staffed by a faculty and support staff of 200, approximately 1600
students are served in grades 9-12. Students are offered a variety of
courses and extracurricular activities as well as the latest technology.
Music, sports, and extracurricular successes of the school are part of
the DHS tradition. One of the more innovative and exciting developments
in secondary education today is the school-within-a-school concept—small
learning communities concentrating on specific learning community
goals. These houses afford the students many benefits such as
student-centered instruction, a concentrated curriculum designed to meet
individual needs, and a more personal relationship with teachers. At
DHS, we are fortunate to have our "houses" or small learning
communities.
Freshman
House, focusing on a positive start to high school with additional
opportunities for coursework and an emphasis on making good decisions
early in a student’s career.
Danville New Tech High affiliated with the New Tech Network utilizing project-based learning.
The 1,300 students of Danville High School represent a diversity
of interests and cultures, a strength throughout the Danville community.
Enhancement activities include learning assistance programs for
mainstreamed special education students, honors classes for gifted
students, advanced placement (AP) classes, and ESL (English as a
second language) classes. Technology advancements challenge Danville
District 118 to balance computer equipment among the schools for
use as teaching tools in the classroom.
New track
dedicated: A rainy afternoon could not diminish the enthusiasm and pride
as members of the community gathered for the dedication of our new
track on Tuesday, November 14, 2007. Dwight Stones, Olympic medallist
and world record holder in the high jump, addressed the crowd. The new
track will allow Danville students to host home track meets for the
first time in over 20 years. The track represents a joint effort between
Danville schools and the community. See more.
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Danville High School began with
the most humble of origins in a spare room over the Yeomans, Shedd,
& LeSeure Hardware Store at
65 E. Main in September, 1870. There is some question whether it
actually began as a public school as we know it today. Danville
High School was at first founded without the help of the community
and soon began to grow with it. The sole member of the first faculty
was Mrs. Belle Spillman, who taught the first high school lesson
in Danville, Illinois. Her husband, who died in 1867, had taught
at one of the seminaries that preceded the creation of Danville
High School. In the days after the Civil War, the typical youth
would attend school no longer than his/her 13th or 14th year. The
high school began in response to the desire of some Danville families
who wanted more advanced public education locally.
Sixteen pupils were there for roll call on that first day of school
in September, 1870, above the Yeomans, Shedd, & LeSeure Hardware
Store. These charter DHS students, five boys and 11 girls, were
as follows: Augusta Clark, Eudora Denny, Luella English, Joseph
Force, Lizzie Fillinger, William Gurley, Lucy Harmon, Charles Hollaway,
Delilah Jones, Lottie Jones, Laura Lamon, Joseph O’Neal, Fronia
Roberts, Charity Sanders, Edwin Smith, and Mary Webster. Even with
the small faculty and student body, such subjects as Greek, Mental
Philosophy, Science of Wealth, Analysis, and Astronomy were offered.
The school year was divided into three terms with a week of vacation
between trimesters. Three of these original 16 students, Laura Lamon,
Delilah Jones, and Mary Webster, became the first three graduates
of Danville High School at its first commencement held June 14,
1872. One of them, Laura Lamon, resided in the Lamon House, which
is now situated at Lincoln Park as a museum. Her grandfather, Dan
Beckwith, and her great-uncle, Amos Williams, were among Danville’s
founders and its first pioneers.
In 1872, Danville High School moved to rooms on the third floor
of the first Washington
School, located on the south end of the city block surrounded by
Gilbert, Madison, Pine, and Seminary Streets. Danville High School
remained at this location for 16 years. Enrollment rose and fell,
reaching 152 in 1876, but dropping to 80 in 1879. Principal Silas
Gillan (1879-1886) required each student to spell every word correctly
from a prepared list in order to graduate. By the late 1880’s,
the enrollment had increased to such an extent that students were
forced out into the halls. Due to the increasing enrollment, the
school board constructed the first Danville High School building
in 1888 just north of the first Washington School; the first DHS
fronted Seminary Street, as well as Gilbert and Pine Streets. The
class of 1888 was the last class to attend school in the old Washington
School. Its commencement was held on Thursday evening, June 7, 1888,
at the Grand Opera House, now the Fischer Theater. The class history
of the class of 1888 was found and returned to DHS in 1989 by the
granddaughter of Grace Haggard Rearick who was the secretary of
that class. This history, which Grace Haggard read at the graduation
ceremony, relates that after vacations that the students, “…returned
gladly to the familiar old school room with many better resolves
for better improvement in the future. Alas, how soon to be broken?
And this we have continued year after year, gradually advancing
and can now say of the dear old school we are leaving, ‘With
all thy faults, I love thee still.’” Grace Haggard later
married George Rearick who became mayor of Danville. Grace Haggard
Rearick died in 1965, aged 95 years of age. Her class history was
found by her granddaughter, Martha Rearick, while housecleaning
and was donated to DHS in 1989.
In
the first high school, music instruction began with a choir and
the formation of a 16-piece orchestra. By 1898, 273 students were
enrolled at DHS, which rose to 340 in 1906. In 1907, the second
Washington School was built south of the first DHS, replacing the
first school of that name. The second Washington School, which stood
until 1980, housed many DHS classes as the first high school became
even more crowded as the enrollment increased; its cornerstone now
sits on the west campus of the current Danville High School. In
1912, DHS had the largest graduating class until that date –
62 students. The class of 1912 was the first to wear caps and gowns
and to leave a class gift. That year, the gift was a massive oak
desk for the study room assembly. This desk, inscribed with “Class
of 1912,” is presently located in the library at DHS. In September,
1915, a student named John Scopes entered DHS as a 15-year-old freshman
and attended one year before moving from the area. John Scopes later
became well known as the teacher who challenged the Tennessee state
law by teaching evolution at Dayton (TN) High School; his story
is memorialized in the novel, Inherit the Wind.
By 1916, the old high school was so crowded that the entire high
school building was full in addition to the basement and its tar
paper annex, which was dubbed “The Cow Shed” by the
students. By this date, the entire first floor of the new Washington
School was used for high school instruction. These conditions remained
unbearable from 1915 to May, 1923, when a large oval stone fell
from the top of the old DHS building on to the ground. The incident
prompted the school board to finally build a new DHS and replace
the “old high school”. While hopelessly too small, the
old high school was only 36 years old when vacated in 1924.
Mr. I. P. Gedney, a Chicago contractor, was employed to construct
the new high school for the then staggering sum of one million dollars. The
new DHS received its early nickname, “The Million Dollar School,”
by local citizens. The new DHS was, at the time of its construction,
one of the finest high school buildings in the state and in this
part of the nation. The new Danville High School was ready for the
first day of school in September, 1924. Mr. Gedney went broke building
DHS. He sold all of his equipment here and returned to Chicago penniless.
Since 1924, the adolescents as well as the community
of Danville. have utilized the wonderful facility that he constructed.
Danville High School remains in the facility built in 1924. Additions
and modifications have occurred since 1924 to accommodate
new programs and innovations – business applications, driver’s
education, computer instruction, music performance, etc. As the
music program grew, additions were made to house instrumental programs.
In 1939, the bleachers in the gym were switched from the east and
west walls to the north and south walls; classroom and athletic
offices were also added at this time. In 1973, the four-story addition
onto the Fairchild side of DHS provided for new art rooms, science
laboratories, library areas, and English classrooms; not long after
its construction, the community regretted the loss of the former
façade of DHS. In 1991, the building was renovated and significantly
increased in size. That year the industrial education building was
torn down and a large addition was built onto the south end of the
building including a new entrance that included a facsimile of the
original school clock over its door, music classrooms, computer
labs, industrial technology rooms, new general classrooms, as well
as a spacious field house to handle indoor meets as well as the
many practices for both boys and girls teams.
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