Westport high school, Thirty-ninth and Locust streets, opened in the fall of 1908. Built of stone and vitrified brick, at a cost of nearly $500,000, it was considered the finest school in Kansas City and among the finest in the county. General Milton Moore said, on laying the cornerstone, We are standing on historic ground. By the side of that old elm tree passed the Santa Fe Trail. It followed the hollow around the base of the hill and through Westport to the prairies. Westport high school embodied the latest ideas in school buildings and modern education, gained from a trip to Eastern cities by Charles A. Smith, school board architect; Joseph Brady, Chief engineer, and S. A. Underwood, principal. There were 60 large classrooms, an auditorium seating 1,400, a gymnasium, shower baths, restaurant, library, study hall hospital, housekeeping suite, mechanical and domestic science departments, laboratories and broad, easy stairways. Said a news story of the day, Here is a school equipped to teach a boy blacksmithing, or a girl cooking and sewing, but at the same time it will teach Greek if wanted. The new high school replaced an earlier one at Thirty-ninth and Warwick boulevard. The original had burned in 1907, and pupils attended classes afternoons in the old Central high school until the new school was completed. A bluebook of famous Kansas Citians could be compiled from the Westport graduation lists. Most professions, business, athletics and the theater would be represented. One Westport alumnus proudly remembered by many, was Marjorie Hires, who at 18 years of age, came off with the singles crown in the Women's Central West Tennis championship. Sport pages were filled with her pictures, and students gathered at the Park courts after school hours to watch this outstanding player who never was rattled in competition. Marjorie continued to win laurels for her school, city and state. Today she is known to Kansas Citians as Mrs. John B. Gage, wife of the former mayor. Westport has had many additions and improvements through the years, but the exterior is little changed. The newly planted trees (shown in the picture) now tower over the mellowing brick building. Kansas City Star, November 22, 1969.
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