FIRST HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
The first class to graduate from the new high school consisted of Lona Meece, Madge Gibson and Ruth Green. To accommodate the anticipated large crowd, the commencement exercises were held in the Kid Theatre, Thursday evening, June 1, 1916. The Senior reception had been held Friday, May 26, in the high school assembly hall. The baccalaureate services took place in the same hall Sunday, May 28. The senior play, “The Man Who Came Down,” was presented May 31 at the Kid Theatre. (The theatre was also used as a gymnasium for basketball games until the new high school was completed in 1923.)
This was “the first class ever graduated from the Manhattan high school with full credit and (was) the first commencement in the history of the school. The class, though small, (had) been a working one and (was) much deserving (sic) of their diplomas which now (entitled) them to enter any of the state schools of higher education without examination or having to make up any back work.
Note:
The Manhattan Record—May 18, 1916, page 1, col. 3
From Manhattan Omnibus by Frank L. Niven (1989) page 216