USD 383: Move out of MHS East Campus at 901 Poyntz begins Monday

District construction owners representative Trisha Brook-Fruendt told USD 383 board members Wednesday that she hopes to get the moving operation completed by the third week of June. Brook-Fruendt said most of the items coming from the East Campus building will be placed in storage before it's incorporated into the West Campus facility.

This month marks the last time students will occupy the East Campus building. Starting in August, all students in 9th through 12th grades will attend MHS-West Campus, following the completion of a new addition to that building earlier this year.

MHS journalism students recently documented the interior and exterior of the historic school building; a school has existed in some form at 9th and Poyntz for 150 years. According to the Riley County Historical Society, in 1857 the Manhattan Town Company acquired three lots on Poyntz Avenue, where a two-story school building was constructed for $2,500. This facility was called the Avenue School.

Later, in 1913, Manhattan High School graduated its first class from the building. That same year, the local school board voted to build a new four-year senior high school on the site of the former Avenue School. At the same time, a two-year junior high school would be built directly across from the new high school on the same plot of land. Manhattan Senior High School held its first classes in 1914, and the junior high building was ready in 1918.

In 1926, a Civil War veterans’ association called the Grand Army of the Republic asked that the school board name the building in honor of Abraham Lincoln. The board approved it in 1927, and the words “Lincoln High School” were carved into the stonework above the entrance of the old building. People who visit the 901 Poyntz facility today can see the inscribed words through the glass walkway that connects the two East Campus buildings.

The district built the west campus building in 1956 and became the new high school, with east campus undergoing several additions and renovations over the decades as it served as a junior high school. In 1996, USD 383 built Anthony and Eisenhower middle schools and moved 9th-graders to the East Campus.