A Little History —
Burlingame High School was designed by prolific school architect William Weeks. Credited with over 45 school designs in California alone, Weeks designed a building for 1,500 students.The original gymnasium was designed by Col. E. Norberg, the architect of other Burlingame landmarks including the main branch of the public library.
Opening in 1923 with 419 students and 30 teachers. The school was first known as San Mateo High School-Burlingame Branch but came into its own as Burlingame High School in 1928.
The dedication ceremonies were attended by a thousand citizens happily congratulating themselves for voting for a $360,000 school construction bond issue. Of that amount, one-sixth was spent for purchase of the land.
In 1927, when a similar bond issue was approved, San Mateo High School was built and Burlingame gained its separate identity.
The newly independent student body quickly organized itself with a constitution, by-laws, an executive council and standing committees. Many of the school's long-standing traditions and institutions originated that year: the Little-Big Game with San Mateo; the adoption of the red and white school colors; the awarding of Block B's to athletes; and the establishment of the school newspaper, the "Burlingame B".
Physical education classes began with the completion of the big main gym in 1928 along with the two smaller boys' and girls' gyms and locker rooms and the swimming pool.
The 1930s
The Thirties were years of world-wide economic depression and threats of war. However, in spite of the Depression, fewer than one percent of all students of the Thirties dropped out, thanks in great part to a student loan and job-finding bureau founded by Edward Hevey, teacher of history and economics for 39 years and winner of a National Freedom Foundation award for devotion to country and students.
The 1940s
In the early Forties, the war had a profound effect on student life as construction plans for new music and shop buildings had to be postponed. The windows of rooms that lined the halls were boarded over as a precaution against air raids, and night dances were forbidden during the early period of 'blackout' alerts.
The curriculum underwent significant changes: the elimination of the study of the German language; the addition of courses in mechanical science, aviation, up-dated physics, and problems of global war; physical education classes began to include drills in military marching.
"Men in Service", a new regular column in the "B", reported the activities of former students serving overseas and those at home on leave and also printed heartfelt tributes to alumni killed or missing on the world-wide fronts.
National honor came to Burlingame when a P-38 fighter plane in active service was named "The Burlingame High School Panther". This was the result of tstudents' topping their goal in the country's third war loan drive reaching the sum of $173,000, equal to the cost of one of the planes. Fired by this accomplishment, the student body subsequently sold additional bonds to the equivalent cost of a land jeep, an amphibious jeep, and an ambulance plane. Total war bond sales at Burlingame reached nearly half a million dollars.
Because summer jobs often meant picking fruit and vegetables in the central valley during the WWII years because of the labor shortage, when the war ended, and school life normalized, many of the programs which had activities curtailed during the war began making a comeback.
Lights were installed on the football field, and night games found the bleachers jammed to capacity.
After years of planning and postponement, the creative arts and music buildings were completed in 1949 on the former site of the outdoor theater.
In 1947, the "Yearbook" changed its name to "Panther Tracks" the title still used today. For the ninth consecutive year, the "B" was awarded first place rating as a high school newspaper by the national Quill and Scroll Society. "Fresh Flame" was born as the school's newest literary magazine.
Students campaigned vigorously for a community recreation center. A delegation appeared before the city council with a proposal and undertook numerous projects to publicize the need for the facility along with helping raise the necessary funds. The dream came true in 1949 with the opening of the City of Burlingame Recreation Center in Washington Park adjoining the school. For the next fifteen years, the "Rec" was the hub of nearly all social activity outside the school, and the locale of most of the dances.
1950s
The grounds and interior floor plan of the school were altered in the Fifties by construction of the cafeteria and homemaking wing.
Numerous social groups flourished off-campus. The YMCA geared itself to teen-age activities, and its Hi-Y and Tri-Y clubs boasted large memberships. The Burlingame Recreation Center also catered to the burgeoning youthful population. The scene for dances and lunches, it served as a summer hang-out, as well as a focal point for parties during the school year.
In 1952 "jitter-bugging jam sessions" were a continuing craze. In 1957, student musicians in the Rec Band, which consisted of a saxophone, two trumpets, two trombones, a piano, a bass fiddle, and a drum, wore suits and ties and sponsored dance lessons besides playing for all the Center's parties.
School spirit climbed to an even higher peak. Everyone wore red and white on Fridays and to the football games where Coach Elmer Schaake's "Shockers" were usually winners. Girls waved pompons, and the bleachers resounded with cheers from the two hundred "yell-block" members in the rooting section. Female cheerleaders wore midi-length skirts; but the majorettes and chief pompon girls wore theirs skirts above the knee. The football team won the PAL championship in 1952, and the golf team was undefeated for the sixth straight year. The varsity basketball team was unbeaten in 1956.
The Golden B Society was formed in 1955, its membership limited to students who accumulated a specified minimum number of points through service to the school. Other popular clubs were the Future Teachers of America, Future Nurses of America, Junior Statesmen, and the Science Club. The local American Field Service chapter selected top qualified students to spend summers abroad with foreign families, and arranged for foreign students to spend a school year at Burlingame.
The Fifties were also years of good natured fun, as we swapped either being victims or victors of impromptu water balloon fights.
1960s
The Sixties saw extensive construction at Burlingame. In 1960, a new physical education complex replaced the too-small gymnasiums. Two years later, the library was relocated and enlarged, and a new chemistry lab was built. Renovations to the counseling department and main office were made in 1964. Reconstruction of the physics and electronics labs and the addition of the Erickson engineering laboratory were effected in 1965. Also that year, a ceramics workshop was installed in the art department, and the technical drawing classroom was moved upstairs in the main building to occupy the former Little Theater. From then on drama productions were confined to the auditorium and the backstage classroom.
The main building underwent major reconstruction in 1967 when earthquake proofing was strengthened and the roof was renewed.
In 1967, the enrollment at Burlingame of increasing numbers of students from minority races added flavor and zest as cross-cultural influences were brought to bear on traditional attitudes and activities. Moreover, there loomed the prospect of new and different future careers for women. Beyond school affairs, the heightening war in Vietnam began to present new concerns and anxieties.
It was observed that there was "a greater diversity of interests and personalities among the student body than previously," and that the 1,392 students at Burlingame perhaps possessed a broader outlook than their predecessors, along with the means to participate in the wider range of “real world” activities.
Fund raising activities included raising money for school supplies lost during a massive Alaskan earthquake. In 1968, funds were raised for the Peace Corps; Muscular Dystrophy Foundation (when a classmate was stricken); and "Bundles for Appalachia" campaign in 1968 that netted 5,000 pounds of clothing.
The 1970s
The Seventies brought about change in the whole experience of high school when a new concept in education emerged with the initiation of the “Creative Use of Time” project in the fall of 1972. Resource centers were set up in the foreign language, social science, English, mathematics, and science departments to provide specialized library and laboratory facilities for students to use for regular assignments and independent study. "Variable scheduling" was introduced, with classes meeting for three days or four days, rather than daily, and for different lengths of time, making it possible for students to enroll in more courses and for laboratory classes to meet for longer periods.
Although the exterior of the school has looked the same for a decade, the interior appearance has enjoyed a remarkable transformation.The halls are painted in shades of white, yellow, brown, blue, and mustard. Leafy green plants hang from the skylights, and white vinyl tiles replace the ancient scuffed green linoleum flooring.
In the Seventies, class activities and student body dances had a difficult time competing with the greatly varied interests of highly mobile teen-agers. Art festivals, garden projects, ecology-oriented recycling centers, sophisticated scientific experiments and date-less no-host gatherings - these are were typical of pursuits taking precedence over the activities of yesteryear.
The size of the studentbody ended assemblies remembered by alumni, the auditorium being too small to seat everyone simultaneously.
The City of Burlingame had matured into a stable, older community, too expensive for many young families. Consequently, the population center, source of school enrollment, has moved southward. A high percentage of teenagers were bused to Burlingame. These new students, eager to be assimilated into the school environment, had little or no background of either parental or community association with the town, the high school or it’s traditions.
When it was proposed that the school be closed for econmic reasons, both students and alumni strongly protested such an idea. "When a high school has been in operation for over four decades, and holds the esteem and loyalty of thousands of graduates and their parents and relatives, it achieves a high rank among public institutions. It acquires tradition, affection and emotional ties that cannot lightly be cast aside.”
“The present generation, reared on television; geared to instant, constant communication; and expected by its elders to exhibit instant maturity, is the inheritor of the Nuclear Age. Their challenge is greater in degree and scope than any dreamed of by its progenitors. But Burlingame students may be confident in the knowledge that their school, for at least another fifty years, will continue to give them the best of tools with which to face their futures.”
Published by Burlingame High School 50th Anniversary Committee in 1974
By: Barbara Butler - Janet Keller - Diane Young
(The original publication was not copyrighted.)
The original undabridged version may be found at: http://www.bhsclass1955.info/BHS_History.html
And, with a great deal of gratitude, we appreciate all that has been written about the history of Burlingame High. Hopefully, after our reunion in September, we will have some time and volunteers helping to update the history with information about the ‘80s, ’90s, and Oughts.
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