Wilsonian High School

On June 28, 1897 the Union School, Angelica Primary, and Wilson Academy became one institution named the Public Union School.

In 1906, the Charles Hotel, which had been located on the north side of Park Circle, burned.  Plans to locate a new high school on that property soon developed and in 1909 Wilsonian High School opened, replacing all three schools.  Much of the construction project was funded with the Wilson Fund turning over its assets to the Board of Education in 1908. The new building was one of the best equipped, pleasantly located, and substantially built buildings in this part of the state at that time. According to the May 12, 1910 issue of The Angelica Advocate, the building completion was celebrated with a plaque unveiling on Grant’s Birthday, April 27, commemorating the school’s founder, William Wilson.

Now being a public high school, Wilson Academy officially changed its name to Wilsonian High School on August 12, 1912, by the authority of the Board of Regents.  

By the early 1920’s, the school was beginning to get a bit crowded. The lower floor consisted of three rooms serving the grade children and on the upper floor were five rooms for the high school. With no gymnasium, basketball games were played on the second floor of the Court House. Home Economics was taught in an upstairs apartment in the house across the street from the school. The second floor of the Angelica Free Library housed classes until 1956 as well. Thus the reason for the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms under the stairs at the library!

With rising enrollment, more space was needed. A gymnasium was added to the school along with six classrooms in 1929. Over many years, The Angelica Advocate, in their “Wilsonian Whispers” section, would talk about other improvements or pertinent happenings in the school.

In 1944, with enrollment still rising and some financial support from the State, sixteen smaller nearby school districts were combined to organize Angelica Central School.  

A temporary addition was built in 1952 that included a cafeteria, home economics room, a shop, and a first-grade room.  Since the project wasn’t completed over the summer, the Student Council set up a Work Day when students helped finish the project by painting, washing windows, and landscaping.  The temporary addition and the gymnasium remain today and had been used for various purposes for private and business endeavors, as well as the village offices.

While working on this tour, local residents shared stories of their time in this building. First, since the bathrooms were in the basement, students would ask to go to the basement instead of asking to go to the bathroom as students do nowadays. So, there is a generation of Angelicans that still say they are going to the basement when they mean to the bathroom!  Second, when it came time to move out of this building, a story was recounted of all the students lining up along the sidewalk, across the street and up the driveway and into the new school to move the library, book by book - in order no less - from one building to the other with a librarian at each end. Talk about efficiency and Angelican ingenuity!