was the frame building brought in from the Tiedgen neighborhood southwest of the present town and that it was located in the block to the south of the present school block.

In 1884, the old two story brick building was erected. In 1914, the building was enlarged by an extensive addition, more than doubling the room area and which included a cramped auditorium for school activities, including basketball which was then a comparatively new sport for high schools.

In the great depression of the 1930's, in order to provide work for the many unemployed, the Roosevelt Administration asked for and the Congress enacted the Public Works Administration Law.

In 1935, civic leaders of the area were invited to meet with administration officials in Norfolk to hear an explanation of the Public Works Administration plan and ask for projects to be completed in their communities. They were told that the government would pay 49% of the cost of public buildings or other public improvements, the local government voting bonds to make up the remaining 51% of the cost.

Many communities asked for projects such as street paving, sewer or water systems, auditoriums and swimming pools.

Tim Preece, attended the meeting as mayor of the Village, uninstructed, pondered in his mind what to ask for. He decided that Battle Creek needed a new high school building and auditorium more than anything else, to relieve the overcrowded condition which then existed. He then and there made the application and in due course of time, the school board received the necessary blanks to follow through to start the project.

Then one day, the Norfolk Daily News brought the distressing report that the "Battle Creek Project" for a new high school building had been rejected in Washington for the reason that labor costs to be created in the project were not in a satisfactory ratio with material cost.

Immediately, upon reading the article in the Daily News, Harry Reavis and another man, whose name will not be mentioned, telephoned M. S. McDuffee of Norfolk, who at the time was chairman of the Madison County Democratic Committee asking him to contact U. S. Senator Burke to meet in Omaha with a committee from Battle Creek with the view of reviewing the project and having our project reinstated.

Senator Burke came to Omaha and the committee, consisting of Mr. Preece, Harry Reavis, Henry Walz as chairman of the school board, M. S. McDuffee and Chas. C. Zimmerman, drove to Omaha to meet with the Senator. The argument prevailed that making brick, manufacturing of every bit of material which would go into the building, even the transportation of the material to the building site created work. Senator Burke telephoned Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's Administrator of the P.W.A. program which resulted in the project being reinstated and ultimately completed.

In spite of the depression, and though it would increase our

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