‘Extravagant example of Western prosperity’: Hibbing High School turns 100

One of the first outsider takes on the brand new Hibbing High School, offered up by a reporter for the New York Times in 1925, referred to the multimillion-dollar structure funded by mining taxes as “perhaps the most extravagant example of Western prosperity.”

Writer Rose Feld used an extended metaphor to express the opulence of this place: It was like discovering a couple in formal wear celebrating an anniversary with fine dining in a log cabin. Hibbing High School, described as the equivalent of a cathedral, was built to house more than a thousand students from kindergarten through junior college. It was built with 54 classrooms and spaces specifically for cooking classes, an automotive shop, lecture halls and more. There was a clinic with physicians and nurses on site. It was, according to Feld, “a white elephant in the land of the buffalo.”

And it still stands like a cathedral, one of few grand schools from the era remaining in the region.

The community celebrated the school’s 100th anniversary last week with a mix of activities emphasizing Bluejackets’ arts, athletics, academics, its recently refurbished auditorium (Feld wrote its early incarnation was fit for a Broadway star), its alumni and more. Among the presenters for the series of events: journalist Bethany McLean, former NBA player Kevin McHale, and Minnesota Duluth hockey coach Scott Sandelin.

Bob Dylan, arguably the school’s most famous graduate, was not in the lineup — but tours of his childhood home, now owned by memorabilia collector Bill Pagel, were available on request.

“Our high school is such an amazing place,” said Kim McLaughlin, a member of the school board who co-chaired the committee behind the celebration. “It’s really contributed to the history, not only of Hibbing and the Iron Range, but the state of Minnesota.

“It’s one of the few places on the national historic register still being used as a high school.”

The paperwork for the distinction was filed in 1980 and limits the scope of upgrades made on site.

The E-shaped building, at 416 feet long, covers four blocks in the heart of the city, land previously owned by Oliver Mining Co. The building is made of red brick and grey stone, with granite stairs, Roman Doric columns and paned windows at the entrance. While the classrooms have been modernized, the school’s common areas retain the original aesthetic — from the marble staircase leading to the main hallway, to the molded ceilings and paintings in the library depicting the city’s history.

The gem of the school is its auditorium, both in design and lore. There isn’t a bad seat in the house, its history-keepers say. And Dylan famously played this stage, even if the principal cut the noise, according to the book “Positively Main Street” by Toby Thompson.

It’s the details that make the space, including the Tiffany glass that encases the fire extinguisher and the chandeliers from Belgium.

“No Broadway star need be humbled by acting before those tiers of beautifully upholstered seats, the boxes, the balcony,” Feld wrote.

Construction on Hibbing High School began in 1920, helped along by the taxes the Oliver Mining Co. paid to pull iron ore from the region. It took about $4 million to finish the four-story Jacobethan-style building, with materials secured from different corners of the world or as close as an in-state quarry. The dedication was held in 1924, but by then some classes were already held at the school.

Hibbing native Mary Palcich Keyes and her husband give regular tours of the high school — more than 30 last week — to visiting alumni and sometimes to visitors from as far away as Europe where a century can be just blip of a structure’s history.

“But in America, to keep a building and take care of it and have it still look like this after 100 years, this is rare,” she said.