I thought it would be a good to branch out and do a on Eastern High School (check them out on Facebook) near RFK Stadium. It’s a beautiful building at 1700 East Capitol St. NE, originally built in 1923. The original Eastern High School building was building in the 1890s at 7th and C St. SE.
This past fall, they started a unique program of enrolling a new ninth grade class, growing the school by one class each year until this incoming class of 300 freshman graduates in 2015.
So, the next “If Walls Could Talk” will be Eastern High School: The Pride of Capitol Hill. Also, I know the poll we’re running is for the next “If Walls Could Talk,” but I thought I could slide this one in before since it’s a school and not a restaurant. I’m sure you won’t mind … and plus, Capitol Hill is underrepresented on Ghosts of DC.
My father went to Eastern High School, and before that, he went to Holy Comforter Not far from Eastern. He didn’t graduate from Eastern, he had to go to work and help the family when his mother died. I went to Holy Comforter too, and even had a couple nuns that my father had. Very “Old School Teaching” then too. Real strict, but also very loving at the same time. My father was a very smart man, and he became a photo engraver in the early days of his life, and finally went back to the Washington Post and worked there until around 1977-79? He helped the Post get the very first Fax (type) color photo in the newspaper. It came from Texas to Washington. Really big deal in the day. My father never spoke of Eastern much, but I know he loved it, and I believe that, he had always wished he could have graduated from there. He had a hard life as a child, but raised 7 children that all graduated from high school, and some even further. We had a good life because of him, and to this day, I have never met anyone like him, and I’m sure I never will.
PS He also help his father by being the “Ice Delivery Boy” on the Ice Wagon. He delivered Ice and took care of their horse too.
Someone posted their yearbook from Eastern High School in the District of Columbia and it was from either 1955 or 56 and I just typed in my deceased husband’s name in and this yearbook popped up online. I was able to show his grown daughter a photo of her father who was killed when she was just 8 years old. Now I cannot locate this yearbook and wondered if there was a way to access it once again. My husband’s name was Homer Tilden Allen. Any help would be more then appreciated.
Eastern will always be known as the school that started the riot at the 1962 city championship football game at DC Stadium.
Someone posted a yearbook on line from either 1955 or 1956. I found my deceased husbands graduation photo for his daughter who was 8 years old when her dad was killed on his way to work by a hit and run driver. I would love to purchase a copy of this yearbook if any knows how I can do this please let me know. His name was Homer Tilden Allen. He was 26 when he died. Thanks for any help
Carol Darling
cdgrafics@msn.com
Great article about Eastern High School. If my family had stayed in S.E., where I was born and raised until mid-1956, I probably would have graduated from Anacostia. We moved to Rockville where my parents could afford a home, and my life changed. However, in 1963, when I landed a motor-messenger job with C&P Telephone, one of my daily delights was to drive by Eastern High School and get lost in reverie about my years in D.C. Eastern was a terrific institution and the article was fun to read. Thank you for publishing it.
As I am reading this post, I have in front of me my mother’s “The Punch and Judy -1936”, which my brother just discovered in her belongings. It has a lot of photos to complement this article. But more amazing to me is “In the Ninth Inning” because the pitcher mentioned – Wahler – has to be my grandfather or great-uncle. My family lived in Congress Heights and the year is too early for my dad, who went to Eastern in the late ’20s.
There was no High School in Congress Heights but my dad and uncles played ball on the Congress Heights Athletic Club teams.
FYI: In the last photo in this article, The VERY tall student on the right is Noble Barnes. Quite a colorful character. He was a former Redskins Band director. He passed away in Feb. 2010. Here is a link to his obituary: http://www.mundenfuneralhome.net/notices/Noble-Barnes