Oliver P. Morton High School (demolished) – Hammond IN

City:
Hammond, IN

Site Type:
Education and Health, Schools

New Deal Agencies:
Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)

Completed:
1937

Designers:
George Grant Elmslie, William S. Hutton

Quality of Information:
Good

Site Survival:
No Longer Extant

Description

The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped fund the construction of the Oliver Morton School in Hammond IN, which was completed in 1937.  An addition was added in 1952 and when a new high school was built in 1967, this building became Morton Junior High (Middle School).  It was demolished in 1991.

Short and Brown’s 1939 survey of PWA buildings says this about Morton High:  “The new structure is 3 stories in height and is built around a court which is landscaped as a formal garden. On the ground floor are 12 classrooms, a band room, shop, kindergarten, 2 museums, girls’ and boys’ shower and locker rooms, lunchrooms, and kitchen. The first floor has 12 classrooms, administration offices, an auditorium seating 800, and a gymnasium with bleachers sating 600. On the second floor are a library, 6 classrooms, and rooms for domestic science, sewing, art, physiology, and general science. The boiler room, a separate 1-story building, encloses the court on one side. Construction is fireproof and the exterior walls are faced with pressed brick and trimmed with stone and marble. The project was completed in June 1937 at a construction cost of $543,702 and a project cost of $580,083.”

An announcement of the Class Reunion of the Class of 1960 gives the rest of Morton High School’s history: “The Oliver P. Morton School …  located at 7040 Marshall Avenue in the Hessville area of Hammond, Indiana… was constructed in 1936-37 with partial funding from the Depression-era Public Works Administration and based upon a design by architects George Grant Elmslie and William S. Hutton. This school replaced the original Morton School, which was built at the same Marshall Avenue location in 1912 by the community of Hessville before it was annexed by the city of Hammond. When it opened in the fall of 1937 Morton School served almost 600 students in grades kindergarten through ten. For the eleventh and twelfth grades, students attended Hammond High School. The size of the building was increased with a three story addition to each wing in 1952, and the school expanded to a four year high school in 1953 with the first class graduating in June 1954. The building housed Oliver P. Morton High School until the class of 1967 graduated. At that time, a new Oliver P. Morton High School building opened at 169th Street and Grand Avenue and the building on Marshall Avenue housed Morton junior high/middle school until it was demolished in 1991.”

Source notes

C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. (1939).

https://pages.suddenlink.net/morton1960/building.htm

Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on December 9, 2011.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.

Location Info


7040 Marshall Avenue
Hammond, IN 46323

Coordinates: 41.585315, -87.46325

Site Details

Total Cost
$580,083.00

Contribute to this Site

We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.

Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site

3 comments on “Oliver P. Morton High School (demolished) – Hammond IN

  1. Trudi Komas

    Another Beautiful Building that went to waste, & finally DEMOLISHED!! So SAD THESE GORGEOUS BUILDINGS, are DEMOLISHED.. Where is the History in these Buildings??? They were BEAUTIFUL… So sad All Are HISTORY We GREW UP WITH IS GONE!! A Blink of an EYE…♥️😢

  2. Eloise Julian

    I graduated from Morton in the class of 1960. I t was a great high school. One of my sisters graduated 8n 1954. The first graduating class after becoming a four year high school. I hated to seeing torn down. The new high school is not the same. I’m sorry but since I am not there now don’t know the reasoning for all the change. I would have liked it if they upgraded any need for safety or other needs. There should have been no need to destroy this school building and historical presidence.

  3. Mary Tomczak

    What was on the property before 1937? Was it a farm, garbage dumping, just wondering.

Join the Conversation

Please note:

  • We are not involved in the management of New Deal sites and have no information about visits, hours or rentals.
  • This page shows all the information we have for this site; if you have new information or photos to share, click the button above.

Your email address will not be published, shared, or sold.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contribute to this Site

We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.

Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site

3 comments on “Oliver P. Morton High School (demolished) – Hammond IN

  1. Trudi Komas

    Another Beautiful Building that went to waste, & finally DEMOLISHED!! So SAD THESE GORGEOUS BUILDINGS, are DEMOLISHED.. Where is the History in these Buildings??? They were BEAUTIFUL… So sad All Are HISTORY We GREW UP WITH IS GONE!! A Blink of an EYE…♥️😢

  2. Eloise Julian

    I graduated from Morton in the class of 1960. I t was a great high school. One of my sisters graduated 8n 1954. The first graduating class after becoming a four year high school. I hated to seeing torn down. The new high school is not the same. I’m sorry but since I am not there now don’t know the reasoning for all the change. I would have liked it if they upgraded any need for safety or other needs. There should have been no need to destroy this school building and historical presidence.

  3. Mary Tomczak

    What was on the property before 1937? Was it a farm, garbage dumping, just wondering.

Join the Conversation

Please note:

  • We are not involved in the management of New Deal sites and have no information about visits, hours or rentals.
  • This page shows all the information we have for this site; if you have new information or photos to share, click the button above.

Your email address will not be published, shared, or sold.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.