September 6 marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of Thomas Carr Howe High School, now Thomas Carr Howe Community High School. To celebrate, the Howe Alumni Association will be hosting a birthday party on the Howe campus, 4900 Julian Ave., on Saturday, September 14 from 2- 5 p.m. Attendees will be able to tour the recently refurbished building and enjoy cake and punch.
The birthday event is open to the entire community, but is particularly focused on Howe alumni. The event planners want to “have alumni come home and see the way the school is today,” said Dan Kaga, Howe Alumni President.
TC Howe was built from 1937-38 on “Violet Hill” with an initial construction cost of $480,000 for the first phase. It was the long-awaited high school for the Irvington community. Irvington was founded in 1870 and annexed as part of Indianapolis in 1901, and had lobbied for a high school for many years.
The ground breaking ceremony for Howe was on May 28, 1937; present at the ceremony was the school superintendent, Paul Stetson, who died 3 days later and was not able to see the school completed. The cornerstone for Howe was laid on November 10 of that same year. Under the cornerstone was placed a Bible, the U.S. flag, a copy of the Indianapolis Times, Star and the News, the Public School News, minutes of the school board, the history the Irvington Union of Club’s efforts to obtain the school for the community, the biographies of Thomas Carr Howe and William Fortsyth (well-known Irvington artist) and a list of the names of the freshman class planning to begin at Howe the following year.
Howe opened its door on September 6, 1938 with an enrollment of 435 students. By the following year the enrollment had almost doubled and by 1940 the student population was over 1,000. Current enrollment this semester at Howe is over 700 students, but growing.
Howe was named after Dr. Thomas Carr Howe, a beloved professor and former president of Butler University (which was located in Irvington until 1928). He taught German and Latin and was president of Butler in 1908. He was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives and a candidate for mayor in 1928. He lived in Irvington for many years, and his most famous home is now the front-most part of the Irvington United Methodist Church on the north circle on Audubon Road. Howe was killed in May of 1934 when he was hit by a vehicle on north Meridian Street, near the current location of Butler University. He had been a beloved member of the Irvington community and his untimely death spurred his many fans to encourage the high school to be named after him.
Howe has seen many students over the years, many of whom still live in Irvington. One of the most famous graduates, at least locally, was Howard Caldwell, retired news anchor for WRTV-6. Caldwell began at Howe in the fall of 1940 and wrote for the Howe Tower (which was the school paper, named after the prominent architectural feature on the front of the school building) and was on the speech team. He was a graduate of the class of 1944, but he was drafted to the U.S. Navy in February 1944, so his parents picked up his diploma. (Luckily he already had enough credits to graduate. This was not an unusual occurrence during WWII.)
In a video done by Howe students and faculty in 1995, Caldwell fondly remembered his time at Howe and credited his newspaper advisor and speech team coach with encouraging his interest in television journalism. He also fondly remembered basketball games at Howe, noting that their first basketball game was his freshman year and they beat Broad Ripple High School 25-17. He said they had a winning season every year he was there, and in 1943/44 won sections.
Howe has a long history of wins in sports, including basketball, football, baseball, and track. Attempting to list any more of their wins here will inevitably only leave out a year near and dear to a reader’s heart. Suffice to say Howe has had many strong sports teams. And Howe continues to offer sports and participates in tournaments in Marion County. They beat Washington in their first football game this year, 40-6.
In 1963 the Howe stadium was finally built. Prior to that, any night home game had to be played at Arsenal Technical High School. The cost of the stadium was $90,000: $50,000 came from the school board, but the remaining money was paid by the community. The Men’s 400 Club raised funds by selling each seat for $30 each. They raised $35,000 that way. The remainder came from outside contributions. IPL was kind enough to donate the lights. The stadium was named after Howe’s first football coach, Sam Kelly.
Tune in next week for part 2 of The History of Thomas Carr Howe High School for Howe’s more recent history and more information on the 75th birthday party on September 14.
