Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

The Voice of St. Matthews, January 1, 1959: St. Matthews area restless in 1958The superior program will be for fast learners, who are either not qualified for the advanced course, or are not interested.The regular program will be for the average student.Years of preparation: The new program was adopted after years of study and experiment, and is tailored to give the individualstudent just as much education as he can absorb. Now the Board of Education is faced with the task of getting fullpublic approval and cooperation to make the plan work.* * *The library immediately won mass support here. St. Matthews for years had been served by a single, small inadequateroomon St. Matthews Avenue, - crammed to the ceiling with 5,200 volumes. There was no room for children to sit down.There were no basic reference works.In February, Mrs. Harriett Cowman, who had come here from Baltimore to make her home, called at The Voice office withsome facts and figures on libraries in general and the inadequacy of the St. Matthews library in particular.She persuaded Voice editor Emil M. Aun that he ought to help her do something about it so the first meeting was calledMarch 13 in The Voice office. Despite seven inches of snow, representatives of a dozen civic, fraternal, veterans, churchand mu-nicipal organizations showed up.Officers were named: The idea caught fire, and Mr. Aun representing the Voice and the St. Matthews Jaycees, was namedchairman; Price Webb, of the St. Matthews Lions, Vice chairman; Mrs. Cowman, representing the City of Windy Hills,secretary; and John L. Haney, of the St. Matthews Rotary, treasurer.A budget of $7,000 was drawn up for the first year’s operation, and the City of St. Matthews and the Louisville Free PublicLibrary pledged to meet it. The library would be open 30 hour a week and operated as a branch of the Louisville library.***St. Matthews businessman A. J. Eline came forward with an offer of a tract of ground behind the St. Matthews MethodistChurch. He further offered to match all funds raised, and asked only that the library be named after his son, Sidney, abomber pilot killed in action over Germany during World War II.His offer was accepted but was later modified. The Library Committee decided that while the ground offered was adequatefor the present, it would not meet future expansion needs.$34,000 was raised: Mr. Eline consented to give an additional piece of ground, making about an acre all told, and to limithis gift of money to $10,000.***A door-to-door drive for funds in June, headed by Mrs. John B. Henderson, yielded another $7,000. Additional gifts frombusinessmen, clubs, churches, fraternal and veterans organizations, and individuals brought the total raised to more than$26,000.Ground-breaking was held for the 70-by-30-foot brick building in October, and it was almost finished by the end of theyear. Meanwhile, the Library Committee learned that a work room would have to be added. This work room, plus furnitureand shelves, came to about $7,000.The St. Matthews Lions Club, which had already given $1,600, came forward again. The Lions voted to give an additional$7,500, making a total contribution of $9,100. By the end of the year, total contributions and pledges topped $34,000.A new 18-acre park: Notable advances were also made in recreation.An 18-acre park was secured for the Keeneland-Moorland area in November. Six acres were given by the State, and the restwas bought by the County for $15,000. In December, a park board of nine members was formed, representing the Cities,subdivisions, and clubs in the area interested in developing and maintaining the ground, in cooperation with the JeffersonCounty Playground and Recreation Board.The Recreation Board also cooperated in setting up a 10-week summer program of supervised recreation at Stivers School.A neighborhood committee was organized to raise money for capital improvements, and Dan O’Neill, headmaster at CatholicCountry Day School, was elected chairman. The playground was opened in June.A post office for Lyndon: Lyndon got a new post office, The new building, comprising 2,900 square feet, more than twicethe size of the old building, was opened in downtown Lyndon in August. James Tong, superintendent. supervised dedicationceremonies.* * *St. Matthews, meanwhile, was getting itchy for better post office facilities. The new superintendent, George Nestmann, wassaying as far back as February that the post office had outgrown its building at Breckenridge Lane and Willis Avenue.By the end of the year, there were many rumors, but no concrete news, as to when St. Matthews would get a bigger postoffice and where it would be located.At Waggener, big things were happening as winter approached. The Waggener High School Development Association wasformed to raise $50,000 to provide football, baseball and other athletic facilities on the school grounds.