By Ollie Veenstra
In the 1850s, the US had strong tensions between political parties, and slavery. this led to political violence and the first violent presidential election.
in 1856 Nebraska's cass county mapped the land for Louisville; a year later, the town was established and named. A few decades later, in 1903, the first public school was built and opened. It was a small two-story building that taught only high school students. The building was only big enough for about 40 people. Not many people attended the school in the building during this time, so the small classes were not an issue. However, as time passed, more and more people began attending, so they needed an upgrade.
In 1926, a west wing was added. The school offered chemistry class, business, and homemaking, where girls learned how to cook and sew. Along with these classes, there were also sports and activities that students participated in, which included baseball, basketball, football, track, and choir. The choirs were split between grades and gender, so there was a boys senior choir, girls senior choir, a boys junior choir, and a girls junior choir.
A few years later in 1948, the Lion’s Tale was created. Students who joined this activity created the yearbook and the Louisville community newspapers during their time at school.
Over the next couple of years, the school made more activities for the students to participate in. The pep club was formed in 1949, which was relatively close to what we call cheerleaders now, but in 1954, they were 2 separate, but very similar activities.
In 1955, there was a new school building; the old building was scheduled to be demolished in 1962.
The new building had many more classrooms for all of the high school students. Along with the new building came a football field and a baseball field.
Many people attended the baseball game on the new field, “The new high school athletic field was officially opened for baseball Sunday night, with Louisville and Sterling meeting for a game under the lights. An estimated crowd of about 150 saw the Louisville under manager Paul O’Brien win the seasons opener 12 ro 3.
The next few years in this new building sparked many new opportunities for students. There were now 2 dances: homecoming and prom, and the students even selected royalty for these events.
On senior sneak day, in 1967, the whole senior class traveled to St Joe, MO. Band had a whole new place to practice, they practiced and performed in the gym, we now call the elementary gym. Students also created the FHA, Future Homemakers of America. They helped set up programs and plays. During the late 50s, they added TVs to the classrooms.
The school also had improved classes such as math, typing class, which was on typewriters, shop class, where they made tables, desks, or simple things out of wood, girls' sewing class, and many more that we still have today.
Information and pictures came from the 1948-1960 Louisville yearbooks, the Louisville Library, newspapers, and the Plattsmouth Journal. If anyone has more information about Louisville Public Schools' history and wants to share, please reach out to Ms. Petersen at epetersen@lpslions.org.