Gas Pains

Great comment on your wife's 40th reunion at Tosa East which previously was Wauwatosa High School.  Alumni have been returning to our alma mater for a very long time and they all take pleasant memories home with them.  

Hopefully you and your wife and the members of the reunion party were able to visit the Tosa High building which has been located on that same spot at Wauwatosa Ave. and Milwaukee since before the turn of the century. The building that stands there now is a true architectural creation of the art deco area.  It was built over 10 years by funding from the Works Project Administration.

Many alumni have joined together from all over the world to fund and support the restoration of the old WPA murals hidden inside the school for 30 years and to lend support to the school's Wall of Inspiration which honors outstanding alumni.

Wauwatosa High School and the newer Wauwatosa East High School have been an outstanding asset to our community for many years and it is fitting that each class returning to such a place, be welcomed by the community as you have done.

Thanks

Ray Py

Tosa Class of 1954

Hey Ray…

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  

I have to tell you that I genuinely enjoy your reminiscing about all things Tosa.

At the Reunion I was told about classes that were actually held in the old tower.

Maybe you would be able to tell us about the history of the tower?

Tom

Tom—The Tosa Tower was built with promise in 1931. When it was in place, it was our school’s most significant and endearing image–the Tosa tower appeared in thousands of publications, yearbooks, stationery, reports, book covers,  photographs, painting–even the graduation diploma!

Even today, the school does not truthfully recognize its demise.  It appears intact in some yearbooks. Paintings of the building with tower are prominent in the school’s main office today.

Interestingly, the tower classroom was created to be a radio studio to train students in the art of radio broadcasting.  There were actually two rooms in the tower, separated by a window through which students and teachers could watch students who were performing as radio actors.

When I was a student there, I attended speech classes in the tower.

By 1974 when the tower was taken down--because of high maintenance costs--it was the office of the student newspaper.  The tower was actually designated as the school's fourth floor.  It and the third floor classroos, now used for storage, are fading memories for most alumni.

When the tower was completed in 1932, the entire Wauwatosa community came to see what fine work their skilled craftsmen and builders had done. They surely must have gazed in awe at what was the most beautiful spire on an avenue of spires.  The Grand Tower-and the high school it represented-answered this community’s repeated demand  for a high school that would forever prepare its children for the exciting and challenging years ahead.  That year, the editors of The 1932 Cardinal Pennant wrote that “towers symbolize man’s reaching upward toward his ideals.” Then they wrote that “this tower rising above the new high school symbolizes to all its students the solid heights they hope to attain.”

I discovered the tower was gone when I went into our high school to inquire about memorabilia for a class reunion after I retired and came home from Washington D.C. almost 10 years ago.  There was nothing from my era anywhere in the school building—even our trophies were gone. It was all gone.  Gone–like the tower- someone said.  That’s when I went outside and looked.

In searching for the tower over the past decade, I have discovered many interesting hidden facts about the school and the building.  The search has led to a small book and successful attempts at putting much of the school’s artifacts back and on display in the Wauwatosa Historic Center located in the restored main lobby, directly below where the tower would be standing today.

Ray Py

Thanks Ray.

I figured you knew the story better than anyone.

If you, or someone else, can get ahold of a picture of the building AND the tower - I'll post it so everyone knows what we're talking about.

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Edit -

Thanks for the pictures Ray.

Too bad about the tower.  So much of our architectural heritage has disappeared due to short-sighted planning.

Sigh.