On May 25, Dorchester High School will welcome back alumni for its annual alumni banquet. And thoughts will quickly turn to the old days.
Did you know that Dorchester is currently on its fifth school building in the past 150-plus years. It's true.
The first term of school taught in Dorchester took place in 1872 at a select school held in the McIntyre family home, which happened to be Dorchester's first house and was located near the present Methodist Church.
Also in 1872, District No. 44 -- the present school district -- was organized, even though there were only 21 children of school age residing in the district.
By 1879, more than 100 pupils were enrolled in Dorchester Public School.
By 1883, the town's longest running newspaper, The Dorchester Star, was advocating for the construction of a larger school.
During the 1911 school year, Dorchester was formally organized as a K-12 district. The class of 1914 was the first DHS class to graduate from an accredited twelve-grade high school.
As more area families placed greater importance on education, the 1926 Dorchester school board voted to build a new school -- just 35 years after the completion of the 1890 school building.
The 1964 gym and cafeteria are still standing and in use. Both have been renovated in recent years and look as fresh as the rest of the school building, which was built during the summer of 2008 following overwhelming voter approval for a $4.5 million bond issue to construct the new building.