A school remembered through its records, its buildings, and the people who knew it.
The history of Lyons High School survives in more than dates and buildings. School records, photographs, catalogs, surviving artifacts, and the recollections of those who witnessed important changes each preserve a different part of its story.
The earliest attendance evidence described in this archive reaches back to 1902. A photograph identified as circa 1908 shows the early three-story school; later recollections describe changes to that building, the addition of grades, and the changing campus around it. These sources offer a beginning while leaving questions about the school’s founding and construction unanswered.
The story continues through the school’s later development and eventual consolidation, and even beyond the years when the building served as Lyons High School. Larry Griggers’s account of the 1975 fire, for example, records the loss of a building then being used as Lyons Junior High School.
Our History brings together the records, artifacts, photographs, and first-person accounts that document the development of Lyons High School as an institution. Personal stories and memories of what it was like to attend LHS are preserved separately in Memories.
The early school, circa 1908. Photograph supplied to the original archive by Robert Brown, Class of ’63. The building’s construction date is not established.
Follow the evidence of attendance beginning in 1902, the circa-1908 photograph, and alumni memories of the early building and its changing place on campus.
