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50th Anniversary
1958 - 2008
of our
school
building location on Washington Street Extension |
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AT THE BEGINNING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION |
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The state's first school
system, made up of several school districts, contained about twenty
schoolhouses. Commissioners in each district had the duty to employ
teachers, handle money matters, and if possible, to build and maintain a
schoolhouse. In the beginning there were about twenty schoolhouses in
the state.
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Mount Pleasant information board on the
Northern Delaware Greenway |
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One student during those
early school days recalled that, "The subjects taught were very primary,
the books were of the crudest kind, and the furniture of the rudest
material and structure. The teachers were themselves possessed of
limited education."
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As time passed and the
state grew, the importance of education was recognized. Public
Education Acts were passed that improved funding, qualifications of
teachers, teaching materials, and school buildings.
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Mount Pleasant 175th Anniversary and
inaugural Hall of Fame |
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EVOLUTION OF A
COMMUNITY |
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Formative Era |
Bellevue has a long tradition of providing
an educational institution for the children within its community.
William Penn
(1644-1718) sectioned most of the land that surrounds our present day
community of Mount Pleasant High School. This land was used to establish
one of the first Quaker Meetings in Delaware. The most prominent
citizens of the day were Morgan Dewit and Valentine Hollingsworth. A
meetinghouse on the north side of Carr Road (2.8 miles east of Faulk
Road), established about 1682, hosted regular community meetings. It was
named
from a plantation called New Wark or New Worke patented to Hollingsworth,
who in 1687 donated one-half acre for the burying place “being some already buryed in ye spot.” This is the location of the Newark Union Church.
Following the admonition of William Penn concerning the importance of
educating the young, this meetinghouse was also used as a schoolhouse.
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In 1830, a law was passed in Delaware to establish the first public
school system. That same year,
Joseph Orr sold a lot to the
School Committee of School District #2.
One of the first schools built was Mount Pleasant
(see
Mount Pleasant timeline),
a small stone school. Hanson Robinson purchased the
remainder of the Joseph Orr lot in 1855 and the adjoining Joseph Grubb lot in
order to build his Gothic style mansion. This section of land, later
be owned by William H.
DuPont, Jr., was acquired by the State of
Delaware in 1976 and renamed
Bellevue State
Park. The original Mount Pleasant
School is still on the property of Bellevue State Park (view
satellite map of all Mount Pleasant schools).
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Mount Pleasant school desk circa 1830
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As the little community of Mount Pleasant prospered, and the village of
Bellevue grew up around it, a new school was needed.
Hanson Robinson acquired the School District #2 lot
in 1863 in exchange
for a new two-story school near a lot on the south side of the newly
constructed Philadelphia
Toll Pike. The new school was built in 1865, opposite the Mount Pleasant
Methodist Church (remnants
of the original structure still stand at 1010 Philadelphia Pike).
There, grades 1 through 8 were taught.
Gradually other grades were added, so that children could attend through
high school.
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The community remained mostly parkland until the twentieth century when
the new economy was driven by the rapidly expanding chemical industry.
As the chemical industry expanded, so did the community. New towns and
cities were all causes for a new school. In 1932 this became reality, and
Mount Pleasant School on Duncan Road was built. This new school would
only accommodate grades one through nine.
There were no school busses at that
time. Folks remember that the children used to get free trolley rides
from friendly motormen up to the Mount Pleasant School.
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A new problem emerged - parents wanted local control over their school
due to rapid growth and the formation of new communities. Eight years
later in 1944, the State Board of Education was petitioned to create a
new school district. One year later in 1945, the Mount Pleasant Special
School District was organized.
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Mount Pleasant graduated only the ninth
grades in 1946
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In 1947, new housing developments made it mandatory for Mount Pleasant
School on Duncan Road to become a four-year high school. Prior to this
year, the school taught only first through ninth grades. It now began
servicing through the twelfth grade. To accommodate the very young, two
elementary schools were built: Silverside and Edgemoor. Eight years
later, two new elementary schools were built - River Road in 1954 and
Carrcroft in 1956. The last elementary school was built in 1966 - Old
Mill Lane Elementary.
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The first graduating class from Mount Pleasant's newly formed high school
was in 1950. During the same year for the first time, the Middle States
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools accredited Mount Pleasant
High School. Also at this time period, a student committee was formed to choose
an identity for the high school. The Green Knight (Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight) was chosen for the school mascot. The school colors would
officially be green and white. The school yearbooks would be named the
Green Leaf and the school newspaper would be known as the Green Flash.
Interestingly, the football uniforms were patterned after Michigan State
University using their same colors, helmet design and medieval knight.
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Map of the area in 1961 for the regional planning commission of
New Castle Co. (Price & Price Civil Engineers)
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In 1953 a new site was chosen to build the current Mount Pleasant High
School located at 5201 Washington Street Extension and Marsh Road.
The school would open in the fall of 1958.
Additions to the main physical plant were completed in 1968 and 1971.
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The Desegregation Era
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The community of Mount Pleasant Senior High School underwent a major
cultural change in 1978 (see
Delaware timeline). The Federal District Court ordered
the 11 school districts in northern Delaware to merge and become one
single district, namely, the New Castle County School District. The
newly formed district found it difficult to function as a large district
and this resulted in the formation of four separate school districts (Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay Consolidated).
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In 1981,
Brandywine School District would consist of four high schools:
Brandywine, Claymont, Concord and Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant High
School community has become diverse because of the dissolution of the
Wilmington School District. Students were shared among the four new
school districts. The community of Mount Pleasant became two-fold; the
old Mount Pleasant Special School District and a small, undefined area
of the City of Wilmington (North--Bellevue-Bellefonte; East--along the
Delaware River and Governor Printz Boulevard extending past Edgemoor
into the inner city around Price Run Park, Speakman Park, 25th Street up
to Market Street, and Northwest to the Ninth Ward; to the West - to the
city's urban sections - Rockwood I/II, Talley Farms; Liftwood Estate,
and Liftwood to Marsh Road).
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Post Desegregation Era |
In 1990, Claymont High School closed. The Brandywine School District
attributed the closing to a declining enrollment, an unequal racial
balance and the economics of keeping a high school open with a declining
enrollment. As a result, students were reassigned within the three
existing high schools. Mount Pleasant's current feeder pattern was once
again transformed. The epicenter of Mount Pleasant High School would
remain at Bellevue-Bellefonte, but now it would extend as far north as
Claymont and the immediate vicinity; eastward along I-495 and the
Delaware River; westward to the B&O railroad and southward into the
inner city of Wilmington. Danby Street to Market Street would border the
city on the north. The northwest would include Vandever Avenue and
extend northeasterly to Governor Printz Boulevard. This leads south to
Spruce Street and its immediate vicinity.
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Shifts in feeder patterns have closed all of the former elementary
schools except Carrcroft Elementary and the original Mount Pleasant
School on Duncan Road converted back to an
elementary school. New feeder
elementary schools are Harlan, Claymont, Pierre S. DuPont, Maple Lane, Carrcroft, Mount Pleasant, Darley Road and two middle schools - Springer
and Talley.
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Information on the present location of Mount Pleasant High School
of 5201 Washington Street Extension, based on deed research for Bellevue
State Park (Wise 1987)
1670-1688 Swedish property ownership confirmed by a series of
grants including resurvey of Verdreitige Hook properties. These
documents established the southeastern boundary of Rockland Manor, a large
tract of land set aside for the Penn family, which included much of the
land between the Delaware River and the Brandywine, except land that had
already been granted along the rivers themselves. The present Mount
Pleasant High School property falls within the Rockland Manor
boundaries.
Before 1785 George Robinson acquired a tract of Rockland Manor
running along the southeastern boundary from Shellpot Creek to Stoney
Creek. This would include the high school property.
After 1785 The Beeson family acquired the southern half of the
George Robinson tract, including what is now the high school property.
After 1850 and before 1868 Joseph Hanby acquired the southern
George Robinson tract after the death of John Beeson. The Hanbys owned the
property until after 1900. |
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"The people loved Mount
Pleasant. When they built a church and school, they called them Mount
Pleasant. When a group of people migrated westward in 1849, they named
their church in Illinois Mount Pleasant."
Herbert T. Pratt, Chairman of the Trustees, Mount Pleasant Church of
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