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1940 – present
Founded: John Adams High School, named for the second president, opened on 30 September 1940 at 808 South Twyckenham Drive, on about twenty acres between the River Park and Sunnymede neighborhoods, across from the ground Indiana University South Bend would later take. It was built under the federal Public Works Administration program of the Federal Works Agency, and its opening was delayed by the polio epidemic of that fall. Galen Sargent was its first principal.
The auditorium: For years Adams held the city's only large performing stage, and the school's auditorium carries a record of its own: the premiere screening of Knute Rockne, All American in 1940; concerts by Kate Smith, Ezio Pinza and the Chicago Symphony; a taping of The Fred Waring Show; an address by John Wooden, the Central coach of the same decade; and, a half century on, scenes of the film Rudy shot in the building.
Present state: The building's sixty-fifth anniversary in 2005 was marked with a major remodeling. Adams adopted the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in May 2006. The school stands open, the east side's high school.
Sources:
- The school's standard reference record — the opening of 30 September 1940, the Public Works Administration building program, the polio delay, Principal Galen Sargent, the 2005 anniversary remodeling, and the IB Diploma Programme from May 2006.
- The school's own historical accounts, as carried in the Adams Tower and the school's anniversary record — the auditorium's premieres, concerts and tapings, and the Rudy filming.