|
Madison Junior High School was the 4th Junior High to be built in Naperville Community School District 203. Madison opened its doors in the winter of 1978. The architect was Mr. Balluff. The principal was Dr. Brown.
Our school was named after the 4th president of the United States. All our 203 Junior High Schools are named after US presidents:
- Washington JHS
- Lincoln JHS
- Jefferson JHS
- Madison JHS
- Kennedy JHS
The following Madison trivia was submitted by Phil Lawler, retired Physical Education teacher who helped open the school in 1978.
"The school nickname Warhawks was selected because when President Madison was in office, Congress was nicknamed the Warhawks.
The next decision was picking school colors and mascot – nickname Warhawks –
The original principal Ron Brown was a U of Iowa graduate, Dave Thomas a social studies teacher was also an Iowa graduate and an avid Iowa Hawkeye fan, plus Phil Lawler the original athletic director was from Iowa and also a big Hawkeye fan – the three of them help convince the rest of the staff – the school colors would be black and gold and mascot Hawkeye.
Patty Brannon the original student council advisor decided to host a contest open to students and staff. The students and staff were asked to nominate names for the year book and the school newspaper. A staff member won the contest for both names. Patty decided to have one students choice win one of the two contest. The staff member named the year book Wings of Gold…….the student picked the school newspaper name Warhawk World. The real winner for the newspaper name was actually Hawk Squak………officially the school newspaper should be Hawk Squak
The opening of the building was delayed when a major wind storm blew down the gym walls.
Madison was an experimental school. Madison was considered a capital development building – meaning over 50% of the building was paid for by the state rather than just local funding. Several parts of Madison were considered experimental including a new type of roof. The roof was developed and tested in California, the new roof had never been tested in cold weather. The new roof expanded and shrunk with the weather and creating major roof leaking problems for two years. Several basketball games were rained out. The cafeteria was covered with plastic for two years.
After the roof problems were solved, Naperville experienced a very snowy winter, that spring when the snow melted, Madison classrooms were under about 6 inches of water. Soon the flooding problems were fixed.
The flag that flies in the Madison gym flew over the US Capitol building on President Madison's birthday. A little trivia about President Madison……President Madison was very respected for his great mind and leadership despite the fact he was only 5'3 ½ inches tall.
The district approved Madison's construction in 1976 the year our country was celebration the bicentennial. The president of the Naperville school board decided to make the color scheme at Madison RED – WHITE and Blue to celebrate the countries bicentennial. It took 25 years to eventually eliminate all the red, white, and blue colors around Madison.
The building architect was very upset about being forced to put red –white and blue around the entire building. The original athletic director at Madison Phil Lawler made sure Black and Gold was the main colors in the gym. To prove a point the architect was motivated to make the very large mural with the Madison Hawk. The mural was the talk of the town when Madison opened.
The famous warhawk mural remained unchanged until 2005. A very talented artist brought the Madison Hawk new life. The new hawk was now the center of much discussion. Few people know the Hawk on the Madison gym was painted by an artist who is color blind. Truly Amazing.
Madison has had two additions since the original building opened."
The trees in the photograph above were purchased and planted after the "new wing" was added in the 1990's by Les Hanson and Dennis Cassem, custodians.
The mural outside the school office of President James Madison was painted by the art students of Ross Rutherford soon after the school was built.
Trivia Quiz:
(submitted by Larry Cwik retired science teacher)
What winter weather related construction accident delayed the opening of Madison until after winter break 1979?
Answer: The north wall of the gymnasium collapsed during a severe wind storm in the winter of 1978.
Since the building was not ready for occupancy in the fall of 1978, where did the first Madison students (6th and 7th graders only) go to school?
Answer: The original Washington Jr. High (and before that the original high school). It was located directly in front of the present Washington JHS. Washington was completed on time so MJHS students were bused all the way over there. As soon as we moved the building was raised.
Why was Madison the only school in the district to ever be built with electric heating?
Answer: Then president Jimmy Carter convinced congress that we were going to run out of natural gas so a bill was passed restricting federal funding for public buildings. (I've been told that the heating bill for Madison is equal to the combined heating bills for 3 of the other junior highs.
(all except the newest one Kennedy)
Do you know the location of Madison's original but now hidden "Conversation pit"?
Answer: It is just west and north of the brick wall that you see in the area between the library office, computer room and science office. It's covered by plywood. If you stomp in that area you'll hear it's hollow.
Please view other pages about our school:
25th Anniversary stories
Alma Mater
Attendance Area Map (PDF)
|
