Thanks to Bob Alden for this history
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50th Anniversary (1958-2008) in our current building location on Washington Street Extension.
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AT THE BEGINNING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION - 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."
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.
Mount Pleasant 175th Anniversary and inaugural Hall of Fame
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EVOLUTION OF A COMMUNITY |
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.
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, 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.
Mount Pleasant school desk circa 1830
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. There, grades 1 through 8 were taught. Gradually other grades were added, so that children could attend through high school.
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.
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. |
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.
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.
Map of the area in 1961 for the regional planning commission of
New Castle Co. (Price & Price Civil Engineers)
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.
THE DESEGRAGATION ERA |
The community of Mount Pleasant Senior High School underwent a major cultural change in 1978. 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 DESEGRAGATION 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 Christ
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The story begins in Camelot on New Year's Day as King Arthur's court is feasting and exchanging gifts. A large Green Knight armed with an axe enters the hall and proposes a game. He asks for someone in the court to strike him once with his axe, on condition that the Green Knight will return the blow one year and one day later.[3] Sir Gawain, the youngest of Arthur's knights and nephew to the king, accepts the challenge. He severs the giant's head in one stroke, expecting him to die. The Green Knight, however, picks up his own head, reminds Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in a year and a day (New Year's Day the next year) and rides away.
As the date approaches, Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Chapel and complete his bargain with the Green Knight. After many adventures and battles, Gawain, on the brink of starvation from his long journey, encounters a beautiful castle where he meets Bertilak de Hautdesert, the lord of the castle, and his beautiful wife; both are pleased to have such a renowned guest. Gawain tells them of his New Year's appointment at the Green Chapel and says that he must continue his search as he only has a few days remaining. Bertilak laughs and explains that the Green Chapel is less than two miles away and proposes that Gawain stay at the castle.
Before going hunting the next day, Bertilak proposes a bargain to Gawain: he will give Gawain whatever he catches, on condition that Gawain give him whatever he might gain during the day. Gawain accepts. After Bertilak leaves, the lady of the castle, Lady Bertilak, visits Gawain's bedroom to seduce him. Despite her best efforts, however, he yields nothing but a single kiss. When Bertilak returns and gives Gawain the deer he has killed, his guest responds by returning the lady's kiss to Bertilak, without divulging its source. The next day, the lady comes again, Gawain dodges her advances, and there is a similar exchange of a hunted boar for two kisses. She comes once more on the third morning, this time she offers him a gold ring, he refuses this so instead she insists that he takes her shawl, or girdle, Gawain accepts from her then the green silk girdle, which the lady promises will keep him from all physical harm. They exchange three kisses. That evening, Bertilak returns with a fox, which he exchanges with Gawain for the three kisses -- but Gawain keeps the girdle.
The next day, Gawain leaves for the Green Chapel with the girdle. He finds the Green Knight at the chapel sharpening an axe, and, as arranged, bends over to receive his blow. The first swing, Gawain flinches and the Green Knight belittles him for it. The Green Knight swings to behead Gawain, but holds back twice, only striking softly on the third swing, causing a small scar on his neck. The Green Knight then reveals himself to be the lord of the castle, Bertilak de Hautdesert, and explains that the entire adventure was a mere game arranged through the magical manipulations of Morgan le Fay, Arthur's mischievous sister. Gawain is at first ashamed and upset, but the two part on cordial terms and Gawain returns to Camelot, wearing the girdle in shame as a token of his failure to keep his promise with Bertilak and to fully follow the rules of the game. The Knights of the Round Table, it is decreed, should henceforth wear a green sash in recognition of Gawain's adventure.