School History

It is unclear when the first school opened its doors in Montezuma, but a frame building with two rooms which served as a school was built sometime in the 1840’s. During 1863-64 an imposing brick two-story building with a bell tower was built on the southeast corner of Madison and Miles Streets. Professor C. Craig was the principal of the new “graded school” in 1874, the school was known as the “Montezuma Academy” when it was organized as a high school. The first high school graduating class, three students, graduated in 1879. Later the old frame building was used for manual training and domestic science classes.

In 1920, the new Reserve Township High School was built on the front of the grade school building, with grades 1 through 12 housed in the new building. The aforementioned frame building was moved to the north of the athletic field for storage.

The picture at right shows the addition built in the 1950s to house the high school in the foreground and the 1920s building in the background.