The History of Longview High School Longview (population 153) is located in east-central Illinois about 15 miles southeast of Champaign. Longview is located in a true country setting. The main roads leading to the Champaign County town include County Highway 12 and County Road E 100 N. It is quite probable that Longview was one of many towns created initially by the railroads of the mid 1800s. The Missouri Pacific Railroad line still runs through Longview. A brief history on the town of Longview was provided to us by Carl Erb: Carl attended Longview High School through his junior year (1953) and graduated from ABL High School in 1954. “The name of the 1949-50 yearbook was “Orizaba Stinger.” Orizaba was the settlement about 1/3 mile north of the town of Longview. When the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad came through a little south of Orizaba, the Orizaba folks moved to the new town. In 1889 the name of the post office was changed from Orizaba to Longview.” It is probable that Longview offered education to its children in the late 1800s. Longview probably had a high school in place by the early 1900s, maybe sooner. The high school served the residents of Longview proudly for about five decades. At some point in the 1950s a consolidation effort took place with three small towns of the area; Allerton, Broadlands, and Longview. The effort resulted in the creation of the Broadlands (ABL) School District in the summer of 1953.
The high school for the new District was located in Broadlands. Billy Vermillion recalls that the Longview High School building was utilized as a grades 5 – 8 facility for the A-B-L School District until the consolidation with Homer High School occurred in 1989. We are told by D. Happ that the Longview High School building has been razed. D. Happ goes on to tell us that the Longview High School spirit is still alive: “I graduated with a class of 17 in 1952. I think that there was only one more class (1953) to graduate from that building. We still hold bi-annual reunions with approximately 90-100 in attendance. Ten classmates from ’52 still live in the area. Three have passed away.” Some more information regarding the Longview school building is provided by Chanin (Magill) Peyton: “I attended ABL/Heritage school district from kindergarten through graduation – and Longview was a part of both consolidated districts. The Longview High School building has indeed been razed, but it WAS used by ABL at least from the time that I started kindergarten in 1977-78 through my graduation year of 1990 as the 5-8th grade building for the ABL district. Soon after the consolidation and the formation of Heritage, the 5-8th grades moved to the Homer building, where they remain today. My grandmother, Wilma Messman Magill, was a graduate from Longview High school, and had many fond memories of the building.” Broadlands (ABL) School District welcomed the addition of nearby Homer High School (also on this site) in 1989 and renamed the school district the Heritage School District with the high school remaining in Broadlands. Longview High School Quick Facts Year opened: late 1800s / early 1900s Year closed: 1953 Consolidated to: Broadlands ABL School District Longview HS nickname: the “Hornets” School colors: Orange & Blue School Fight Song: unavailable |
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