Filed Under Education

Max S. Hayes High School

Building a Cleveland Citizen

Max S. Hayes was an inspirational leader and voice of the labor movement in the city of Cleveland during the early 20th century. With manufacturing continuing to boom after World War II, Cleveland needed vocational training more than ever before to meet the need for new workers. When city leaders decided to build a new trade school, Hayes proved a fitting namesake for it.

After World War II and into the 1950s, young men had more ample time and opportunity to look to their futures in a peacetime economy still dominated by industrial work, and as a result the enrollment in vocational schools on the West Side of Cleveland rose rapidly. During the war, the West Side division enrollment had averaged around 67 students, but by 1948 it had soared to 2,800 before leveling off at a slightly lower number in the following years. 

In 1952, talks began about opening a new trade school on Cleveland’s West Side. The school was proposed to be opened on West 49th and Detroit Avenue. The conditions of the other trade schools on the West side were growing overcrowded, and the old Cleveland Trade School on Eagle Avenue had nowhere to expand in its densely packed downtown block. The new school’s opening was seen as ideal because it would allow more space for the influx of new apprentices in need of space.

There was dispute over whom the new school would be named after. The choice came down to William Green and Max S. Hayes. Green was the former president of the American Federation of Labor and was a conservative figure compared to Max S. Hayes. Hayes was ultimately chosen as the namesake for the school because he was a more progressive figure who stood for workers as compared to Green, who leaned towards favoring greater union cooperation with labor management. 

Max S. Hayes was a Cleveland politician and writer in the early 20th century. Hayes was a member of the American Socialist Party and an advocate for workers’ unions and workers' rights in the city of Cleveland. The newspaper developed in 1891, named The Cleveland Citizen, was Hayes's ultimate mark on the labor and socialist politics in not only Cleveland and Ohio but in the entirety of the United States. The Cleveland Citizen was the first labor-focused newspaper in the United States. The paper concentrated on getting out information relevant to the city's working class. Hayes was also nominated as a candidate for Vice President of the United States on two occasions — once in 1900 under the Socialist Party and then again in 1920 as the candidate for the Farmer-Labor Party — but without success. 

Upon Max S. Hayes Vocational School's opening in 1955, it met with instant success. When the school opened, there were only young men in attendance who were split up into a three-group program. The largest group included 4,000 young men who attended both day and night classes and were already working in their field and now extending their education. The second group included 2,700 students who were apprentices. Another 325 of the students were high school young men who planned on working in the field after graduation and not attending college or university. Max S. Hayes Vocational School offered 22 programs, including bricklaying, automotive, barbering, plumbing, and the list goes on. 

The school has run very much the same since its opening. The primary changes have been the pivot from being a general vocational school to a school only for high school age students, and the expansion of young women also being able to attend the school. However, Max S. Hayes High School no longer exists in its original incarnation. In 2015, it was relocated to a new building on West 65th Street just a few minutes south of the original location. With the funds available, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District decided to build a new Max S. Hayes High School in order to have an updated space with new facilities to better suit its current generation of students. The school still serves as a pull school that educates students from all over the city with the goal of training the next generation of workers in Cleveland and upholding Max S. Hayes's legacy.

Images

Students at Max S. Hayes High School
Students at Max S. Hayes High School Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Jerry Horton Date: February 13, 1961
Photograph of Max S. Hayes
Photograph of Max S. Hayes Max S. Hayes (1866-1945), newspaper publisher and political activist. Source: International Socialist Review magazine (Chicago), 1910; Scanned and colorized by Tim Davenport ("Carrite") Date: 1910
Early Work on New Max S. Hayes High School
Early Work on New Max S. Hayes High School Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Herman Seid Date: May 2, 1956
School Nearing Completion
School Nearing Completion This view from the roof of the school's auditorium shows the finishing work on surfacing the asphalt parking lot. The three-story main wing of the school (at right) was 619 feet long and contained a foundry, diesel shop, science laboratories, TV repair room, and TV studio. The one-story wing running perpendicular to the main wing housed automotive training and body repair. The older building in the distance was the old West branch of the Cleveland Trade School, which was torn down soon afterward to give more parking space. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: James Thomas Date: August 6, 1957
Car Donated to School's Auto Repair Shop
Car Donated to School's Auto Repair Shop Chevrolet's Parma plant donated this Chevy Impala to Max S. Hayes High School for students to use in studying auto repair. Pictured (L-R) are John Taunt and Nelson Otis of Chevrolet, teacher Ernie Junckler, George Engelmann of Chevrolet, school principal Dudley Courtright, and Robert Renz of Chevrolet. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Chevrolet–Cleveland Date: February 4, 1959
A Product of the Cold War
A Product of the Cold War In 1962, Max Hayes added a new laboratory to support its two-year post-graduate electronics technician training course. In this photo, students Luther Jenkins and James Hearst at left were building an industrial control circuit. Instructor Curtis Mapp looks on as another student, Floyd Smith (right) connects a transmitter to an RCA demonstrator. The school bought this equipment using funds from the National Defense Education Act, a 1958 bill that Congress had passed to support American scientific and technological education in response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Bill Nehez Date: October 18, 1962
Max Hayes Co-Op Students
Max Hayes Co-Op Students These students were among the dozen Cleveland high school seniors chosen for a summer program sponsored by National Acme Co. (one of the nation's largest machine tool manufacturers) at Max S. Hayes High School. The students earned $1.60 an hour to learn machine shop skills. Pictured (L-R) are students Carlos Flores and Alexander Foster and instructor Robert McCarthy. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Tim Culek Date: June 25, 1968
Electronic and Mechanical Engineering Students
Electronic and Mechanical Engineering Students Thomas Mazak (left) and Ronald Foster, students at Max Hayes, are pictured in their electronics classroom. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: James Thomas Date: September 3, 1961
Jane Kellon's Classroom
Jane Kellon's Classroom Kellon was teaching a training class made possible by the Area Redevelopment Act, a $394 million federal program enacted by Congress in 1961 during President John F. Kennedy's administration to direct federal funds to parts of the U.S. where unemployment was high. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Paul Tepley Date: August 28, 1964
Students with Metallurgical Microscope
Students with Metallurgical Microscope These technician trainees (Earl Hensel, left, and Richard Kriska) are testing the grain structure of a steel sample in this photo. Source: Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections at Cleveland State University Creator: Jerry Horton Date: November 10, 1961
Old Max S. Hayes High School building before its deconstruction.
Old Max S. Hayes High School building before its deconstruction. Photo of the original Max S. Hayes High School being during its use. Source: "In dispute over old Max Hayes High School site, Cleveland's need for a new West side high school must come first" Cleveland.com. Accessed 12/1/2024. Date: September 25, 2015
Modern Picture of Max S. Hayes High School
Modern Picture of Max S. Hayes High School Modern look of Max S. Hayes High School on West 65th Street. Source: "Max S. Hayes High School", Cleveland Metropolitan School District. clevelandmetroschools.org. Accessed 12/1/2024.

Location

2211 W 65th St, Cleveland, OH

Metadata

Mike Webber, “Max S. Hayes High School,” Cleveland Historical, accessed June 8, 2025, https://clevelandhistorical.org/index.php/items/show/1046.