Former President Theodore Roosevelt was on a goodwill tour of the nation.  An entourage of newspaper men from all the leading cities in the country followed him and wrote up every word he said to be thought over by an eager reading public.  In Milwaukee the whole city turned out to fill the streets on his itinerary.  The picture below reflects his wholesome popularity as he stepped off the train to be greeted by the mayor and a newsboy on September 7, 1910. 

          This world-renowned figure made two predetermined stops:  one at Boys' Tech; the other at Girls' Tech.  He was interested in this new thing:  trades taught in schools.  He stepped out of his car and into our Trade School office, then walked through the Drawing Department, where he shook hands with many of the students including Mr. Carl Schubert, one of our present instructors.  He asked questions of the faculty and administrators.  Next morning newspapers the country over had copes of his Milwaukee Auditorium speech of the day before.  More than half of that speech was devoted to the good that Public Trade Schools can do for industry and for society.  He said, “I wanted to see the trade schools because I regard you as having taken here in Milwaukee an all important first step in incorporating these trade schools into your common school system.  Our republic has no meaning unless it is a genuine democracy, a democracy economically meaning unless it is a genu9ine democracy, a democracy economically as well as politically, a democracy in which there is a really sincere and reasonable effort to realize the ideal of equality of opportunity for all men… That means that it is our duty to provide such means of education as will enable each man to become a self-sustaining, self-respecting unit in the community.”  The whole city applauded when he added, “Now, the trade schools here mark the beginning of the effort to fit each man to do the very best that lies in him in the world … There is always a demand for the highly skilled worker in any walk of life and when you get our average laboring man, our average wage-earner, to be turned out of trade schools, that man will have gone a long way toward solving some of the most difficult questions with which this republic has to deal… You do not often find a man who is industrious, who has a habit of orderly work and who is able to do his work well, who is a lawless, violent character.  He is pretty apt to be a decent law-abiding, self-respecting member of the community.”

         Milwaukee fed on these choice compliments.  Boys wanted to go to the Trade School.  Fathers wanted their children to go there.  Inquiries came to the principal and teachers from the city, the state, the country.  Teachers still have letters from New York, Baltimore, and Seattle asking about the setup, the course of study, administration.  Patriotic educators remembered Roosevelt 's words, “We ought to do our best to see that reward and respect come in greater proportion that at present to the man who does the best form of manual labor.”

          Tech was made!  And all this despite a fire that burned out the center section of the school on December 31, 1909. The three departments from that section were temporarily moved a block east to the southeast corner of Oregon and Barclay Streets.  In the meantime, the School Board got busy on a new building on West Virginia Street .  Its progress is shown in pictures below.  The two wings were built in 1911 and 1912.  The wing on Third Street was to be occupied by the Plumbing Shop in the basement and first floor and Cabinet Shops on the second and third floors.  The Fourth Street Wing contained the Machine Shop on the first floor, Pattern Shop on the second floor, and Electric Shop and offices on the third.  In 1914, the entrance and academic classrooms were built.  Scenes here show that addition from the front and the rear.  The rear part with the old boiler room was on College Place which is now occupied by an additional wing, barracks, and a new boiler room.