iring two years of study was added. This with a
technical course also requiring two years of study laid the foundation
of the Armstrong Manual Training School. Girls were given an
opportunity of taking up domestic science and boys military
drill.[354] Referring to the school in 1889-90 Superintendent Cook
said: "This school is growing, not only in number but in a condition
to perform better and more useful work. In the practical importance of
subjects taught and in their better and increasing provision for
preparing pupils for business life there is recognition of the fact
that practical usefulness is the great end of intellectual
discipline."[355]

It was during Mr. Cardozo's administration that the high school was
moved from the Miner building to a new structure in 1891. So far back
as 1874 Mr. Cook urged the construction of a suitable building for the
high school. But it was not until 1889-90 that an appropriation
therefor was made.[356] This building, known as the M Street High
School, was erected on M Street, near the intersection of New York and
New Jersey Avenues, where the institution remained until it moved into
the Dunbar.

In 1896 Dr. W. S. Montgomery was appointed principal of the M Street
High School and held that position for three years. Dr. Montgomery was
graduated at Dartmouth College, receiving the degree of A.B. in 1879
and the degree of A.M. in 1906. He completed the Howard University
medical course in 1884. From the time Dr. Montgomery was appointed
principal of the Hillsdale School in 1875 till the present, with the
exception of two years spent in study at Dartmouth, he has served the
public school system of the District of Columbia continuously.[357] In
referring to his principalship of the M Street High School, one of his
co-laborers states that it "was marked by a period of constructive
work. He stood for high scholarship with a leaning toward the
classical high school."

Judge Robert H. Terrell succeeded Dr. Montgomery in 1899. He was the
second principal of the high school to hold a degree from Harvard
College. When a boy, he was a pupil in the public schools of the
District of Columbia and was a member of one of the early classes in
the old Preparatory High School. Mr. Terrell finished his preparation
for college at Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts and was
graduated from Harvard University in the class of 1884. In the fall of
that year he was appointed a teacher in the high school