Project type: Education and Health, Schools
Site Survival: No Longer Extant
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Description
A WPA press release from Nov. 1937 reported: “More than 150 schools have been repaired and the grounds improved and landscaped [in Washington State], and five brand new schools in the state were erected entirely by WPA with a small percentage of sponsored funds,” among which was a new school in Kirkland, Washington.
The precise location and the present status of the school building are unknown to Living New Deal. One story published in 2011 states that the WPA school constructed in Kirkland no longer exists.
Source notes
WPA Press Release [#323], Nov. 11, 1937, [page 24]: https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/SL_wpawapressrelease_no301to400/SL_wpawapressrelease_no301to400.pdf https://patch.com/washington/kirkland/kirkland-cannery-building-looks-much-the-same-today-a6008d72f27
Project originally submitted by Evan Kalish on October 26, 2014.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
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I was curious about this since I grew up in the area.
From what I’ve been able to find searching, this was the old Central Grade School on the current site of Kirkland City Hall.
This newspaper timeline shows headlines in 1937 announcing government money for a new school, followed by “Central Grade School Opening”:
https://kirklandheritage.org/esj-timeline/esj-1937-1946.htm
This document from the school district has a short blurb about Central School indicating it remained open until 1975:
https://www.lwsd.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/About-Us/HistoryofLWSD.pdf
The building may have survived a bit longer, the current City Hall was built in the 1980s.
Hello Andrew. My sisters and I also grew up in Kirkland…I am trying to do a time line for us , as we moved quite a bit in our life. I spent more time in Kirkland (lived at 10th ave. south) and I went to 1st and 5th grade at Lakeview Elementary during ’55-56 in first grade and again I went in 59-6o in the 5th grade. My older sister went to Central Elementary during 1954-56. I was just wondering if Central closed or if you are familiar with Lakeview Elementary> Thanks for any feed back. Connie Stout