Washington School
About
The Washington School was constructed in 1922, during the mining boom, in response to parental concerns that elementary age children had to walk too far to get to school from newer homes, on what was then the outskirts of Grand Junction. At first, elementary students were housed in the basement of Grand Junction High School at 9th Street and Chipeta Avenue. Then, because the school district only had $5,000, parents pitched in for the construction of a new elementary school on the northeast corner of 9th and Chipeta (the location of the current East Middle School). The principal, Ada B. Copeland, drew the building plans, male faculty and townsmen built the school, and female faculty and townswomen painted it. The school opened in September 1922. It was a four room school. When Tope Elementary opened in 1941, students were transferred there and the Washington School building was used for storage. In 1955, the renovated building became the home of Mesa County School District 51's first official special education program. The program served approximately 30 students. There were four rooms in the school; two were used as overflow rooms for Tope Elementary, and two were used for the special education program. Ruth Larson served as the principal, since she was responsible for Tope Elementary. The special education program expanded enough to require a new location in 1960. The building was torn down in 1980. *Information for this note was taken from In the Beginning... A History of the Districts and Schools that became Mesa County Valley School District Number 51 by Albert and Terry LaSalle. (https://mesa.marmot.org/Archive/place:2069/Place)
Related Object: Washington Friends Academy