On Nov. 12, 1869, George Allan and others formally requested
that a new county school district be formed along the King County
line at Park Place. This was the beginning of public education in
the Monroe area. The new district was duly formed on Nov. 23 as
School District No. 2, the second school district to be formed in
Snohomish County. The first had been formed at Snohomish on May 7,
1865.
The idea of public eduation was important to the early settlers
of Snohomish County. In 1861, the year the county was formed, a
school tax was levied although there were no pioneer children yet
living in the county. As the settler population increased, local
school districts were formed where there were enough children to
support a school. Funding came from county and state sources as
well as from the parents. At first, classes were usually held in
someone's home. Initially attendance was low and terms were short
in part because children were needed to work at home and on the
farm and because the school was often several miles distant.
On November 1, 1869, E. C. Ferguson, the clerk for the Snohomish
School District made his annual report to the first County
Superintendent of Schools, Henry McClurg of Park Place. Ferguson
wrote: I herewith submit my yearly report as the law directs. A
school has been kept in the district by a qualified teacher for a
term of three months. During the past season, the attendance was
very small in proportion to the number of scholars in said
district, say about one-fifth, all of which were in the primary
class. The amount of wages paid for the term in legal tender was
$188.59. No other moneys have been expended from the school fund
during the past year.
On Nov. 9, 1870, George Harriman the clerk for the Park Place
School District reported that no school had been held during 1870
although there were 14 school-age children in the district.
Snohomish had held school for a term of six months that year with
18 in attendance out of a possible 47 school-age children. County
school funds were divided between the two districts with Snohomish
receiving $296.71 and Park Place $119.60. Henry McClurg as County
Superintendent of Schools received $25.
In 1874, the first school building in the county was constructed
in Snohomish on donated land at a cost of $700 in county funds. Two
years later in 1876, three other county school districts built
school buildings including Park Place, but these were paid for by
local subscription. In 1889, County Superintendent of Schools J. W.
Heffner reviewed early county school history and wrote in part:
District No. 2 (Park Place) was formed from District No. 1 in
1869. In 1879 it had twenty pupils, while in 1889, there were
forty-two. The district has a schoolhouse which is also used as a
church, and has levied a tax for a $500 building.
The construction of the Great Northern Mainline one mile east of
Park Place in 1892 spelled the end of Park Place as the business
center for the Monroe area and over the next decade most of the
significant buildings in Park Place were moved east to the railroad
tracks. The first to move was the Vanasdlen
Store and Post Office. In 1899, the school building was moved
and became the first
school building in Monroe proper at the three-acres school site
on the southeast corner of Ferry and Fremont Streets.
During the first decade of the twentieth century Monroe grew
rapidly and in 1911, a handsome new two-story brick schoolhouse
(pictured below) was built at this site. It had four large
classrooms, one of which was used at times as a gymnasium or a
cafeteria. Originally three teachers taught the first six grades.
The school was closed in 1955 and demolished in 1964. The site is
now a school district baseball field.
And another bit of history: the imposing building on the hill to
the south is the main cell block of the Monroe Reformatory, which
was built by inmate labor almost one hundred years ago.
Another in series of caches that focus on Monroe-area
history. You are looking for a bison capsule hidden at the east
end of the bleachers, top row (seats) behind the last vertical
upright. Those are horse chestnut trees behind you and horse
chestnuts on the ground. These are NOT the edible ones;
they are poisonous. You are surrounded by houses so be
stealthy and during baseball season you may have to come
back.
The 1911 Park Place School Building taken looking northwest.
Photo #324 courtesy of Monroe Historical Society.