Former School Building in WA Originally Housed Grades 1-12

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The 1915 Clayton School stands as one of the only physical reminders of the town's rich past as home to one of the Pacific Northwest's largest brick and terra-cotta manufacturing plants.

Originally known as "Allen's Siding" (named after Mr. Allen who operated a sawmill near the railroad line), Clayton received its name after the discovery of abundant clay in the surrounding hills. The town was officially formed in 1889 when the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway railroad came through the area for a line from Spokane to Colville. Shortly after that in 1893 a brick manufacturing plant for the Washington Brick & Lime Company was built. The great fire of Spokane had leveled thirty-two blocks of the city in 1889 and the demand for fireproof construction materials was high throughout the region.

The main works for the plant were housed in a four-story brick building 80 x 160 feet with auxiliary fitting sheds 400 x 30 feet along the sides. Nine down draft muffled kilns fired the terra cotta. The monthly production was reportedly 450 tons. The company was formed in 1892 with resources in Clayton, Freeman, and Spear, Washington as well as in Bayview, Idaho. The promoters of the new company were able to secure a contract for bricks to be used "on the then newly designed Spokane County Courthouse. It was this contract that made it possible to sell stock in the company and construct the plant in Clayton.

Wanting to extend its resources the company joined forces with the Spokane Brick Company (formed in 1897) in 1909. Joseph H. Spear served as the newly formed company president. Quickly profits of the company were high and the business expanded rapidly. By 1911 the Company had 1.2 million dollars in resources. The Clayton factory was the primary resource for terra cotta, firebrick, and face brick. Sewer pipe production took place at the Dishman, Washington facilities. Washed Kaolin was processed at Freeman, WA, while the lime was acquired from Bayview, Idaho. As the owners of the company reached retirement age they offered to sell the company. In 1919, Joseph Spear resigned as company president, and Arthur B. Fosseen, whose building material agency in Yakima had been a major distributor of the company's products, purchased the company, and became its president. In the early 1930s Arthur's son, Neal became president. The company produced about 20 million bricks a year.

At the height of operations, the Washington Brick & Lime Company was one of the largest suppliers of terra cotta and brick in the northwest. Products from the company were shipped throughout, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana (Attached is a list of known structures, which utilized products from the company). Altogether, about sixty men were employed in the plant including chemists, draftsmen, modelers, and Italian artisans.

Clayton was a company town and the company owned the local stores and built several boarding houses to accommodate its employees. The company also reportedly built the local park and two churches in the community. Running a very tight ship, the company did not allow taverns or bars within the city limits.

The company stopped manufacturing terra cotta in 1948 but continued to manufacture brick in Clayton until 1957. After that date, still-rich mineral deposits, clay from the area was shipped to the Mica plant of the company for several additional years. Within three years of the closure however, all of Washington Brick & Lime Company buildings had been razed in Clayton. Today the only physical evidence of the town's past is a company house, an ornately brick and terra cotta embellished Moose Lodge, and the Clayton School.

The Clayton School District was created on November 4^th, 1890. And first classes were held in a crowded one-room wooden schoolhouse. Due to the arrival of the Washington Brick & Lime Company, the school facility quickly became overcrowded when workers flooded to the area to work at the newly opened brick plant. Shortly thereafter a new "spacious two-room school" replaced the original school building. The new facility served the needs of the Clayton area for a few more years, but once again became overcrowded when the Big Foot School District joined Clayton in 1909.

Debate about building a new modern school building to serve the needs of the community continued for five additional years until in 1914 a bond issue was passed to build a new structure. The Deer Park Union recorded the event in the April 15^th, 1914 article noting that:

With the passing of the bond measure, the district hired Spokane architect Charles Wood to design a modern two-story facility for the community. Once the designs were completed, construction began immediately. Even problems, such as, a delayed lime shipment and water well troubles which made it necessary to haul water to the site in barrels, didn't prevent students from moving into the new brick school during the first week in February 1915. The local newspaper the Deer Park Union recorded the event in a Feb 10^th, 1915 article noting that,

The land for the school was donated by the Washington Brick & Lime Company and some suggest that they even donated the bricks for the structure.

The building housed grades one through twelve until 1939 when the high school children were bused to Deer Park High School. In 1955 when the Clayton School District merged with the larger Deer Park School District the seventh and eighth grade students were transported to a new location. Later on, all the other grades except fifth and sixth were bused to Deer Park, while fifth and sixth from that district were transported to Clayton. Upon completion of Arcadia School in Deer Park in 1972, after 57 years of service, the Clayton School closed.

Charles H. Wood - Architect

Born in 1885 in Wisconsin, Charles R. Wood came to Spokane with his parents at age 14 in 1899. While Wood's formal education and training are unknown, he is listed as a carpenter in the Spokane City directories in 1902 and 1903. By 1905, at the age of 20, Wood is working at the office of Spokane architect Albert Held. A draftsman for Held, Wood moved to the more prestigious firm of Cutter & Malmgren by 1907. Apparently having received enough training, Wood set out on his own the next year and opened an office in the Peyton Building, where he resided until 1919.

While in business, Wood reportedly designed "many business buildings and scores of residences" in Spokane. His know work includes the Edwin A. Smith House (1414 N. Summit, Spokane), the Cambern Dutch Shop Windmill (S. 1102 Perry, Spokane), Albert Apartments (152-154 S. Pine Street, Spokane), F.M. Gardner Apartments (3 Avenue, Spokane), the Maloney & Davenport store (Spokane, exact location unknown), the St. Charles Store (North Monroe, Spokane) and the Archibald W. Witherspoon House (2124 Rockwood Blvd, Spokane). Wood designed a total of 13 whimsical windmill stores for the Cambern brothers and may have designed the Benewah Milk Bottles in Spokane. His architectural style is typical of the day, dabbling in roadside architecture, Tudor Revival, American Renaissance and Italian Renaissance styles.

Wood was a member of the Eastgate Masonic Lodge, the Scottish Right and the Christian Church. Wood died February 19^th, 1945.

Building Description

Completed in 1915, the Clayton School is located in the southeastern corner of Stevens County in the town of Clayton, Washington. The small community was developed around the formation of the Washington Brick & Lime Company, which ran one of the largest brick manufacturing facilities in the state of Washington. The Clayton School is a good example of the American Renaissance style as adapted to a country schoolhouse. The two-story brick masonry building follows a rectangular footprint with formal massing and has a hip roof, a prominent corbelled entry arch, and multiple rows of tall windows.

The school is located north of Highway 395 on the southeast corner of Swenson Road and Park Street, lots 1-3 in block eight of the First Addition to Clayton. The building faces north and sits on a flat site of a grassy lawn that gently slopes towards the rear of the lot. The site is dotted with large fir and pine trees. Adjacent to the site are houses built from the late 1890s through the 1950s. An asphalt-surfaced playground area abuts the multipurpose building on the northeast corner of the property. The entire property comprising the lawn, trees, playground, schoolhouse, and multipurpose building forms a rectangular footprint.

The 1915 building measures 72 feet wide and 48 feet deep with over 6,900 square feet on the first and second floors. The building rises two stories and has a low-pitched hip roof with wide, overhanging boxed eaves. The soffits are constructed of tongue-and-groove boards with modillions set approximately 12 to 16 inches apart. Below is a simple freeze board. The roof is covered with corrugated metal panels installed in 1965. The load-bearing brick masonry walls of the schoolhouse are made of red-colored bricks laid in a common bond with a header course every 8^th row. The building rests on a foundation of poured concrete.

The facade of the Clayton School is distinguished by a central projecting, full-height bay that measures 12 feet wide. The bay is capped with a pedimented gable roof, crowned with a bellcast hip cupola which still houses its original school bell. Located on the gable end are painted cedar shingles and a classically inspired fanlight or half-round window.

Further emphasizing the entrance is a projecting entry portal which is defined by a flat cornice with dentils and a large blonde brick Roman arch. The arch is embellished with a large keystone in the form of a rams head (reportedly a leftover architectural detail from the Davenport Hotel in Spokane). Within the spandrel area are two decorative blond keystones forms. Above the entry portal are three paired, three-over-one windows.

Symmetrically placed with a continuous brick sill are, nine-over-one, double-hung, wood-sash windows on the main facade. The first-floor windows are distinguished by flat jack arch hoods laid in blond brick. The second-story windows abut directly to the cornice line.

The east, west, and south elevations of the building boast similar window designs as the main facade. On the second floor, pairs of windows are divided by brick panels. Here a square border of blond header bricks adds architectural distinction to the side elevations. The west facade has a side entry door on the ground floor, while the east facade has 'an entry door on the second floor (the exterior exposed stair has now been removed). The rear elevation is defined by a central exit door capped with a blond brick jack arch. Above it, on the second-floor level, is a Roman arched topped window, reflecting the entry portico on the main facade.

Double half-light entry doors, made of paneled wood, open from the facade's recessed entrance into a foyer and central hallway. The hallway extends from the double doors on the south side of the building. A six-foot-wide dogleg staircase is located on the east wall of the hallway and rises to the second floor. The staircase is made of fir and features an open string course with a square balustrade. A square, incised newel post anchors the stairs. The hallway is flanked by two classrooms on the east side of the building and one classroom and bathrooms on the west side of the building. Each of the three classrooms retain their lath and plaster walls and are trimmed with painted woodwork that includes floor molding, picture rail molding, and door and window surrounds. A few of the original wood-paneled interior doors with transom lights remain with original brass hardware. The floor is made of fir planks, and the ceilings on the first floor are approximately 12 feet high. Cast-iron radiators are located in each classroom. Some of the original milk glass schoolhouse-type lights still hang from the ceilings.

The second floor has a central hallway and four rooms. The principal's office is located at the head of the stairs above the main entry. The classrooms are identical in design and size (24' x 30'). In an early use of folding bi-fold wood doors, the two east side rooms can be combined for use as a large assembly room which extends from front to rear of the building. The second-floor ceilings are approximately 12 feet high and the floors are made of fir planks. At one time the northwest classroom served as the school kitchen and part of the upstairs hallway was partitioned off for a library.

Just south of the original school building is a multipurpose building built in 1960. The concrete block building is 1½ story in height and has a flat roof with projecting eaves. The structure held PE classes, basketball games, and other school programs. In 1975 it was remodeled and made into 2 classrooms for kindergarten and preschool classes. The building today also houses a kitchen area and bathrooms.

The Clayton Historical Society is in the process of purchasing the school from the Deer Park School District. The society has not made definite restoration plans. Tentative plans are to return the two structures to their original condition. Uses of the buildings include a museum, a meeting place, a library, and a Sheriff's substation. A community center with social programs such as a food bank is also being planned.

Upper portion of building front facade (2002)

Front (2002)

West side - roof patch where chimney was and door to furnace room (2002)

Northwest corner (2002)

Southwest corner (2002)

South side (2002)

Southeast corner (2002)

East side, showing part of old fire escape (2002)

Northeast corner (2002)

Staircase (2002)