Former School Campus in Seattle now Apartments

Queen Anne High School, Seattle Washington

Date added: September 19, 2024

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Completed in 1909, Queen Anne High School, located crest of Queen Anne Hill, was among the first high schools constructed in the city and an outstanding example of the work of prominent school architect James Stephens (whose model school plan of 1901 had been adopted statewide). Stephens designed an imposing structure, distinguished by its classical style and innovations in fireproofing, heating and ventilating systems, and classroom facilities. Enlarged in 1929, and again in 1955, the high school continued to serve as the focal point for public education in Queen Anne and a dominant feature of the hill.

A sparsely settled area in the 1880's, just recently logged, and connected to Seattle only by a crude wagon road, Queen Anne Town was home to a small group of loggers, dairy farmers, and workers in the mills and retail outlets of Seattle. By 1891, when the area was annexed to the city of Seattle, the first residential districts had been platted but not until the Klondike gold rush era of the late 1890s did the area boom as a desirable residential neighborhood, connected to Seattle by streetcar lines and improved roads.

As the population grew, the demand for schools increased. No school existed on Queen Anne until growing community demand convinced the school board to build a one-room "shack" in 1890 in a logged clearing. At that time, no separate high school building existed in Seattle. In 1896, West Queen Anne School was built, the first permanent school on the hill. In 1902 and 1905, the first high schools were built in Seattle. Between 1900 and 1910, Seattle built 38 schools and annexed 14 others, each of which was soon crowded. Queen Anne was the third high school built.

The construction of the new school marked the growth and influence of the Queen Anne community; it also reflected the development of public education in Seattle. The new high school was considered the finest and most modern in the city. The School Board Annual Report for 1909-10 noted that "the opening of Queen Anne High School this year marked the summit of achievement thus far in Seattle school architecture. In arrangement, in completeness, in adequateness of equipment, and in convenience, it rivals the best high school buildings anywhere, although it is not so elaborate or expensive as many." To a different audience (builders and designers, not taxpayers), Edgar Blair (who later became School District Architect) reported that "the new Queen Anne High School is the most modern and costly school building in Seattle. No expense has been spared to obtain everything of the best. In the general design of the structure, the aim has been to provide spacious corridors, ample exits, abundant light, and fresh air, accommodation for all students in assembly, and toilet facilities on every floor. The recitation rooms are small, seating from twenty to thirty students. The laboratories and shops are commodious, and the equipment is of the best. Athletics are recognized in providing a large gym and shower rooms. The growing importance of manual training has been shown in the ample space devoted to its various branches."

The modern and spacious facilities described by Seattle school officials in 1909 continued to serve the Queen Anne-Magnolia area for two decades. By 1929, however, new elementary schools in the neighborhood were sending more students to the high school and an addition was necessary to accommodate the increase. The transitional character of the 1929 addition exemplified the shift from glorifying classical ages to celebrating a modern industrial age, and toward making schools more "functional," and more modest in scale and cost. The school district architect for the 1929 addition, F.A. Naramore, became a principal of Naramore, Bain, Brady and Johansen, architects of the modest 1955 addition and many more schools in the state.

The 1929 addition included a gym, assembly hall, and classrooms, facilities used by thousands of students and teachers. The changes in the architecture of the addition shows how the community not only kept up with increasing enrollment but embraced modern attitudes toward education, incorporating new programs, functional arrangements, and architectural styles.

Locally, the school complex was a focus of community life for the Queen Anne-Magnolia area. "Socially, the building of Queen Anne High School provided the hill with a central cohesiveness. It enabled children to begin and end their pre-college education while remaining on the hill. The high school contributed significantly towards the creation of a unified community. Thousands of Queen Anne residents, while starting their education at any of the hill's grade schools, ended up together at Queen Anne High School. The school brought the neighborhood together and created a unique small-town atmosphere." The school is also associated with the life of Otto L. Luther, the school's first, principal, who, in his 42-year tenure, became an institution himself for the community.

The architect of the original building, James Stephen, arrived in Seattle in 1889 "while the city was still smoking" after the great fire. He immediately became involved in the reconstruction program. In 1891, Stephen formed a partnership with Timotheus Josenhans, an architect/engineer experienced in educational facilities. In 1899, he was elected by the School Board as Official School Architect, continuing in that position until 1908. Following his departure from that position to broaden his practice, "he continued to design schools within the district … the most notable of these school projects being Queen Anne High School (1909)." Stephen was responsible for the design of more than 50 schools throughout Washington, and he developed the "Model School Plan" followed in Seattle and elsewhere. "The Model School Plan was a flexible and economical approach to school construction implemented during a period of rapidly expanding school enrollments. James Stephen's floor plan allowed a school to be built in sections, as the need for more space increased." The I-shape plan of Queen Anne appears to be an elaboration of the Model School Plan, quite similar to Greenlake, Interlake, and Meany Schools in Seattle, which were simple wood-frame buildings. Other Stephen projects include the Administration Building (1895) and Stevens Hall (1896) on the Washington State University Campus, Pullman; Summit School (1905), Seattle; and Interlake School (1904), Seattle.

Prior to the Great Fire, and continuing until about 1909, almost all Seattle schools were frame construction with wood siding. Of the 56 schools built from 1870 through 1909, only 18 were of masonry. Few of these are extant. Prior to Queen Anne, the masonry work was generally unrefined red brick versions of Richardsonian Romanesque, or simpler Classical design. Queen Anne is the first built in a refined and classically detailed manner, using light-colored brick and terra cotta with fine joints and rich ornamentation.

The 1909 building demonstrates the architect's and community's concern with fire safety after the great fire, and was the most advanced in Seattle in this regard. "In the construction of this school, the object has been to reduce the woodwork to a minimum and to make the structure as nearly fireproof as possible. Every room is surrounded by brick walls. All doors and windows have plastered jambs, thus doing away with all casings. The corridors and stairways are all of reinforced concrete finished in non-combustible materials instead of the varnished or painted wood used up to this time."

The building included a sophisticated clock, telephone intercom, and bell system, claimed to be "not only the most complicated of any in Seattle, but also to be the first all-conduit and fireproof system installed in the city."

Fresh and heated air was brought to classrooms by an innovative system of plenums, thermostatically controlled dampers for each classroom, and masonry flues with inlets and outlets in each room. Air entered the building at the east and west entry arches, went down through tunnels to a sub-basement fan room and heating coils, up through the classrooms, and was exhausted through rooftop louvers. "The heating system is complete, and in every sense of the word, modern. It excels that in any of the other Seattle schools and is not equaled by any other building in the city. Its economy of operation and its auxiliary motive drive are the two most important features." The auxiliary drive was an early version of an "economizer cycle," now required by energy codes, which allowed the ventilation fans to be run using fresh air, without the steam boilers operating.

Queen Anne High School remained in continuous use until 1981. It is currently being converted into apartments.

Building Description

Queen Anne High School is a complex of educational buildings at the top of Seattle's Queen Anne Hill. The site of the building (completed in 1909, with additions completed in 1929 and 1955) consists of three acres bounded by Galer Street on the north, an alley on the south, Second Avenue North on the west and Third Avenue North on the east. The site was purchased originally as a whole, with future expansion anticipated. Streets with single-family houses and apartments surround the site. Water reservoir tanks and television broadcasting towers also are located near the school property. The school building is a landmark on the skyline visible from all directions in the city and sound.

The 1909 building, designed by Seattle architect James Stephen, is an imposing structure of four stories and attic. It fronts on Galer Street, extending the full width of the block from Second to Third Avenue. Overall plan dimensions are 265 feet by 165 feet, with about 24,000 square feet per floor. Height from grade to roof peak averages 80 feet on Galer. The plan is I-shaped, with formal entries centered on the north, east, and west facades and a projecting wing, containing an assembly hall, centered on the south.

The design of the original building reflects the Classical Revival Style of the period (a derivative of late Renaissance models) in its massing, axial symmetry, pedimented pavilions, and ornamented cornice and parapet. The facade is divided horizontally by terra cotta courses into the rusticated basement and first story, the two upper stories, and the crowning cornice and parapet. A central pedimented pavilion projects from the facade and houses the front entry. The entry is sheltered by a portico with full entablature supported by four unfluted columns. Projecting wings flank the facade. The east and west elevations are dominated by pedimented pavilions with entry porticoes.

The buff-colored, pressed brick of the exterior walls is a smooth, uniform product layed with precise one-quarter inch joints, resulting in a refined appearance unusual for Seattle schools of the period. Masonry has been repointed in places and remains in good condition, although dirty. The walls are punctuated with regularly spaced, broad windows set in either flat or segmentally arched openings with pronounced keystones and terra cotta heads and sills. The windows on the upper stories are separated by pilasters and engaged piers, ornamented with terra cotta capitals and wreaths. The heavy cornice features terra cotta modillions and consoles and the pediment is capped with terra cotta globes.

The roof is hipped and gabled, giving prominence to the parapet. Seven bracketed cupolas with ventilation louvers, originally topped with glass skylights, are regularly spaced along the roofline. The roof was originally covered with painted standing seam tin roofing, with galvanized iron hip rolls and finials. Now, green mineral surfaced asphalt roll roofing covers the tin and skylights. A sheet metal coping added in 1955 covers the original terra cotta coping of the parapet.

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete footings and basement walls; load-bearing masonry exterior walls and partitions, un-reinforced; wood joist floors except at corridors and stairs, which are reinforced concrete; trussed wood rafter framing and board sheathing supported on heavy timber attic trusses and posts. Light steel I-beams brace the parapet corners, and steel angles tie it to the floor framing. Additional steel and wood bracing was added in 1955, apparently for seismic reinforcement.

The plan uses symmetrical double-loaded corridors with open stairwells near each end of the "I" on the south side. The corridors are spacious; the main corridor is 17 feet wide. Classrooms have 13-foot ceiling heights with large sets of double-hung windows and an unusual ventilation system using masonry flues on inside walls, for ample daylight, ventilation, and temperature control.

Interior finishes are a departure from earlier Seattle schools; the use of wood and other combustible finishes has been minimized. The architect had seen the Chicago fire and had been very active in rebuilding Seattle after the disastrous fire of 1889. This building puts in practice the latest theories of fireproof construction. Interior walls are plastered brick masonry rather than wood stud walls. Hall wainscots are Keene's cement rather than wood. Hall floors and stairs are of reinforced concrete rather than timber and wood flooring. Even door casings are reduced to plaster returns. Classroom wainscots were painted burlap, and classroom floors were painted fir. Many classrooms retain original finishes, which for the most part are simple and straightforward.

The south wing contains a gym at the lowest elevation, sunk eight feet below the first floor to provide a 20-foot ceiling height; a two-story assembly hall with a stage entered from the second (main) floor off the main entry, and a balcony entered from the third floor; and a lunchroom on the top floor which gave the students an attractive place to spend the noon hour, with extensive views of the bay and mountains. The gym is intact. The assembly hall stage was demolished, the balcony enclosed and its floor leveled to make lounges. The lunch room was converted to library use in 1955.

The original building exterior appearance is largely intact except on the south side where later wings have been attached. Modifications on the street facades are of minor consequence. The interior has had minor alterations made each time a new wing was added.

The addition was designed in 1927 by F.A. Naramore, then architect for the school district. Attached to the south side of the 1909 building, it consists of a one-story wing on the east replacing the original boiler room and adding dressing rooms and a gym; an assembly hall with 1004 fixed seats on the main floor, 418 balcony seats, and a large proscenium stage with fly loft; and a three-story classroom wing on the west.

The addition is constructed of reinforced concrete footings, slabs-on-grade, framing and structural slabs, bearing walls and shear walls; laminated wood roof decking on metal framing at the gym and assembly hall; and wood roof decking on timber framing at the classroom wing.

The exterior is faced with brick and terra cotta similar in color to the original, with simpler detailing. The south elevation of the assembly hall does not include any of the decorative treatment of the original building. The street facades are more in keeping with the original, maintaining the rusticated masonry base of the building.

Naramore Bain Brady and Johanson designed alterations and additions constructed to the south of the 1929 wing. Alterations included roof improvements; seismic reinforcement in the attic of the 1909 building; and subdivision of large labs, shops, assembly room and lunchroom in the 1909 building, which were now replaced by the additions. A two-story wing on the west side, connected by an enclosed passage at its second level to the 1929 wing, contains a shop, drawing, and homemaking classrooms. This addition has a reinforced concrete frame with partitions, clad with lightweight metal curtain wall and buff-colored brick veneer. A one-story wing on the east contains music rooms, a new lunchroom and kitchen. Its structure is light steel frame with a three-inch tongue and groove wood roof decking on reinforced concrete slab-on-grade and structure floor slab on cantilevered concrete beams.

These additions are typical modern design of the 1950s, not in keeping with the design of the original building except in color, but rather innocuous "background" buildings.

In 1959, a playfield was constructed across Galer Street to the north. Temporary classroom buildings also occupied part of the field for a time. A gym was built in 1961 across Second Avenue North to the west. The gym is now in active use as a community recreation facility, and the playfield is currently being considered as a new site for John Hay Elementary School.