Seattle Group Deems Annex Endangered

Thu., Feb. 18, 1999

Amy Scribner Staff writer

From the South Side Voice, February 25, 1999, page S3: CORRECTION Jacqui Halverson submitted an application to get Lewis and Clark High School listed as an endangered property. A story in last week’s South Side Voice stated otherwise.

Lewis and Clark High School has been placed on a 10 most-endangered state properties list by a Seattle-based preservation group.

The nonprofit Washington Trust for Historic Preservation put the entire LC building on its endangered list at a meeting last month, citing a threat to the school’s adminstration building and to several historical features inside the high school.

The list includes properties threatened either by demolition or deterioration.

“We thought it was pretty immediate,” said trust board member David Harvey. “It’s basically to ask the school board to reconsider.”

The annex will be demolished as part of LC’s $41 million renovation and expansion. The Spokane School District board voted last September to replace the 1908 building with a more efficient four-story structure.

The district says replacing the building will save more than half a million dollars over renovation and will provide a safer structure.

Joanne Moyer, chair of the Spokane Landmarks Commission, submitted the application to the endangered list. Several properties that appeared on the list have been saved, while others have been demolished despite the endangered designation.

The district remains committed to replacing the building.

“The question remains: What’s right for kids?” said District 81 spokeswoman Terren Roloff.

“That group’s mission is to preserve buildings, as opposed to the school board’s mission of educating students.”

Preservationists also have appealed to the Spokane City Council to pass a resolution condemning the demolition, and to state legislators, hoping they’ll put limits on state matching funds for the project.

The LC renovation depends on $13.5 million in state money.

But one state legislator concluded, after looking over materials sent by both the school district and preservationists, that the school board was within its bounds.

“Basically, I don’t believe it’s my role to intervene,” said Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “I want to make sure the renovation goes forward.”

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