Former McKinley School a relic from another era

Only one or two of Spokane Public Schools’ earliest buildings are still standing.

Probably most prominent of the few remaining structures is the former McKinley Elementary School at 117 N. Napa St. – now a storage facility for Spokane Transfer, a freight company.

The large brick building in what is now an industrial area was constructed in 1902 as an eight-room structure at a cost of $26,000. Named for U.S. President William McKinley, it was opened the following year, the same year a nine-room wing was added at an additional cost of $32,000.

Within a few years, enrollment had grown to 585 students. By 1917, a prevocational junior high program was begun in which boys began building garages and, in cooperation with the Kiwanis clubs, constructed a house. During the heyday of the program, seven shops were housed at the school.

Much of McKinley’s history is chronicled in the book “First Class for 100 Years,” a publication of Spokane School District 81 celebrating the first 100 years of the school system (1889-1989).

Other notable events also marked the school district’s inaugural year, 1889 – Washington achieved statehood, the city of Spokane Falls became Spokane and the Great Fire destroyed much of the city.

At that time, the district was composed of schools named Bancroft, Bryant, Lincoln, Logan and Central.

“First Class for 100 Years” tells about all the schools that existed at one time or another in the Spokane Public Schools system and what has happened to each of them. The book, which includes vintage photos and handwritten letters, is available in the Northwest Room at the Spokane Public Library.

As for McKinley School, its junior high students moved to the new Libby and Havermale schools in 1928, and enrollment began to drop. Only 243 students were attending by 1961, one year before the school was closed.

It was purchased by brothers Lester and Dale Ross, who used the land as a storage site for Spokane Transfer.

The brothers proposed to McKinley alumni that since the building wasn’t needed for their business, it could be remodeled for use as a community center or to house special classes, according to Dave Ross, Spokane Transfer vice president and son of Dale Ross. Nothing ever came of those ideas, however.

The grounds and other buildings continue as a storage site for Spokane Transfer. But the McKinley School building gets only light usage, primarily in the remaining single-bay shop where trailers and trucks are repaired – the exact location where prevocational students learned their trades many decades ago.