Phoenix's historic schools

Once upon a time, schools weren't built to resemble prisons with walls and steel fences, along with no shade and heat-radiating concrete and gravel. Even in early Phoenix, most were built to inspire. In 1873 (above) an adobe school at Central and Monroe was the beginning of better to come. Here are a few — click on the photo for a larger view:

Central School, shown in 1899, replaced the adobe structure. The town's population was about 5,500.

Monroe School at Seventh Street and Monroe, 1914. The building was preserved and is now the Children's Museum of Phoenix, alas without the shade trees and grass.

The Arizona School of Music, 420 N. Central, in 1915. Founded by Mrs. Shirley Christy, the private school offered a variety of classes in music and theater, as well as public performances. Christy passed away in 1929. Today the lot is in the heart of ASU's downtown campus, the building long gone (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Monroe School and its shady, grassy lawn in 1944 (Brad Hall collection).

Flashback to 1916, a classroom in Monroe School (Brad Hall collection).

Music students at Monroe School in 1935 (Brad Hall collection).

Adams School, later Grace Court, at Eighth Avenue and Adams, in 1920.

Kenilworth School, my alma mater, opened its doors 100 years ago. Other alumni included Barry Goldwater, Paul Fannin, and Margaret Hance. Kenilworth was the most beautiful and impressive of the city's early schools. It’s still standing despite efforts to demolish it for the Papago Freeway Inner Loop.

Kenilworth when I was a student, with grass and a low fence, before the Papago Inner Loop.

Kenilworth's 8th grade in 1935 (Brad Hall collection).

Mesa Grammar School, soon after its completion in 1910. Mesa's population was less than 1,700. (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives)

Mesa Union High School in the 1940s (Brad Hall collection).

Mesa High School, 15 N. Second Avenue, in the 1960s (Brad Hall collection).

The beautiful Mesa High was destroyed by fire in October 1967 (Brad Hall collection).

St. Mary's High School, downtown Phoenix, in 1942 (Brad Hall collection).

Tempe Union High School. It was destroyed by fire in 1955 (Brad Hall collection).

Tempe High maypole dance in 1913, a year after statehood (Brad Hall collection).

Scottsdale High School. It opened in 1923 and closed in 1983.

Scottsdale Grammar School No. 2 opened in 1928, supplementing the "Little Red Schoolhouse." Renamed Loloma School, it held classes for decades. Now its remains are a transit center and the Little Red Schoolhouse is home to the Scottsdale Historical Museum.

Chandler High School in 1924. The town held less than 1,000 people.

Brophy College Prep, built far north of the city limits on Central Avenue.

The all-black George Washington Carver High School during segregation, originally Phoenix Union Colored High School. This 1941 image shows students and staff.

Garfield Elementary School, 811 N. 13th Street.

Garfield School once it was fully landscaped and shaded.

The campus of Glendale High School in the 1940s. Glendale's population was 4,800.

Madison School on north Seventh Street in 1938.

Osborn School at Central and Osborn. It was demolished to make room for the "punchcard building."

Washington School in 1937. New Deal workers built many of the schools of this era.

The faculty at Lowell Elementary School, 1121 S. Third Avenue, in 1958.

Gov. Jack Williams visits students at Dysart High School in 1969. The Dysart district is chronically underfunded because it falls into Sun City, whose residents consistently vote against school bonds.

Below is a gallery of Phoenix Union High School in its early years. Images are either from Russell Lee/Library of Congress or McCulloch Brothers Collection/ASU Archives. Today the remaining buildings are the University of Arizona College of Medicine:

 

Phoenix Union High cheerleaders in the 1950s.

On the southeast corner of Seventh Street and Van Buren was the Nifty Nook lunch spot for PUHS students. It promised 24-hour curb service. Note the corner of Monroe School in the upper right (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

Another angle of the Nifty Nook.

Another off-campus eatery for PUHS students was Pete's Place (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

And here's Phoenix's third high school, North. It opened in 1939 at 11th Street and Thomas. By the 1950s, it had beautiful campus of shade trees and grass. Most have given way to parking lots:

Finally, my mid-century favorite (maybe because I'm an alumnus) is architect Ralph Haver's Coronado High School in Scottsdale. Haver also designed some houses around the school. My family lived in one two blocks away.

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[El Kabong]

Great photos. And I've read your book but since I got it from the library it probably did you no good.

[Cal Lash]

Where was Washington School depicted here, located?

[Ramjet]

I think it was 27th Ave and Northern.

[Cal Lash]

Ramjet, Washington Grade School?

Washington High School is at 2200 West Glendale. It was built in 1955.

[Analynn Russo]

The Madison School was on 16th St., not 7th St. It is still there, just rebuilt and reimagined. I went there 1955 - 1964.

[Janine Larson Duistermars]

Washington Elementary was at 27th and Northern. Washington HS was URL’s mid 1950’s as a part of Glendale Union HS district.

[Cal Lash]

So is the Washington School shown here at 27th Avenue and Northen, replaced by the school buildings there now?
I went to Glendale high school in 54
And graduated from Washington high school in 58.
The Sunnyslope Grade school i went to at 3st and Mountain View was replaced a few years ago.

[B. Franklin]

The original Washington elementary school building shown in the photo burned down 2 or 3 decades ago.

When I went there, back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, the building held 4-8th grade classrooms. And the graduation ceremony was held in its courtyard.

Those of us who attended the school in the distant past have trouble recognizing anything that remains of the school we knew.

In that way, it kinda resembles Phoenix itself.

[Cal Lash]

In 1954 I lived in Alta Vista bordered by 27th avenue and Northern. The Diary Queen is still across the street from Washington Elementary School that is there now.
At least to my ancient recollection of the building that was there.

For entertainment in the early 50's we would jump over the fence into the Northern Drive Inn. After being chased by security we would jump back over and run across the School playground. Then jump in the North South irrigation ditch that bordered the school and the east side of 27th avenue to hide from the sheriffs deputies.

Ah the good ole days.
I did see two Hawks hunting today in my 30 minute stumble into the Great Sonoran Desert.
At 80 plus I welcome Barbara Peters of Poison Pen Book Store to the Octogenarian club. She turned 80 today.

[Jamie]

Go Dons!

[Cal Lash]

Jamie
The school mascot is the Coronado Don, don being the name for a Spanish nobleman. Architecture [ edit ] Ralph Haver , the noted Phoenix mid-century architect, designed the original school, mostly made of pre-cast concrete. [3]

[Cal Lash]

Jon, thanks for this article in your Arizona pages.
https://www.azfamily.com/news/investigations/cbs_5_investigates/arizonas-last-wild-space-now-has-smooth-roads-big-rigs-and-honda-accords/article_851aea64-44cb-11eb-9c46-3b6f8ad48398.html

[Ana Catalanotte]

Coronado looks similar to MY school, East High (48th St & Roosevelt; demolished in 2001). Was the same designer used for both schools?

[soleri]

Merry Christmas, y'all.

I wanted to post this video, which undoubtedly many of you have seen. It's a kind of tourism promo for Phoenix back in the '60s. The reason it's interesting is that it shows how beautiful the desert was back then and how raw the city itself looked. The air quality was horrendous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKI76RIPR6o&ab_channel=travelfilmarchive

[toughterry]

The desert northwest of Tucson is quite and still, this Christmas night of 2020; unlike the nation it is a part of. But as I look with my scope at the night sky and marvel again at its glory of the universe, I can only hope that the United States of America continues ad infinitum - which is my wish for this blessed nation.
Staying the course, Terry Dudas, commentator since the beginning of Rogue. A healthy 2001 to you all - most of whom I disagree with.

[Ramjet]

Soleri.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I an actuallly remember a lot of the places. It was a better place in those days.

[Judy]

I thought the punch card building was where IBM was located, at Central Ave & Highland (or Campbell), right across from where Central High is now? Thanks for all your articles - much appreciated :-)

[Rogue Columnist]

Judy,

The "punchcard building" is on the northeast corner of Osborn and Central. Designed by architect W.A. Sarmiento, it was once the headquarters of Western Savings and is now called the Phoenix Financial Center.

https://www.roguecolumnist.com/rogue_columnist/2017/04/phoenix-101-the-architects.html

And thanks for the kind words.

[Cal Lash]

Peg Bowden
“Arizona is a land of hard edges.”
Arizona has lost another of its
Good Samaritans and author of books on the border and migration.
Peggy Bowden sister to deceased author Charles Bowden has passed away.

[Michael]

No love for the indoctrination "education" system here in the USA, as it was modeled on the Prussian model of education whose aim was to produce obedient workers and soldiers who all thought the same, and whose purpose was, in the philosopher Johann Fichte's words, "must be to destroy the imagination."

But those buildings look so much better than the youth prisons of today.