Seattle Approves a New School Wing as 500 Children Wait for Desks

The full school board met in the office of Architect Parkinson yesterday to consider plans and specifications for the new school building to be erected on Block 15, Pontius Third Addition, between Third and Fourth avenues and Lincoln and Howard streets. The block has belonged to the school district for about two years. For the present, rooms only are contemplated. The building to be erected will be one wing of a general plan looking to a large edifice containing twenty rooms, when needed, and accommodating about 1,000 pupils. The whole plan as submitted was accepted. It will be a handsome brick building with a central portion and two wings, brick with stone basement, and supplied with all modern heating and ventilation. The wing to be erected under yesterday's action will cost about the amount the board is restricted to by law without calling a special election for authorization from the people. The building, it is expected, will relieve the district now paid for five rooms, effecting a saving of nearly $1,000 per annum, besides no mean interest on the investment expressed. It is estimated that there are at least 500 children of school age in the district unprovided with school facilities. The new building will not only provide for these but will relieve to some extent the congestion now felt in four neighboring schools, the Denny, Homer, Columbia and Central. The site it will occupy is almost midway between these schools. Bids will be advertised for about May 1, when the working plans are complete. The succeeding meeting of the board will be May 10, and it is expected that the bids will then be opened, the endeavor being to have the building ready for use at the opening of the school year of 1895-96. The general building will be 200 feet long, 65 feet deep and will have two stories. The main tower will be about 110 feet and the second about 95 feet. The architecture is a free treatment of the [illegible] style.