The Bid for Seattle’s First Dedicated High School
Voters face a critical decision on May 6th to fund a new building and land for Seattle's expanding secondary education system.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On Saturday next, the 6th of May, the voters of Seattle will be called upon to decide whether or not the board of school directors shall be authorized to expend the sum of $15,000 to complete the purchase of the block bounded by Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Seneca and University streets, and also the sum of $125,000 to erect on this block a building suitable for the purpose of a high school. It is probable that the voters of the city will endorse the proposition. Seattle has hitherto kept pace with other cities so far as the primary and middle grades are concerned, and can challenge comparison with any city in the United States for the work done in those grades. In the higher grades, however, the city has long lacked the proper facilities. The city has now reached a point when it must provide the necessary room and equipment or abandon that part of the school system. The school directors have chosen a desirable site as central to all parts of the city as can be obtained. If the city continues to grow, it will not be many years before extensive alterations will be necessary, which could not well be made unless the district owned the entire block.
“The city has now reached a point when it must provide the necessary room and equipment or abandon that part of the school system.”
This civic debate over school infrastructure in 1893 mirrors modern Seattle's perpetual struggle to build and fund adequate educational facilities for a rapidly expanding city. The site mentioned, near First Hill, remains a dense educational and institutional hub today.
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