1890
1890
JUNE 28, 1890
JULY 8, 1890
An article about the number of school-age children in Tacoma. Lowell was not named Lowell yet, at this time it was called Old Town School, or (as it is here) referred to as the First ward school.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1890
Professor W. N. Allen is listed as the Principal of the First ward school for the 1890-91 school year.
SEPTEMBER 3, 1890
Cramped buildings stifle efforts to educate the city’s children.
Also of note, the First ward school has now been renamed Lowell school, in honor of the poet James Russell Lowell (1819-1891).
This is the first school year that Lowell is part of the Tacoma School District.
SEPTEMBER 13, 1890
An article which mentions how crowded Lowell is.
1891
1891
Source: TPL Historic Building Files (Tacoma Public Library)
Lowell, circa 1891.
JANUARY 24, 1891
The school board meets to discuss plans for new buildings and building improvements. For Lowell, they decide that “a large building [is] needed here in the future.” In the meantime, they gave Lowell a $2000 budget for the 1891-2 school year, for things like “closets, water, sewer, etc.”
SEPTEMBER 5, 1891
The Lowell school’s district boundaries are defined as “that portion of the city that is north of North Eight street and of North N street.” The school includes students in grades 1-7.
Aside from school boundaries, also discussed are fire drills, attendance, and lunch hour rules (students who live within 8 blocks of the school are not allowed to remain on campus during the lunch hour, unless the weather is bad.)
1892
MAY 2, 1892
An advertisement looking for architects for the new Lowell school building.
MAY 20, 1892
Members of the school board met to go over eight designs for the new Lowell school building which had been submitted for consideration.
MAY 28, 1892
The school board met once again to discuss the new Lowell building, and decided on building plans submitted by Bullard & Haywood.
They also decided to place an advertisement for construction bids.
JUNE 10, 1892
Lowell, which now includes students in grade 8, celebrates their graduating students who will move on to Bryant school.
JUNE 13, 1892
An advertisement is placed, looking for bids for heating and plumbing for the new Lowell school building.
JUNE 24, 1892
An article detailing the building plans for the new Lowell school.
Only part of the new building plans will be constructed initially – the other half is planned to be built at a later date.
The older wood-frame school building is planned to be moved to the side of the school’s lot, in order for the new building to take center stage.
JULY 4, 1892
Clipping describing the awarding of the construction contract for the new Lowell building.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1892
An accident occurring during the construction of the new building.
OCTOBER 1, 1892
Problems arise between the building contractors and the building superintendent.
251 students now attend Lowell.
OCTOBER 21, 1892
Discovery day celebrations at Lowell school
OCTOBER 29, 1892
A construction update on the new building. It is now half-finished. It is estimated to cost a total of $32,000 when it is completed. Adjusted for inflation, that would be the equivalent of $1,109,425.93 in 2025.
1893
MARCH 4, 1893
Lowell opens to 350 pupils.
This article extensively details the building’s features.
1893
Lowell as seen c. 1893 from North 12th and Yakima streets. The new building is in the foreground – the old building (which became the annex) is behind it, to the right. The old building was previously in the center of of the lot – but it was moved to the side to make way for the new building.
APRIL 29, 1893
Arbor Day is celebrated for the first time in the city’s public schools.
At Lowell, there were “recitations, songs and selected readings of prose and poetry descriptive of plants, trees and flowers, by American and English poets and authors.”
JUNE 9, 1893
1894
APRIL 28, 1894
Arbor Day is celebrated at Lowell once again.
“Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather the pupils of the Lowell school brought plants, shrubs and flowers of various kinds to add to the beauty of one of the most attractive public school grounds in the city. A small plot of ground was assigned to each grade. It is Principal Allen’s idea to create a pleasant rivalry among his pupils in the cultivation of plants and the beautifying of the school grounds.”
SEPTEMBER 29, 1894
Teachers for the 1894-95 school year
1895
MARCH 22, 1895
By this time, Emma Unthank has become the principal of Lowell.
In this clipping, she has requested chairs for the auditorium in order to put on an event in support of the school’s efforts to purchase a piano.
MAY 19, 1895
Lowell students put on a performance of the operetta “Little Bopeep.”
MAY 26, 1895
Details about the Lowell students’ performance of Little Bopeep.
MAY 30, 1895
Lowell students celebrate Memorial Day.
An advertisement for the performance of Little Bopeep.
MAY 31, 1895
Another article about the Little Bopeep performance.
JUNE 2, 1895
A review of the Little Bopeep performance.
JUNE 26, 1895
Lowell students put on a program.
JULY 7, 1895
A letter writer to the Tacoma Daily Ledger wonders why the flag at Lowell was not flown on the 4th of July.
SEPTEMBER 14, 1895
The teacher list for school year 1895-96.
1896
1896
This map, from the Sanborn Fire Insurance map collection, shows the layout of the school grounds, with the new building in the center of the lot on Yakima between N. 12th and 13th streets. The old building (the annex) is on the corner of the lot, on 13th street.
Notice the alley behind the school building is still open. It would not be closed off until 19xx when the school board petitioned the city to close it off in order to expand the playground area. A residential house was located on a part of the land that is occupied by the playground today.
Another thing to note is that N. 13th street goes through all the way from Yakima to N. I street. N. 13th was not closed off until 1960.
MARCH 6, 1896
School board secretary Mock suggests moving the Lowell annex building to Bryant school.
“By moving the annex of the Lowell to or near the site of the Bryant the need of the room there could be supplied with slight cost and the $25,000 of annual levy made for the year 1896-97 could be made available to complete the Lowell building according to the original plan. I think by this arrangement school facilities could be amply provided without increasing the bonded debt.”
This suggestion is not taken.
APRIL 25, 1896
Arbor Day is celebrated at Lowell:
“Arbor Day was enthusiastically received by both teachers and pupils at the Lowell school. The auditorium was beautifully decorated with the national colors, evergreens, flowers, etc. On the wall at the rear of the stage was artistically wrought in evergreens the words: ‘Arbor Day.’
“The exercises began at 1:30 p. m., conducted by the principal, Miss L. Unthank, assisted by the teachers. The pupils all marched to splendid music to the auditorium…
“After the recitation ‘Woodman, Spare That Tree,’ the sixth, seventh and eighth grades sang ‘We’ll Plant a Tree’ to the tune ‘We’re Marching Through Georgia.’ The tree-planting exercises then took place, after which appropriate stanzas were recited. The pupils were then marched to the rooms and dismissed.”
MAY 31, 1896
Eighth-grade commencement ceremonies for students from Lowell, Hawthorne, Logan, Central, Whitman, and Emerson schools are held at Bryant school. Over two-hundred students move on to high school.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1896
Tacoma schools Superintendent R.S. Bingham recommends adjusting the boundaries of the Lowell and Sherman districts “to give the Sherman school a sufficient number of pupils to require the employment of four teachers and thus permit a closer grading of the school a sufficient number of pupils to referred to the committee on text books and discipline, with power to act.”
SEPTEMBER 19, 1896
Faculty lists for the 1896-97 school year are published.
The Lowell faculty consists of:
Principal – Miss Emma Unthank
Eighth grade – Miss Eva G. Smith
Seventh & sixth grades – Miss Minnie Unthank
Sixth & fifth grades – Miss Elizabeth Shane
Fifth grade – Miss Virginia Leonard
Fourth grade – Miss Julia Smith
Third grade – Miss Delia Whiting
Third & second grades – Mrs. E. Carmichael
Second B & first A grades – Miss Kate Lee Hardy
First A grade – Miss Jennie Irwin
First B & first C grades – Miss Carrie M. Tonneson
OCTOBER 21, 1896
The school board’s building committee met to discuss the problem of overcrowding in the school buildings. At this point, Lowell is at capacity, and students who are in the Lowell district are having to attend Sherman school instead.
School board secretary Mock said:
“My plan would be to complete the Lowell school, which could be done for from $15,000 to $20,000. The main part of the building with the offices, heating and plumbing is all complete, as is also the east wing. The west wing could be built now while brick and other material are cheap and when many mechanics and laborers are out of work, for a very low figure. Then I believe $500 would cover the cost of moving the old Lowell school building say out near St. Andrew’s chapel on Prospect street, where it could be used as a primary school, and thus relieve the Bryant and the Franklin, give more room for the high school and make a marked improvement all around.
The completion of the Lowell would make it one of the finest buildings in the city and the additional room there could be taken advantage of to relieve the Emerson, if necessary. It is hard to tell what would be best to do at once, but it strikes me that now is a good time to make these additions to the school accommodations and saving the expense of renting rooms which are at best but ill suited for occupation by children through the wet and cold weather. It is only a question of whether the district can stand the expense.”
DECEMBER 4, 1896
Water and moisture damage to the upper portion of the Lowell school building is discussed at a school board meeting.
1897
MAY 1, 1897
Arbor Day celebrations at Lowell include the planting of trees.
SEPTEMBER 11, 1897
Teachers for the 1897-98 school year.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1897
The problem of overcrowded schools continues, with Emerson and Lowell being the most affected.
For the problems at Lowell, the school board decides to hold off on building the addition to the newer Lowell building, and instead make good use of the old building.
“The board will give orders to have the old building used before the new brick Lowell school was built, put in condition to receive the overflow from the Lowell building now accommodating a larger number of pupils than can be to good advantage. The district which attends the Lowell school is one of the largest in the city and most of the old buildings may be necessary. The building is in good repair and can be easily fitted up to receive the pupils. It is a frame structure and one of the earliest school buildings built in the city.”
1898
FEBRUARY 13, 1898
Schools have become so overcrowded that students are now being turned away. Preliminary planning for a new high school begins, to relieve the crowding at Bryant, where the high school has been.
SEPTEMBER 5, 1898
Changes have been made in the school boundaries within the district. Lowell’s boundaries are now defined as:
“North Twelfth and Yakima Avenue: Beginning at the water front and North Fourth street, along North Fourth to the alley between J and K to North Sixth, on North Sixth to L street, on L street to North Eighth, on North Eighth to N, N to North Tenth, North Tenth to P, P to North Eleventh, North Eleventh to Union avenue. Union avenue to North Twenty-seventh, North Twenty-seventh to Alder, Alder to the bay.”
SEPTEMBER 11, 1898
Teacher list for 1898-1899.
SEPTEMBER 20, 1898
An advertisement for repair-work bids on Lowell school.
OCTOBER 2, 1898
Announcement of the winner of the bidding for Lowell’s repair-work.
1899
JANUARY 21, 1899
A new classroom is set to be built in the third floor attic of Lowell’s annex building.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1899
SEPTEMBER 8, 1899
The steam plant that heats Lowell school is deemed inefficient and defective, causing fuel expenses to be unnecessarily high.
SEPTEMBER 10, 1899
Teacher list for the 1899-1900 school year.
Lowell Elementary School History Project 