The Old Clayton School: The Application for Placement on the National Register of Historic Places
The school as it appeared in 1971.
The following is a rendition of the "Narrative Description" section of the "National Register" application for placing the Clayton School on the Register of Historical Places - as submitted by the Clayton Historical Society on February 24, 2003. Bill Sebright, then Vice President of the Clayton Historical Society, is the author of the "Narrative". Michael Houser, Architectural Historian for the Washington State Office of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, acted as technical advisor for the application.
Note: The following has been edited for brevity, and to reduce its technical complexity.
Completed in 1915, the Clayton School is located in the southeastern corner of Stevens County in the town of Clayton, Washington. The small community was developed around the formation of the Washington Brick & Lime Company, which ran one of the largest brick manufacturing facilities in the state of Washington. The Clayton School is a good example of the American Renaissance style as adapted to a country schoolhouse. The two-story brick masonry building follows a rectangular footprint with formal massing, and has a hip roof, a prominent corbelled entry arch, and multiple rows of tall windows. The school is in fair condition and retains a high level of integrity in location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
The school is located north of Highway 395 on the southeast corner of Swenson Road and Park Street, lots 1-3 in block eight of the First Addition to Clayton. The building faces north and sits on a flat site of a grassy lawn which gently slopes towards the rear of the lot. The site is dotted with large fir and pine trees. Adjacent to the site are houses built from the late 1890's through the 1950's. An asphalt-surfaced playground area abuts the multipurpose building on the northeast corner of the property. The entire property comprising the lawn, trees, playground, schoolhouse and multipurpose building forms a rectangular footprint.
The 1915 building measures 72 feet wide and 48 feet deep with over 6,900 square feet on the first and second floors. The building rises two stories and has a low-pitched hip roof with wide, overhanging boxed eaves. The soffits are constructed of tongue-and-groove boards with modillions set approximately 12 to 16 inches apart. Below is a simple freeze board. The roof is covered with corrugated metal panels installed in 1965. The load-bearing brick masonry walls of the schoolhouse are made of red colored brick in a common bond with a header course every 8th row. The building rests on a foundation of poured concrete.
The façade of the Clayton School is distinguished by a central projecting, full-height bay that measures 12 feet wide. The bay is capped with a pedimented gable roof, crowned with a bell-cast hip cupola which still houses its original school bell. Located on the gable end are painted cedar shingles and a classically inspired fanlight, or half-round window.
Further emphasizing the entire entrance is a projecting entry portal which is defined by a flat cornice with dentils and a large blonde brick Roman arch. The arch is embellished with a large keystone in the form of a rams head (reportedly a leftover architectural detail from Spokane's Davenport Hotel). Within the spandrel area are two decorative blond keystones forms. Above the entry portal are three paired, three-over-one windows.
Symmetrically placed with a continuous brick sill are, nine-over-one, double-hung, wood-sash windows on the main façade. The first floor windows are distinguished by flat jack arch hoods laid in blond brick. The second story windows abut directly to the cornice line.
The east, west and south elevations of the building boast similar window designs as the main façade. On the second floor, pairs of windows are divided by brick panels. Here a square border of blond header bricks add architectural distinction to the side elevations. The west façade has a side entry door on the ground floor, while the east façade has an entry door on the second floor (the exterior exposed stair has now been removed). The rear elevation if defined by a central exit door capped with a blond brick jack arch. Above it, on the second floor level, is a Roman arched topped window, reflecting the entry portico on the main façade.
Double half-light entry doors, made of paneled wood, open from the façade's recessed entrance into a foyer and central hallway. The hallway extends from the double doors on the south side of the building. A six-foot-wide dogleg staircase is located on the east wall of the hallway and rises to the second floor. The staircase is made of fir and features an open string course with a square balustrade. A square, incised newel post anchors the stairs. The hallway is flanked by two classrooms on the east side of the building, and one classroom and bathrooms on the west side of the building. At one time the northwest classroom served as the school kitchen. Each of the three classrooms retain their lath and plaster walls, and are trimmed with painted woodwork that includes floor molding, picture rail molding, and door and window surrounds. A few of the original wood paneled interior doors, with transom lights and original brass hardware, remain. The floor is made of fir planks, and the ceilings on the first floor are approximately 12 feet high. Cast-iron radiators are located in each classroom. Some of the original milk-glass schoolhouse-type lights still hang from the ceilings.
The second floor has a central hallway and four rooms. The principal's office is located at the head of the stairs above the main entry. The classrooms are identical in design and size (24' x 30'). In an early use of folding bi-fold wood doors, the two east side rooms can be combined for use as a large assembly room which extends from front to rear of the building. The second-floor ceilings are approximately 12 feet high and the floors are made of fir planks. At one time part of the upstairs hallway was partitioned off for a library.
Just south of the original school building is a multipurpose building built in 1960.
The 1915 Clayton School is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under the "Rural Public Schools in Washington from Early Settlement to 1945 MPD". The intact brick school meets the registration requirement for listing under both criterion A and criterion C. Construction of the school showed the community of Clayton's commitment to children and their education and today stands as one of the physical reminders of the towns rich past as home to one of the Pacific Northwest's largest brick and terra cotta manufacturing plants. Additionally the school is an excellent example of a large county school in the Spokane area designed with multi-rooms, spacious well-lit classrooms and all of the latest conveniences of a modern facility.
Originally known as "Allen's Siding" (named after Mr. Allen who operated a sawmill near the railroad line), Clayton received its name after the discovery of abundant clay in the surrounding hills. The town was officially formed in 1889 when the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway railroad line from Spokane to Colville came through the area. Shortly thereafter, in 1893, a brick manufacturing plant for the Washington Brick & Lime Company was built. The great fire of Spokane had leveled thirty-two blocks of the city in 1889, and the demand for fireproof construction materials was high throughout the region.
W. B. & L. Co. was formed in 1892 with resources in Clayton, Freeman, and Spear, Washington, as well as in Bayview, Idaho. The promoters of the new company were able to secure a contract that made it possible to sell stock in the company and construct the plant in Clayton.
Wanting to extend their resources, the company joined forces with the Spokane Brick Company (formed in 1897) in 1909. Joseph H. Spear served as the newly formed company president. Company profits were high, and the business expanded rapidly. By 1911 the company had 1.2 million dollars in resources. The Clayton factory was the primary source for terra cotta, firebrick, and face brick. Sewer pipe production took place at the Dishman, Washington facilities. Washed kaolin (clay) was processed at Freeman, WA, while the lime was acquired from Bayview, Idaho. As the owners of the company reached retirement age they offered to sell the company. In 1919 Joseph Spear resigned as company president and Arthur B. Fosseen, whose building material agency in Yakima had been a major distributor of the company's products, purchased the company and became its president. In the early 1930's, Arthur's son, Neal R., became president. At that time the company was producing about 20 million brick a year.
At the height of operations, the Washington Brick & Lime Company was one of the largest suppliers of terra cotta and brick in the northwest. Products from the company were shipped throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Altogether, about sixty men were employed in the plant, including chemist, draftsmen, modelers, and Italian artisans.
Clayton was a company town. The company owned the local stores, and built several boarding houses to accommodate its employees. The company also reportedly built a park and two churches in the community. Running a very tight ship, the company did not allow taverns or bars within the city limits.
The company stopped manufacturing terra cotta at Clayton in 1948, but continued to manufacture brick until 1957. For several years after that date, clay from the area's still rich mineral deposits was shipped to the company's Mica plant. However, within three years of closure, all the factory's buildings had been razed. Today, the only physical evidence of the town's past, is a company house listed on the Washington State Register, an ornately brick and terra cotta embellished Moose Lodge, and the Clayton School.
The Clayton School District was created on November 4, 1890. First classes were held in a crowded one-room wooden schoolhouse. Due to the arrival of the Washington Brick & Lime Company, and as workers flooded the area, the school quickly became over-crowded. Shortly thereafter a "spacious" new "two-room school" replaced the original building, and served the area for a few more years. But once again, when the Big Foot School District joined Clayton in 1909, the school became over-crowded.
Debate about building a modern school continued until, in 1914, a bond to build a new structure was passed. An April 15, 1914 article in the Deer Park Union recorded -
"The main event of the week was the election called for the purpose of voting on a bond issue to provide money to build a schoolhouse, in lieu of the present unsanitary, disrespectable shack, which is now called by that name. The election was the closest ever, carrying by one vote."
With the passing of the bond measure, the district hired Spokane architect Charles Wood to design a modern, two-story facility. Once the designs were completed, construction immediately began. Even problems such as a delayed lime shipment, and troubles with the well that required hauling water to the site in barrels, didn't prevent students from moving into the new brick school by the first week of February, 1915.
The Deer Park Union noted that event in a February 10th article.
"Everyone in Clayton is smiling this week. Why? Oh! School in the new building, that's all!"
The land for the school was donated by the W. B. & L. Co., and some suggest that they even donated the brick.
The building housed grades one through twelve until 1939. After that, high school children were bused to Deer Park. In 1955, when the Clayton School District merged with the larger Deer Park School District, the seventh and eighth grades were transferred to Deer Park. Later on, all grades, except fifth and sixth, were bused to Deer Park, while all the district's fifth and sixth grade students were transported to Clayton. Upon completion of Deer Park's Arcadia School, and after fifty seven years of service, students no longer attended school at Clayton.
The Clayton school is historically significant because of its association with the development and evolution of public education in the Clayton area, and, in a broader context, for its association with settlement patterns in the American west. Clayton School was the only public building in the vicinity. Its importance to the community is reflected in the permanence of the building materials used. These materials also reflect the importance of brick manufacturing in the local economy.
Clayton's schools evolved physically in a manner typical of many rural communities in the American west. Initially the one-room school was expanded, then a larger, more permanent school facility was built to accommodate a growing number of students. Eventually, after public debate - and pressure from the State's increasing imposition of educational requirements and health standards - a modern facility was constructed. Like many other small rural schools, Clayton School was consolidated into a larger school district, and the use of the schoolhouse was eventually discontinued.
Regarding the architect, Charles R. Wood - he was born in Wisconsin in 1885. Accompanying his parents, he came to Spokane in 1899 at age 14. While his formal education and training are unknown, Wood is listed as a carpenter in the Spokane City Directories for 1902 and ‘03. By 1905, at age 20, he was working as a draftsman at the office of Spokane architect Albert Held. By 1907 Wood had moved to the more prestigious firm of Cutter & Malmgren. Wood set out on his own the next year, opening an office in the Peyton Building, where he resided until 1919.
While in business, Wood reportedly designed "many business buildings and scores of residences" in Spokane - a number of which are now on the Historic Register. He died February 19, 1945.
Note: The following has been edited for brevity, and to reduce its technical complexity.
Completed in 1915, the Clayton School is located in the southeastern corner of Stevens County in the town of Clayton, Washington. The small community was developed around the formation of the Washington Brick & Lime Company, which ran one of the largest brick manufacturing facilities in the state of Washington. The Clayton School is a good example of the American Renaissance style as adapted to a country schoolhouse. The two-story brick masonry building follows a rectangular footprint with formal massing, and has a hip roof, a prominent corbelled entry arch, and multiple rows of tall windows. The school is in fair condition and retains a high level of integrity in location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
The school is located north of Highway 395 on the southeast corner of Swenson Road and Park Street, lots 1-3 in block eight of the First Addition to Clayton. The building faces north and sits on a flat site of a grassy lawn which gently slopes towards the rear of the lot. The site is dotted with large fir and pine trees. Adjacent to the site are houses built from the late 1890's through the 1950's. An asphalt-surfaced playground area abuts the multipurpose building on the northeast corner of the property. The entire property comprising the lawn, trees, playground, schoolhouse and multipurpose building forms a rectangular footprint.
The 1915 building measures 72 feet wide and 48 feet deep with over 6,900 square feet on the first and second floors. The building rises two stories and has a low-pitched hip roof with wide, overhanging boxed eaves. The soffits are constructed of tongue-and-groove boards with modillions set approximately 12 to 16 inches apart. Below is a simple freeze board. The roof is covered with corrugated metal panels installed in 1965. The load-bearing brick masonry walls of the schoolhouse are made of red colored brick in a common bond with a header course every 8th row. The building rests on a foundation of poured concrete.
The façade of the Clayton School is distinguished by a central projecting, full-height bay that measures 12 feet wide. The bay is capped with a pedimented gable roof, crowned with a bell-cast hip cupola which still houses its original school bell. Located on the gable end are painted cedar shingles and a classically inspired fanlight, or half-round window.
Further emphasizing the entire entrance is a projecting entry portal which is defined by a flat cornice with dentils and a large blonde brick Roman arch. The arch is embellished with a large keystone in the form of a rams head (reportedly a leftover architectural detail from Spokane's Davenport Hotel). Within the spandrel area are two decorative blond keystones forms. Above the entry portal are three paired, three-over-one windows.
Symmetrically placed with a continuous brick sill are, nine-over-one, double-hung, wood-sash windows on the main façade. The first floor windows are distinguished by flat jack arch hoods laid in blond brick. The second story windows abut directly to the cornice line.
The east, west and south elevations of the building boast similar window designs as the main façade. On the second floor, pairs of windows are divided by brick panels. Here a square border of blond header bricks add architectural distinction to the side elevations. The west façade has a side entry door on the ground floor, while the east façade has an entry door on the second floor (the exterior exposed stair has now been removed). The rear elevation if defined by a central exit door capped with a blond brick jack arch. Above it, on the second floor level, is a Roman arched topped window, reflecting the entry portico on the main façade.
Double half-light entry doors, made of paneled wood, open from the façade's recessed entrance into a foyer and central hallway. The hallway extends from the double doors on the south side of the building. A six-foot-wide dogleg staircase is located on the east wall of the hallway and rises to the second floor. The staircase is made of fir and features an open string course with a square balustrade. A square, incised newel post anchors the stairs. The hallway is flanked by two classrooms on the east side of the building, and one classroom and bathrooms on the west side of the building. At one time the northwest classroom served as the school kitchen. Each of the three classrooms retain their lath and plaster walls, and are trimmed with painted woodwork that includes floor molding, picture rail molding, and door and window surrounds. A few of the original wood paneled interior doors, with transom lights and original brass hardware, remain. The floor is made of fir planks, and the ceilings on the first floor are approximately 12 feet high. Cast-iron radiators are located in each classroom. Some of the original milk-glass schoolhouse-type lights still hang from the ceilings.
The second floor has a central hallway and four rooms. The principal's office is located at the head of the stairs above the main entry. The classrooms are identical in design and size (24' x 30'). In an early use of folding bi-fold wood doors, the two east side rooms can be combined for use as a large assembly room which extends from front to rear of the building. The second-floor ceilings are approximately 12 feet high and the floors are made of fir planks. At one time part of the upstairs hallway was partitioned off for a library.
Just south of the original school building is a multipurpose building built in 1960.
The 1915 Clayton School is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under the "Rural Public Schools in Washington from Early Settlement to 1945 MPD". The intact brick school meets the registration requirement for listing under both criterion A and criterion C. Construction of the school showed the community of Clayton's commitment to children and their education and today stands as one of the physical reminders of the towns rich past as home to one of the Pacific Northwest's largest brick and terra cotta manufacturing plants. Additionally the school is an excellent example of a large county school in the Spokane area designed with multi-rooms, spacious well-lit classrooms and all of the latest conveniences of a modern facility.
Originally known as "Allen's Siding" (named after Mr. Allen who operated a sawmill near the railroad line), Clayton received its name after the discovery of abundant clay in the surrounding hills. The town was officially formed in 1889 when the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway railroad line from Spokane to Colville came through the area. Shortly thereafter, in 1893, a brick manufacturing plant for the Washington Brick & Lime Company was built. The great fire of Spokane had leveled thirty-two blocks of the city in 1889, and the demand for fireproof construction materials was high throughout the region.
W. B. & L. Co. was formed in 1892 with resources in Clayton, Freeman, and Spear, Washington, as well as in Bayview, Idaho. The promoters of the new company were able to secure a contract that made it possible to sell stock in the company and construct the plant in Clayton.
Wanting to extend their resources, the company joined forces with the Spokane Brick Company (formed in 1897) in 1909. Joseph H. Spear served as the newly formed company president. Company profits were high, and the business expanded rapidly. By 1911 the company had 1.2 million dollars in resources. The Clayton factory was the primary source for terra cotta, firebrick, and face brick. Sewer pipe production took place at the Dishman, Washington facilities. Washed kaolin (clay) was processed at Freeman, WA, while the lime was acquired from Bayview, Idaho. As the owners of the company reached retirement age they offered to sell the company. In 1919 Joseph Spear resigned as company president and Arthur B. Fosseen, whose building material agency in Yakima had been a major distributor of the company's products, purchased the company and became its president. In the early 1930's, Arthur's son, Neal R., became president. At that time the company was producing about 20 million brick a year.
At the height of operations, the Washington Brick & Lime Company was one of the largest suppliers of terra cotta and brick in the northwest. Products from the company were shipped throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Altogether, about sixty men were employed in the plant, including chemist, draftsmen, modelers, and Italian artisans.
Clayton was a company town. The company owned the local stores, and built several boarding houses to accommodate its employees. The company also reportedly built a park and two churches in the community. Running a very tight ship, the company did not allow taverns or bars within the city limits.
The company stopped manufacturing terra cotta at Clayton in 1948, but continued to manufacture brick until 1957. For several years after that date, clay from the area's still rich mineral deposits was shipped to the company's Mica plant. However, within three years of closure, all the factory's buildings had been razed. Today, the only physical evidence of the town's past, is a company house listed on the Washington State Register, an ornately brick and terra cotta embellished Moose Lodge, and the Clayton School.
The Clayton School District was created on November 4, 1890. First classes were held in a crowded one-room wooden schoolhouse. Due to the arrival of the Washington Brick & Lime Company, and as workers flooded the area, the school quickly became over-crowded. Shortly thereafter a "spacious" new "two-room school" replaced the original building, and served the area for a few more years. But once again, when the Big Foot School District joined Clayton in 1909, the school became over-crowded.
Debate about building a modern school continued until, in 1914, a bond to build a new structure was passed. An April 15, 1914 article in the Deer Park Union recorded -
"The main event of the week was the election called for the purpose of voting on a bond issue to provide money to build a schoolhouse, in lieu of the present unsanitary, disrespectable shack, which is now called by that name. The election was the closest ever, carrying by one vote."
With the passing of the bond measure, the district hired Spokane architect Charles Wood to design a modern, two-story facility. Once the designs were completed, construction immediately began. Even problems such as a delayed lime shipment, and troubles with the well that required hauling water to the site in barrels, didn't prevent students from moving into the new brick school by the first week of February, 1915.
The Deer Park Union noted that event in a February 10th article.
"Everyone in Clayton is smiling this week. Why? Oh! School in the new building, that's all!"
The land for the school was donated by the W. B. & L. Co., and some suggest that they even donated the brick.
The building housed grades one through twelve until 1939. After that, high school children were bused to Deer Park. In 1955, when the Clayton School District merged with the larger Deer Park School District, the seventh and eighth grades were transferred to Deer Park. Later on, all grades, except fifth and sixth, were bused to Deer Park, while all the district's fifth and sixth grade students were transported to Clayton. Upon completion of Deer Park's Arcadia School, and after fifty seven years of service, students no longer attended school at Clayton.
The Clayton school is historically significant because of its association with the development and evolution of public education in the Clayton area, and, in a broader context, for its association with settlement patterns in the American west. Clayton School was the only public building in the vicinity. Its importance to the community is reflected in the permanence of the building materials used. These materials also reflect the importance of brick manufacturing in the local economy.
Clayton's schools evolved physically in a manner typical of many rural communities in the American west. Initially the one-room school was expanded, then a larger, more permanent school facility was built to accommodate a growing number of students. Eventually, after public debate - and pressure from the State's increasing imposition of educational requirements and health standards - a modern facility was constructed. Like many other small rural schools, Clayton School was consolidated into a larger school district, and the use of the schoolhouse was eventually discontinued.
Regarding the architect, Charles R. Wood - he was born in Wisconsin in 1885. Accompanying his parents, he came to Spokane in 1899 at age 14. While his formal education and training are unknown, Wood is listed as a carpenter in the Spokane City Directories for 1902 and ‘03. By 1905, at age 20, he was working as a draftsman at the office of Spokane architect Albert Held. By 1907 Wood had moved to the more prestigious firm of Cutter & Malmgren. Wood set out on his own the next year, opening an office in the Peyton Building, where he resided until 1919.
While in business, Wood reportedly designed "many business buildings and scores of residences" in Spokane - a number of which are now on the Historic Register. He died February 19, 1945.
