Sunday, March 20, 2011

Jefferson School

In 1901, Jefferson School was built at 757 S. Main Street in Springville.  The school was built using a Victorian Romanesque style and out of the couple of schools that were built around the same time, the Jefferson School is the only one that is still standing.  Here is a picture of it from the early 20th century and what it looks like today:

Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.



When the school was built, there were also 2 other schools built, although they have since been demolished.  This was due to the population growing towards the east side of Springville.  All three buildings were built around the historic main street district.  There used to be a fort located on the west side of the building, this may have been located where the large grass field currently is.  I'm not sure when the school closed, but I did find an article online where a Springville councilman told of story about when he attended the school during World War II.  I think I may have even found on classmates.com several people who attended the school in the 60's and one who even attended it in the 1980's.

Luckily the school has been preserved quite well.  In 2004, it became part of the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Springville Historic District.  The south boundary of the district is Jefferson School.  The school was converted into an office building as is currently occupied by Red Cliff Ascent Treatment Centers.  Red Cliff Ascent is a residential treatment center, specializing in outdoor activities for at-risk youth.  I don't know if they actually use the building as a housing complex, but I do believe that youth occasionally visit it, as the field to the west of the school is, I believe, owned by Red Cliff.

You may have noticed a couple of things by looking at the two photos.  The building now is larger than the original photo.  Sometime after the original photo was taken, the back half of the building was added.  Also, the building is no longer called Jefferson School or Jefferson Elementary but Jefferson Center.  If you would like a cool view of the whole area around this school, click here.

5 comments:

  1. I went to Jefferson School from first grade through fourth grade. It closed at the end of my fourth grade year. I still remember walking out of the school for the last time on the last day of school. That would have been in 1967 by my calculations.

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  2. I attended Jefferson School from Kindergarden through the 6th grade, 1954 thru 1959. I have many fond memories of my early education, teachers and lifelong friends.

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  3. Is this Cathy Lloyd from Manteca?! When I was doing this entry, I looked all over to find someone who attended the Jefferson School. I even tried to email and call some random people that I found on the internet. It is funny that the person who ended up clairifying when it closed down is from my home town.

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  4. I went to Jefferson School
    First grade: Mrs. Moon
    Second Grade: Mrs. Wills
    Third Grade: Mrs. Johnson
    Fourth Grade: Mr. Lundell
    Fifth Grade: Mr. Whiting
    Sixth Grade: Mr. Huff
    The best principal ever....Mr. Frandsen
    We crossed the highway that goes in front of the old school to Mapleton...and I must also mention Mr. Felix who was the crossing guard and who always hade a self-written, in the most beautiful handwriting, card along with a quarter for our birthdays.

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  5. In 1985 it received a dramatic interior remodeling turning it into a beautiful facility for adult education with several large breakout classrooms for 40 and one hall that held nearly 170. It became the home of the Jefferson Institute and held dozens of week long education courses for adults from all over the world who came to learn practical economics in the form of one week "boot camps" (the first ever) for Investors and another course for Entrepreneur. That continued until 1990.

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