15 results for tag: Normal School
1915 – Herculean Pillars
This granite structure was the grand entrance to the Normal School in the days when students and visitors arrived on foot from the railroad depot at the other end of College Avenue or from their residences.
Soon after the 1896 Normal School building burned down in 1912, students and the members of the Alumni Association came up with the idea to create a memorial to their beloved school using the granite stones from the old foundation. By 1914, they had raised over $1,200, and they hired builder, O.L. Hoof of Spokane to create the entrance. The workmen finished the pillars in time for the May 1915 dedication of the new Normal School administration ...
1929 – The Philena
This faded gem was built by businessman and mayor, Clarence D. Martin in 1929, named in honor of his mother, Philena. It was erected as housing for single faculty members of the Cheney Normal School.
1896 – Normal School
It took four years of lobbying and community activism before a new Normal School could rise from the ashes of the first building. It opened in the Fall of 1896, and served the community for just 16 years. This ghost building was beloved by its students and teachers.
After the Normal School building, the former Benjamin P. Cheney Academy, burned to the ground in August 1891, the community rallied to deal with the disaster. First, they found space for temporary classes in time to open the fall quarter with a delay of just one week. They also sent a delegation to the legislature in Olympia to secure funding to rebuild.
In 1893, the legislature ...
1915 – Normal School / Showalter Hall
The third Normal School building officially opened May 27, 1915, two years after the destruction of the 1896 school building. The 3-story building held both the administrative offices and classrooms, as well as the school library. The building was renamed for former president, Noah D. Showalter in 1940.
1882 – Benjamin P. Cheney Academy
Here stood the ghost of the beginning of our education legacy. Northern Pacific Railway director and our town's namesake, Benjamin P Cheney provided money and land for the building of a school at Cheney, the new Spokane County seat. The Benjamin P. Cheney Academy opened in 1882.
As our town burst into being in 1880 ahead of the construction of the cross-continental Northern Pacific Railway line, the residents recognized the need for a proper school. A committee of men gathered at the Northwest Tribune newspaper office, electing Daniel F. Percival as chairman and newspaper editor, Lucien Kellogg as secretary. Alex Abernathy, of the Northern Pacific Railroad land department, knew NPRR director, Benjamin P. Cheney, and suggested that they write to Mr. Cheney for aid in building a school. General John Sprague, the railroad superintendent, offered his opinion that "Mr. Cheney might be agreeable to providing funds to build a school as a monument to his memory." Through the committee's correspondence, Mr. Cheney agreed to not only provide $10,000 to build a school, he persuaded the railroad to donate 8 acres of land, and sent two teachers, as well as crates of books....