Cole School and Gymnasium

Cole School and Gymnasium in Boise, Idaho, was a 2-story, stucco over brick school building with stone trim. The year of construction was likely 1903, although in an annual report issued by the Boise School District 1972–73, the year was given as 1908.[2] Above the main entry of a 1951 addition to the building was written, "Cole Elementary Est. 1888." The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1982.[3]

Cole School and Gymnasium
Cole School in 1982
Location7145 Fairview Ave., Boise, Idaho
Coordinates43°37′08″N 116°16′27″W
Area7 acres (2.8 ha)
Built1903 (1903)
Built byI.J. Allen
ArchitectCampbell & Wayland; Tourtellotte & Hummel
Architectural styleRomanesque, Modern Movement, Art Deco
MPSBoise Public Schools TR
NRHP reference No.82000189[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 8, 1982

History

Orric and Ella (Bown) Cole donated part of their farmland for construction of a school on March 30, 1888,[4] and the original Cole School was constructed in that year.[5] Ella Cole taught at the school during its first five years.[6] By 1891 Cole School was part of School District 29, and it may have been the only school in the district.[7]

By 1903 Cole School was part of School District 5, and a new school building had been designed by architects Campbell & Wayland, later Wayland & Fennell. Contractor I.J. Allen constructed the 2-story, 8-room brick schoolhouse. It opened in November, 1903, with Professor John H. Kruger as principal.[8] The building featured a hipped roof and secondary hipped roofs at each corner, with a central bell tower above and behind a small, hipped gable with dormer centered above the Romanesque entry.[3]

Cole School became a stop on the Intermountain Electric Railway, later the Boise Interurban Railway, in 1904.[9]

In 1937 Tourtellotte & Hummel designed a 2-story Art Deco gymnasium and cafeteria adjacent to the school, and in 1951 a 1-story addition to the school was constructed.[3][10]

Cole School was annexed into the Independent School District of Boise City in 1948.[2]

In 1975 the Boise School District identified three school sites, Garfield, Campus, and Cole, as being "hazardous and noisy locations for elementary schools."[10] Of these, only Garfield School remains. Campus School was closed in 1990 and became part of Boise State University.[11]

A bell was installed in the tower at Cole School in the late 1980s.[12]

Cole School closed on June 5, 2008,[12] and the school district announced plans for demolition. A committee of preservationists and local activists tried to save the school, but it was demolished in November, 2009.[13]

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References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. Annual Report 1972-73. Independent School District of Boise City. 1973. p. 4. On file at Main Branch, Boise Public Library
  3. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Cole School and Gymnasium". National Park Service. Retrieved April 11, 2019. With accompanying pictures
  4. Colette Wilde (April 10, 1973). "Cole Easement OK'd Despite Deed Terms". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho. p. 17.
  5. "Donor of Cole School Site Buried Last Week". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho. May 24, 1931. p. 14.
  6. Cole, Orric: Ninth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho. State Historical Society of Idaho. December 31, 1934. p. 132. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  7. "Special School Taxes". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho. July 12, 1891. p. 5.
  8. "Improved". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho. December 6, 1903. p. 7.
  9. "Favor Granting the Franchise". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho. February 19, 1903. p. 6.
  10. Annual Report 1974-75. Independent School District of Boise City. 1975. p. 5.
  11. "Campus School". localwiki Boise. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  12. Bill Roberts (June 6, 2008). "bell tolls for - cole - 120-year-old school closes its doors". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho.
  13. "Cole school comes down as preservationists look ahead in Boise". Idaho Statesman. Boise, Idaho. November 20, 2009.

Further reading
  • French, Orric Cole, History of Idaho (Lewis Publishing Co., 1914), pp 736
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