This history of Louisa Boren School is taken from the second edition of Building for Learning: Seattle Public School Histories, which includes histories of every school building used by the district since its formation around 1862. The original essay was written for the 2002 first edition by Nile Thompson and Carolyn J. Marr, and updated for the 2024 edition by HistoryLink contributor Rita Cipalla.
Louisa Boren
Louisa Boren, perhaps more than any other Seattle founder, symbolized the pioneer ideals of courage, selflessness, and ingenuity. As a 24-year-old teacher from Illinois, she headed west by wagon train with her mother and step-father. After arriving at Alki Point in 1851, she made Puget Sound her home until she died on August 31, 1916. Boren married fellow pioneer David Denny and raised a family. Throughout her life, Louisa Boren Denny showed an unusual interest in studying the "unfeminine" subjects of chemistry, philosophy, botany, and astronomy. She is remembered for her kindness to neighbors and her sympathy for newly arrived Chinese immigrants. She also worked hard for the cause of women’s suffrage in Washington Territory.
In the early 1960s, the West Seattle community needed a junior high school because of overcrowding at elementary and high schools. In September 1963, Boren opened its doors to more than 800 students in grades 6-9. The school is not far from where the Denny Party landed. Constructed at a cost of more than $2 million, the school had 40 classrooms. A special guest at the dedication was Victor Denny, grandson of Louisa Boren, who presented a portrait of his grandmother, which is now in the Seattle School District archives. In 1978, the school became Louisa Boren Middle School, serving grades 6-8. A bilingual teaching staff taught English as a second language, and many students enrolled in bilingual classes.
A decline in enrollment to 550 and shrinking financial resources forced the district to close Boren in June 1981 and assign students to Madison and Denny. In September 1981, Boren became the home of Indian Heritage School, an alternative middle and high school that taught basic curriculum with an emphasis on Native American cultures. Also located at Boren were a bilingual program for students over 18 and a high school reentry program. The building housed a number of Seattle School District departments during this time, including transportation, compensatory education, district archives, and a satellite kitchen.
In September 1987, students from High Point moved to Boren as an interim site for one year while the new High Point school was being constructed. About 300 elementary students shared the building with the Indian Heritage School, which occupied the north wing. In October 1988, the school board approved a request by United Indians of All Tribes to use part of Boren for a private, all-Indian kindergarten. Cooper was the next school in need of space; it relocated to Boren in September 1989. At this time, the Indian Heritage School was moved to a leased building at 315 22nd Avenue S and subsequently to Wilson. For one school year (1993-1994), Alternative Education IV, which became known as Pathfinder, made its home at Boren, and co-located with Cooper, before the program relocated to Genesee Hill.
After Cooper moved to its new building in 1999, Boren was designated an interim site for district construction projects and served as a temporary home to Arbor Heights Elementary, Madison Middle School, and three high schools: West Seattle, Cleveland, and Chief Sealth. When Boren was used as an interim location for the high schools, 12-15 portables were added to accommodate students. Once the high schools were completed, the portables were relocated to other schools to add capacity throughout the district.
In September 2012, the building became the permanent home of Louisa Boren STEM K-5, an option school. Its learning environment focused on the core subjects of science, technology, engineering, and math. Because the building had been empty for about two years, a number of improvements were undertaken to get it ready to be used as a school again. In 2014, Boren was the interim site for Arbor Heights Elementary. It was co-located at Boren with Louisa Boren STEM K-5 before the Boren program expanded and became a K-8 school in 2018.
History
Louisa Boren Junior High School
Location: 5950 Delridge Way SW
Building: Stucco
Architect: Naramore, Bain, Brady & Johanson
Site: 15.05 acres
1962: Named on November 28
1963: Opened in September
1978: Became Louisa Boren Middle School
1981: Closed in June
1981-89: Special programs site
1987-88: Interim site for High Point
1988-89: Home of Cooper Elementary
1993-94: Interim site for Alternative Elementary
2000-02: Interim site for West Seattle High School
2003-05: Interim site for Madison Middle School
2005-07: Interim site for Cleveland High School
2008-10: Interim site for Chief Sealth High School
2012: Reopened as Boren STEM K-5 School
2014-16: Interim site for Arbor Heights ES
2018: Became Louisa Boren STEM K-8 School
Louisa Boren STEM K-8 in 2023
Enrollment: 525
Nickname: STEM Owls
