This history of Nathan Hale High 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 editor Nick Rousso.
On Thornton Creek
The area northeast of Seattle was part of the Shoreline School District until 1954. For years the area had only one secondary school, Jane Addams. Steady population growth during the 1950s meant a new high school would soon be needed. In the planning stage, the school was given the temporary name of Northeast High School. This was later changed to Meadowbrook High School. The site for the new school was originally part of the Fisher Dairy and had most recently been the Meadowbrook Golf Course. While the school was under construction, new guidelines and procedures for the naming of schools were adopted. As a result, the name Meadowbrook was replaced by Nathan Hale. Once built, the school building and parking lot were positioned on either side of Thornton Creek, which runs west to east through the property and is an important salmon stream in North Seattle. The site is directly across the street from Jane Addams.
Named after the American Revolutionary War hero who proclaimed, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," Nathan Hale assumed independence as a school-wide theme. Its colors are red, white, and blue, and its student body is at liberty to pursue diverse fields of study. The likeness of a 1776 Minuteman on its distinctive smokestack was painted in the dark of night, presumably by a student or students. The hallways were painted red, white, and blue.
Nathan Hale was one of several schools for which the Seattle Parks Department paid a portion of the building construction costs in exchange for title to adjacent land for recreational facilities. The first principal, Claude Turner, helped design the school.
In its first year, Hale opened to sophomores and juniors only, with 1,206 students. Two years later, it had a student body of 2,002. By the late 1960s, Hale’s enrollment had reached 2,400, and 24 portables were in use. A new learning resource center opened in fall 1972, nearly doubling the size of the school’s original library. The community chose to use bond money for the learning resource center, rather than for an auditorium, so the high school continued to use the Addams auditorium for its dramatic productions. From 1964 through the mid-1970s, Nathan Hale was a sports powerhouse. The music department also excelled, with the stage band capturing numerous regional awards.
The district’s 1978 desegregation plan cut the number of schools feeding Hale from 10 to four. Some of these feeder schools were closed, drastically cutting into Hale’s enrollment, despite the addition of 9th graders in September 1979. Some students who would have attended Hale were sent to south-end schools.
Radio Powerhouse
Hale is renowned for its radio station. Broadcasting at 89.5FM, KNHC went on the air in January 1971 as a 10-watt station under the direction of teacher Lawrence Adams. Hale’s Vocational Horticulture Program also was the only one of its kind in the Seattle School District, teaching students how to grow and maintain flowers and plants. Greenhouses were built to state-of-the-art technology in 1973. In 1982-1983, a solar greenhouse was constructed by students from the school’s vocational carpentry class, and a retail store, staffed by advanced horticulture students, sold products to customers who were mostly nearby residents.
As Hale celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1994, staff members reflected on the strength of its programs that helped to attract growing numbers of students. In addition to the radio station and horticulture programs, the school housed the district’s Graphic Arts Center. A student-produced magazine, The Stand, won first place with special merit from the National Scholastic Press Association in 1999. Other highlights include the performance by the vocal jazz choir, directed by Rich Sumstad, at Carnegie Hall in February 2000. In 1996, Patricia Cygan was named Washington State Teacher of the Year and was one of five finalists for National Teacher of the Year.
Into the 2000s
In 2000, the Hale Northeast Athletic Complex sports fields were renovated. A turf football/soccer stadium with seating for 1,550 was constructed. Improved controlled drainage under both synthetic and grass areas was constructed to filter water for slow releases into Thornton Creek. Additional fields were renovated at Jane Addams. Three years later, in 2003, athletic field lighting was installed.
In May 2001, popular Hale principal Eric Benson received the Thomas B. Foster Award and $50,000 in prize money from an endowment funded by the Alliance for Education. Half of the prize money went to the school. Among other things, Benson had become well known as someone who worked to know each of the school’s more than 1,000 students by name. Eleven years later, Jill Hudson, the principal at the time, also won this award.
In 2002, the district approved construction of a new Performing Arts Auditorium to help revive the musical-theater program at Hale. The project was funded by a levy approved by voters in 2001, and students, staff, and community members contributed to the design process. The project faced some challenges in the form of flooding, due to the school’s proximity to Thornton Creek. However, the facility, with seating for 475 people, opened to rave reviews in September 2005. Six years later, Nathan Hale High School was welcomed into the International Thespian Society (ITS) for its 47-year-old theater program.
When the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence (JSCEE) opened in 2002, the print shop moved to the JSCEE from Hale, with the exception of large-format and banner printing services, which were still done at Hale. When Hale was modernized a few years later, these services also moved to the JSCEE.
Hale was modernized and expanded during a three-year period from 2008 to 2011. Construction was done in two phases, allowing for continued student occupation. The first phase, completed in August 2009, included construction of a new library, visual arts classrooms, fitness center, a new east entry, and new space for KNHC, the student lead radio station. The project included the construction and installation of ground-source heat pumps to provide HVAC to the radio station and library. The second phase, completed in February 2011, included the renovation of offices, classrooms, the cafeteria and commons in the main building, as well as upgrades to the athletic facilities. Multiple small group learning areas were built to support the school’s educational program. Outdoors, the site received new landscaping, and part of Thornton Creek was restored with native plantings. A celebratory ribbon-cutting for the new school was held on August 30, 2011.
Part of the renovation project included the construction of a replacement greenhouse to support the horticulture program. When Seattle Public Utilities reclaimed land from Hale for the Meadowbrook Pond rehabilitation project for stormwater retention and floodwater control, the school property did not have enough space to accommodate this build, so the greenhouse was constructed at Jane Addams Middle School across the street. The program hosts two sales per year to help fund the program: poinsettias during the holiday season and spring vegetables starts in the summer. The modernization project won a merit award from the American Institute of Architects Washington Council’s 2012 Civic Design Awards. The redesign of the school also won an American Institute of Architects National Award in 2014, and it was named by Business Insiders magazine as one of the 12 most beautiful schools in the U.S. that same year.
Seattle Public Utilities finished a restoration project of Thornton Creek in 2015. Before this project, the creek flooded a major road in the area nearly every year, blocking access to schools, a community center, hospitals, businesses, and bus routes. At times, Nathan Hale High School even flooded. Yet, the neighborhoods around the creek have not flooded since the restorations was finished in 2015, not even during large storms.
In 2017, two weeks after winning its first Class 3A state boys basketball title, All-American Michael Porter Jr. and coach Brandon Roy won the Naismith National High School Player and Coach of the Year awards. The Nathan Hale High School athletic field received additional changes in 2020. A new synthetic turf field with cork infill was installed as well as a new rubberized track and field event surface.
History
Nathan Hale High School
Location: 10750 30th Avenue NE
Building: 55-station brick
Architect: Mallis & DeHart
Site: 18.32 acres
1962: Named on November 28
1963: Opened in September
1972: Addition (DeHart, Lands and Hall)
2000: Northeast Athletic Complex renovated
2005: Addition of performing arts auditorium (Mahlum Architects)
2008-11: Modernization and expansion (Mahlum Architects)
Nathan Hale High School in 2023
Enrollment: 1,148
Address: 10750 30th Avenue NE
Nickname: Raiders
Configuration: 9-12
Colors: Red, white, and blue
Newspaper: The Sentinel
Yearbook: The Heritage
