This history of Highland Park Elementary 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.
High on a Hill
The Highland Park neighborhood sits high on a hill overlooking South Park and Seattle. The first families to live in the area sent their children down the hill to South Park School, about a two-mile walk. In August 1913, residents along the Lake Burien streetcar line south of Riverside and west of South Park renewed their request to the Seattle School Board for a portable building to house primary school pupils. In September 1913, the district agreed to install a portable at Highland Park if residents furnished the site. E. J. Sherman provided a lot, and a portable was erected at the corner of 9th Avenue SW and (S) W Henderson Street, later the site of a Methodist church. Highland Park School opened in fall 1913 as an annex to South Park School with a single classroom serving 16 pupils in grades 1-6.
In 1916, the district purchased a nearby site and cleared enough land for four single-room portables. By the time the entire block was cleared, enough families had moved into the area to necessitate the addition of two more portables. Even then, double sessions were needed to accommodate all the students. With industries along the Duwamish expanding for wartime production during World War I, the Highland Park neighborhood was promoted as an ideal site for workers who could commute by streetcar to the factories. Real estate boomed for a few years. In January 1919, the board approved construction of a six-room school building at Highland Park, and the following month another portable was added. In April, the district architect submitted plans for a 22-classroom building that could expand from an initial 10-room unit.
Permanent Building
A permanent Highland Park building opened in 1921. The facility was a flat-roofed, U-shaped, single-story structure in 20th Century Georgian style, wrapping around a one-and-one-half story auditorium. Included were a lunchroom and kitchen, which were separate from the auditorium. A 7th grade was added in September 1921 and 8th grade the following year. In 1929, the building’s two wings were extended to create a total of 22 classrooms. The addition included a soundproof music room, two library rooms, a gymnasium, and an art-science room. Kindergarten was introduced in September 1931.
Within a week of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, American soldiers appeared on the city playfield at Highland Park. Because of its strategic location on the hill between Puget Sound and the Boeing Airplane Company, the soldiers erected barracks for living quarters and manned anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons, all on the playfield. The men took their showers in the boys lavatories. Once a week Highland Park students wore uniforms in patriotic colors to show their support for the war effort. Highland Park itself was subject to frequent air raid drills. When the siren went off, students had to run home and write down their arrival time. When the war ended, the soldiers worked to return the playfield to its previous condition.
Crowded Conditions
In September 1942, enrollment swelled as “hundreds of newcomers jammed the school’s hall in front of the main office to enroll.” When enrollment hit 875 in fall 1947, the shop and home economics departments had to be closed to accommodate an additional kindergarten room plus two classrooms. By fall 1950, 982 pupils attended the school. In 1952, 7th and 8th grades were transferred to David T. Denny Junior High School. Still enrollment climbed, to 990 in fall 1953. The following year, four more portables were added to house 1,068 pupils. By 1958-1959, nine portables were in use and enrollment hit 1,130. Two more portables were added in 1960 to reduce class sizes to 35 students or less. In 1963, enrollment peaked at 1,180. In the mid-1960s, Highland Park was the largest K-6 in the state with 19 portables housing 45 percent of its students.
To relieve overcrowding at Highland Park, construction began on nearby Sanislo School in 1968. When the school was not ready to open by September 1969, students slated to attend Sanislo were taught in portables at Highland Park. In December 1970, those students walked to the new Sanislo School, and 10 Highland Park portables were removed.
In 1978, Highland Park became a K-3 school as part of the district’s desegregation plan. Its 4th and 5th graders were bused to Wing Luke School, whose K-3 students were, in turn, bused to Highland Park. In 1988, Highland Park became the district’s Russian World Language and Culture Magnet Program site. The following year the school established a sister school relationship with School No. 17 in Tashkent, Russia (now Uzbekistan). Because of this connection, the school received many Russian visitors, including Naina Yeltsina, wife of the former president of Russia Boris Yeltsin, who toured the school in 1994.
By the late 1980s, the original Highland Park School was showing its age. Its electrical wiring was no longer adequate, and its 60-year-old heating and ventilation systems were inefficient. The lack of space had become a major issue for school counselors and other support staff. The school closed in December 1997 and was demolished in 1998.
New Construction
During the construction, Highland Park students temporarily moved into Hughes. In September 1999, a new 71,200-square-foot Highland Park School that would accommodate 535 students opened. The new construction retained some features from the 1921 building. For example, students entered the school under an archway of salvaged bricks, and new doors were made from some of the original windows. The new school featured six-unit classroom clusters, each of which had a common area for small-group activities. Classrooms occupied both floors of the east section of the school. Administrative offices, kindergartens, and childcare facilities were located on the first floor of the south section, with a learning resource center and computer lab on the second floor. To the north were the gymnasium, auditorium, cafeteria, and music room. Outside, playgrounds used a covered area next to the gym and a separate courtyard for kindergarten children.
In the 1990s, with an influx of immigrants from Southeast Asia and Mexico, Highland Park became a multi-ethnic school with a high level of racial diversity. The school hosted social events to bring in non-English speaking parents as well as evening English as a Second Language classes for the community. In 1999, students in grades 4 and 5 won first place in the Global Reading Challenge, a national internet competition sponsored by the Seattle Public Library. In 2015, a new after-school program was launched to better serve Native American students. In 2017, the school’s library was named for Lou Anne Rundall, the school librarian for almost 50 years, most of that time as an unpaid volunteer. Rundall was a 32-year-old Highland Park parent when she first started volunteering. When the library was named in her honor in 2017, she was 81 years old and still giving her time.
History
Highland Park School
Location: (S)W Trenton between 9th & 10th SW
Building: Portables
Site: 3.55 acres
1916: Opened on new site as annex to South Park
1919-20: Became an independent school
1921: Closed
Highland Park School
Location: 1012 SW Trenton Street
Building: 10-room brick
Architect: Floyd A. Naramore
Site: 3.55 acres
1921: Opened in the spring
1929: Addition (Naramore)
1997: Closed in December
1998: Demolished
Highland Park Elementary School
Location: 1012 SW Trenton Street
Building: 2-story concrete block and stucco
Architect: Burr Lawrence Rising & Bates
Site: 3.73 acres
1999: Opened in September
2015: After-school program for Native American students started
2017: School library named for Lou Anne Rundall
Highland Park Elementary in 2023
Enrollment: 306
Address: 1012 SW Trenton Street
Nickname: Mustangs
Configuration: K-5
Colors: Royal blue and gold
Newspaper: Highland Park News
Annual: Highland Park Yearbook
