This history of John Marshall Intermediate 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 Tom G. Heuser.
Supreme Court Justice
Green Lake School was overcrowded at the start of the 1901-1902 school year. That same year the first of two annexes opened in a portable along Ravenna Boulevard between 68th and 69th Streets for two classes in grades 1-4. The portable closed in June 1902 as a new Green Lake School would be opening in September. More than 20 years later (1924-1925), the Seattle School District purchased the same site for the location of a new intermediate school. The school was named after John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835. The building was designed in the 20th Century Georgian style with red bricks and gray stone. It was built to hold 900 students. Students were assigned from University Heights, McDonald, Green Lake, and Fairview. Students walked the short distance to Green Lake Playfield for sports fields.
In 1942, a center for the deaf and hard-of-hearing was established at Marshall for junior high students from throughout the district. Special education classes were expanded in 1967 with the addition of students who had physical, emotional, sensory, or developmental disabilities. Marshall had only two principals in its first 40 years of operation. The first was J. M. Kniseley, who had previously served as principal at Green Lake School from 1906-1927. He was principal at Marshall until spring 1942. Ray Crum, the second principal, served from 1942 to 1967.
Freeway Runs Through It
Enrollment peaked around 1,450 from 1955 to 1957. When Interstate 5 was constructed in the early 1960s, it passed through a portion of the school property and divided the school’s attendance area. The shift in attendance area resulted in an enrollment drop and the junior high school closed in June 1971. From 1971 to 1975, Marshall was used as a 9th grade annex for Roosevelt High School. Many of the students at Roosevelt M (for Marshall) went to the main Roosevelt campus for music and foreign returned to Roosevelt, and Marshall was used to house offices as welanguage classes. The building held 700 students in 1971-1972. Two years later the number had fallen to 500. In 1975, the 9th graders returned to Roosevelt, and Marshall was used to house offices as well as two special education classes from Roosevelt. A school district library and audio-visual center were also housed in the building at this time.
From 1979 to 2007, Marshall was home to various alternative and non-traditional high school programs. From 1979-1982, Indian Heritage High School was located at Marshall before it relocated to Boren. When Interlake closed in June 1981, the People’s School No. 1 program moved to Marshall. In the same year, Marshall became the north satellite location of the Project Interchange program, renamed in 1982 as the Seattle Alternative High School and renamed again in 1983 as the Seattle Alternative Secondary School. That basic alternative program offered students a chance to take classes and study in a less-rigid setting. In 1988, the library was known as the Teacher Resource Center. In September 1982, a reentry program, also known as the Dropout Treatment Program, was added at Marshall for students sus- pended from regular high schools.
In 1983, the Focus program, a GED preparation program, was introduced at Marshall. In the same year, the district initiated a second Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Program (TAPP) for pregnant girls at Marshall. A similar program was located at Sharples in south Seattle, but over 100 north end girls chose to drop out rather than travel the 12 miles roundtrip to the location. Marshall provided a less structured, more open environment in which staff worked to address the individual needs of the approximately 350 students in the five programs. This program evolved into the program known as GRADS (Graduation, Reality and Dual Role Skills) in the mid-1990s.
The Evening Program moved to Marshall from Roosevelt in 1984. This program provided a unique opportunity for students under the age of 21 to graduate by taking high school courses in the evening. In 1988, more alternative programs were moved into Marshall from Sharples because students from Franklin had moved into the Sharples building while their school was being renovated. A School to Work program that provided students with opportunities for internships, job shadowing, and other career education experiences was also introduced at Marshall. In 2003, the alternative programs at Marshall expanded to include services for grades 6-8. The district continued to house these programs at Marshall until June 2008, when they closed the building. The evening school program relocated to Lincoln and other programs were shuffled as well.
Between 2008 and 2013, Marshall was leased out to various organizations, including the City of Seattle Fire Department (2011-2013), while its nearby fire station was being reconstructed; Seattle German American School (2010-2013), and the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine (2011-2012).
To prepare the John Marshall building for use as an interim site for other schools, the district hired Harthorne Hagen Architects in 2013 to design a two-phase $7.1 million renovation. Between 2014 and 2023, the following schools occupied John Marshall while their own buildings were under construction: Jane Addams K-8/Hazel Wolf K-8 (2014 to 2016), Loyal Heights Elementary (2016-2018), Queen Anne Elementary (2018-2019), Daniel Bagley Elementary (2019-3020), West Woodland Elementary (2020-3021), and Middle College High School (2019). Starting in 2021, John Marshall became the interim site for Viewlands Elementary and Cascade Parent Partnership in addition to Middle College High School, which was relocated from Northgate Mall.
Middle College is an alternative learning academy with two educational programs, located at three sites throughout the city. The Middle College program located at Marshall houses the main office and intake center for the school as well as an Enhanced Running Start Program for grades 11-12. This program lost its space at Northgate when the mall was levelled to make room for the Seattle Kraken Community Iceplex and other redevelopment efforts. Seattle University and North Seattle College are the two locations for the Middle College’s Seattle Early College (SEC) program, which serves grades 9-12. Students who enroll in the SEC program earn both high school and college credit.
History
John Marshall Intermediate School
Location: 520 NE Ravenna Boulevard
Building: 41-room, 3-story brick
Architect: Floyd A. Naramore
Site: 3 acres
1927: Named on July 24; opened on September 6
1929: Changed to John Marshall Junior High School in September
1958: Land exchange with State for freeway; to 3.21 acres
1971: Closed as junior high in June
1971-75: Called Roosevelt M
1975: Called Marshall Curriculum & Instruction Center
1981: Became Marshall Alternative Secondary School
1979-2007: Became home of alternative and non-traditional high school programs
2003: Expanded programs to grades 6-8
2007-13: Property leased
2008: Programs relocated; School building closed
2013-14: Renovation and seismic upgrades (Harthorne Hagen Architects)
2014-16: Interim site for Hazel Wolf K-8 (previously known as Jane Addams K-8)
2016-18: Interim site for Loyal Heights Elementary
2018-19: Interim site for Queen Anne Elementary
2019-20: Interim site for Daniel Bagley Elementary
2019: Interim site for Middle College High School @ Northgate
2020-21: Interim site for West Woodland Elementary
2021-23: Interim site for Viewlands Elementary
2023-25: Interim site for Montlake
2023-25: Interim site for John Rogers Elementary
