On July 8, 1968, the Seattle School District announces its plan to convert Garfield High School into the city's first "magnet school" to promote integration.
Garfield High School had its origins in 1920 when it was started in a 12-room wooden building on the present site at 400 23rd Avenue SE. Garfield High opened as East High School. A new building, designed by Floyd A. Naramore (1879-1970), opened in 1923, and the school was renamed for U.S. President James Garfield (1831-1881).
Over the years the school expanded, with several new building additions. Peak enrollment occurred in 1939, with 2,300 students. But, by the 1960s, enrollment had dropped to fewer than 1,000 as the school experienced the plight and blight of inner city schools across the nation.
A Central Area School Council was formed, and later a Central Region within the school district was created. Through these efforts, and the making of Garfield into a magnet school, quality education was gradually restored.
Sources:
Walt Crowley, Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), 257; Patricia C. Erigero, Seattle Public Schools: Historic Building Survey (Seattle: Seattle Public Schools and Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, 1989), 260-267.
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