In 1954, we called it May Street School, and I spent my 8th Grade year in the first floor corner classroom closest to us in this picture.

Bill Seaton on 14th May 2014 @ 7:11am

What does the writing on wall say/ mean?

ralph on 14th May 2014 @ 7:36am

One of Hood River's "beautiful" schools.

The classrooms in these schools had a sound all of their own. Kind of an echo sound that seems to leave an imprint in our memory.

l.e. on 14th May 2014 @ 8:21am

The writing on the cornice says "Agrippa" and "Napier". I believe each side of the building had names of people you would learn about inside. Napier was the mathematician who is best known for inventing logarithms, and Agrippa was a Roman statesman. I wonder how they chose which names to put on the cornice?

Arthur on 14th May 2014 @ 9:10am

It is really amazing the quality of building that the public could afford back then. The number of hours of labor to build such a building must have been many times what it would be today. How were such works financed? Property taxes? Public donations?

longshot on 14th May 2014 @ 10:32am

Whatever happened to this stately and architecturally interesting design?

nels on 14th May 2014 @ 10:33am

I don't know about this building, but city records from the same era show similar funding for public works as today-- property tax assessments, with public votes for bond issues. I don't think it was very different in structure than it is today.

The first attempt to pass a bond to acquire land for the library (1911, I think) failed amidst a flurry of letters to the editor saying we need to build roads to get our crops to market before we build a library. They figured out a cheaper way to get land so the library eventually got built.

Arthur on 14th May 2014 @ 10:42am

Nels, I have sometimes thought it is every architects dream to design and have built their own idea of the new and modern "taj mahal."

Buzz on 14th May 2014 @ 10:56am

But, in my mind's eye view, this has no resemblance to the current May St Elementary school which is only one story and looks to be of more recent construction. Maybe the current HRMS? That would be more logical.

nels on 14th May 2014 @ 1:38pm

It would not surprise me, but I think this was torn down for the May St. School as it looks today. The HRMS (old Senior High) has always been where it is today.

Judy on 14th May 2014 @ 2:17pm

Nels...here is the completed school:
http://historichoodriver.com/index.php?showimage=155

And here is the football team sitting on, perhaps the same steps we are looking at in this photo.
http://historichoodriver.com/index.php?showimage=55

And then, its demise...
http://historichoodriver.com/index.php?showimage=231

l.e. on 14th May 2014 @ 2:42pm

This building was torn down in the summer of 1956 to build the current May Street School. Unfortunately there was a steel strike and the new school could not be built that year. The gym was turned into classrooms for the 6th and 8th graders and the 7th graders came to the high school to an area in the basement that had been used for storage. After they left we had 2 new classrooms for business classes.

Norma on 14th May 2014 @ 3:15pm

We really are stupid. We destroy such beautiful buildings to build the ugly crap we now see, and no one even gives it much thought.

Hoodoo creek on 17th March 2021 @ 3:37pm