Picture taken in 1911. Washington was now a grade school and Lincoln was a high school. The part you are seeing of Lincoln was capsuled into the additions which surrounded it. This is the old part where the creaky wooden stairs lead to the Principal's office.
This is Lincoln as we knew it in the late fifties and early sixties. The article which follows talks about this addition. Please note the windows.
It this photograph, the windows have been changed out, perhaps for energy efficiency.
January 11, 1939
The dedication of the new Junior Senior high school this evening will mark the completion of the project that meets a long felt need in Thief River Falls. The old Lincoln high school built in 1910 to meet the needs of 325 pupils, remodeled in 1930 for seating capacity of 460, has been greatly overcrowded ever since 1932 when the enrollment reached 600. This new building will also house pupils from the seventh and eighth grades up until Christmas vacation this year, had been enrolled in the old Central, a building which was planned originally for grade school and contains none of the facilities required for modern junior high school.
In the summer of 1937 Board of Education reach the conclusion that the overcrowded condition of the Lincoln could not be tolerated any longer and something really should be done to provide more adequate or modern facilities for the Junior High pupils. The board started investigation of various firms of architects fall of 1937 and signed contract with Tolt‘s, King, and Day, Inc. of St. Paul on January 29, 1939 to draw the plans and write the specifications and supervise the construction of a new Junior Senior high school.
Plans were prepared and approved by the board in sufficient detail so that the application was made to the Public Works Administration on June 7, 1938 for a grant in the consideration of building to cost approximately $350,000. A 45% grant was made by the Government of the United States on September 6, 1938 and on September 27, 1938, the voters of Independent School District 18 approved a bond issue of $185,000 with a vote of 976 to 39 and financed schools districts share of building
The project was actually started on December 6, 1938 when Mr. Lyman and Sons began to excavate the new building. The general construction got under way on March 6, 1939, when the Midwest contracting company began working on the building. On January 4, 1940 Board of Education accepted the building as substantially complete, in the building that people will be invited to an exam and is finished with the exception of a few minor details.
As you enter the building, you come into a brilliantly lighted front lobby with a the ticket window and three trophy cases. The corridors of the new building are all terrazzo, and along the halls are recessed lockers. Altogether there are 620 wardrobe lockers in the new building which together with 266 in the old building provide 886 lockers which is more than ample to provide the individual locker for every pupil in the junior and senior high
The auditorium seats 1002 and is so designed that all persons in the audience are fairly close to the stage and the pitch in the floor is sufficient to make it possible for everyone to see without difficulty. The lighting in the auditorium is all in direct and produces is very pleasant effect. The stage is 26 feet deep and has an opening of 15 feet. Curtains and scenery are provided to give three different sized stages. An outdoor scene provides a large stage for concerts and plays. A rust color curtain provides a shallow stage for speaking programs and the front curtain is gold in royal blue, the colors of the school.
The music room is located in the basement below the stage in the auditorium. This room was planned with particular attention to the acoustics, and you will find that there is acoustical tile on the ceiling and on the walls down to the wainscot trim. For practice rooms are provided for individual and small practice groups. These rooms are also acoustically treated. In large storage room with cabinets especially designed for the storage of all the instruments for a 75 piece band and their uniforms also forms part of the accommodations for music student.
The library is on the second floor in the south end of the East wing. This room is especially planned to be a beautiful room and a room conducive to study. The ceiling has acoustical tile and the floor is covered with linoleum to make the room as quiet as possible. The light green color of the walls produce a cool, quiet, soothing effect which harmonizes very well with the dark brown recessed shelves. A workroom and charging desk with special built-in facilities are provided for the use by the librarian. The artificial lighting is in direct so there is no glare at all when it becomes necessary to turn the lights on. The same type of lighting is use in all the classrooms. The light fixtures are a polished aluminum and add materially to this attractiveness of the rooms.
The classrooms are designed to suit the type of work that should be done in each one. The sewing room has large two people tables all facing one way. There is a fitting row and a storage room with cabinets to adequately store all materials of student’s work. The cooking room has electric and gas ranges and stainless steel top sinks and chrome trim tables and chairs arranged for nine unit kitchen.
The home economics department includes a living room/ dining room suite for demonstrations and for teaching homemaking practices. The biology and chemistry laboratory and the physics and general science laboratory has special equipment of the latest design in the most approved type of teaching of these subjects. Built-in cabinets provide storage for laboratory equipment and supplies needed in teaching the sciences. The art room has special desks that will facilitate the teaching of this subject and make it possible to include new courses in art in the high school curriculum.
The public speaking room has a stage with two small dressing rooms so the seniors in their public speaking classes will have an excellent setting for practice. All the regular classrooms are of sufficient size to adequately seek the number of pupils that are to be accommodated in the various classrooms. The ceilings are all acoustically treated in the walls are harmoniously decorated, and the floors are sealed and waxed to produce a polished appearance.
Spectators who had an opportunity to see the basketball game between Thief River Falls and Eveleth on January 5 were loud in their praises of this part of the new structure. All the bleachers and a permanent balcony provides seating capacity for 1685 people. A special balcony in the West end with a acoustically treated ceiling provided a place for the band from which they may be easily heard and readily seen. The playing floor is 84’ x 50’, the maximum size for high schools. Every part of the playing floor is visible to every spectator in the room.
For physical education classes , folding bleachers are shoved up to the wall and a canvas curtain divides the gymnasium into two smaller gymnasiums. The East will be use for girls physical education classes and the west one for boys physical education classes. A dressing room and shower rooms for the girl’s are provided under the balcony of the north side. Similar facilities are provided for the boys under the balcony of the south side. Dressing rooms arrangements for the boys also include an additional physical education dressing room a team room and an equipment room.
Considerable remodeling has been done in the old building. In the south end two classrooms have been converted into a metal and electric shop for special equipment and furniture for edging metal and electrical work. The old assembly room has been divided into four classrooms, two of which are large-size especially adapted for commercial work in the commercial department is located here. Many partitions have been moved so that all of the rooms that are used for classrooms are adequate size for the classes they house. Three classrooms in the basement have been converted into lunchrooms and the installation of a lunchroom counter and a small kitchen makes possible a serving of hot lunches at noon in a convenient manner. Tables and chairs to seat 150 students during the lunch are provided.
The total cost of the building is $360,733 and furniture and equipment purchase total $32,532 and interests of $5500 on bond issue during the course of construction brings the total cost of the project to $358,767. A grant from the federal government takes care of $158,578 of this cost and the remaining $195,180 has been financed by the school district $186,025 was received on a $185,000 bond issue. The difference of $9,155 has been paid from funds on hand.
The history of education facilities in Thief River Falls community dates back 57 years, it is has been reviewed in 1908 by JHK who was at that time as superintendent of schools.
The first school taught in this city. then district 107 was a three-month term in 1888 with Miss Helen Wallin as the teacher. A building in the grove near the Iron Bridge was used. The furniture consisted dry goods boxes for a desk and planks resting on powder kegs for seats. The enrollment was 10 children, eight of the LaBree family and two of the Clark children.
Miss Wallin taught about one third year and then continued in country districts until 1909, when she was engaged for this district and taught in a building that had been erected on the west side. The attendance was so large that the first building was bought and moved to the corner of 1st St and Horace Avenue and Miss Helen Davies was engaged to teach a higher grade.
The growth of the town was so rapid that in 1893 lots were purchased and the Central school building erected and more teachers employed. Expansion continued on until 1905 when three buildings with ten rooms each and the attendance of 1100 pupils was taught by 25 teachers.
The first school on the east side Street , district 58, was taught by O. Tandberg commencing in 1894 as a dwelling house. The district erected two room school on land donated by CJ Knox. Early in 1895 the building burned to the ground and was rebuilt that summer with two rooms with an addition constructed in 1900. In 1901 the district was united with District 107 to form Independent school District number 18.
The subsequent history of the district was reviewed as follows by Morris Bye in an article prepared in the fall of 1938:
In 1901 the school property consisted of the Central school, the Knox building, and six lots in block 28 which is the block situated between Main and Knight Avenue and between Third and Fourth Streets. The total value of this school property was $12,900 and the bonded debt was $9,300. There was also some floating indebtedness.
Soon after the organization of the district as an Independent school District 18, the people started thinking of providing a high school. On the 20th day of February, 1902, bonds were sold to provide funds for building the Washington school which was to be used for high school purposes. The Washington building served as a high school for a number of years until it became apparent that a larger building would be required to house a high school. So in 1910, the Lincoln high school building was started and finished in 1911. This building was planned for approximately 325 students. It seemed at the time to be sufficiently large for all future needs.
After the erection of Lincoln High School the Washington building was changed into a grade school. Grade school children were housed in the old Knox building, the Central school, and the Washington school until 1917 when it became necessary to provide additional room. The Northrop elementary school was built during that year. The elementary enrollment continued to grow however, and in 1921 it became necessary to replace the old Knox building making it a modern elementary school.
The Lincoln building, which had seemed so large in 1910 was still filled to capacity and by 1922, when the enrollment passed the 400 mark, the building really became very crowded. In 1930, when the enrollment reach’s 475, the Board of Education realize that some additional space would have to be provided. So it was decided to remodel a one-story addition to the Lincoln known as the industrial building so that part of the would be available for classroom space. This increase the capacity of the building from 325 to about 460, which met the needs at the time. Within two years however the enrollment had further increase to 600 so that building was just as crowded as it had been before. This crowded condition has prevailed during the last six years. The present enrollment is 606 which is the largest we have had at this time of year.
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