The Hood River Glacier, Hood River, OR., November 12, 1908, page 1
NEW HIGH SCHOOL ABOUT COMPLETED
Putting On Finishing Touches
Gives Hood River a Model Educational Institution the Combines the Beautiful
and Utilitarian.
Hood River's fine new high school building is fast nearing
completion. This week will see the finishing touches to the new temple of
education both inside and out as far as it will be done for the present and
as soon as the desks, furniture and other things that are necessary, can
be installed the building will be ready for use. The grounds around it are
being cleared up and the structure presents a handsome and substantial
appearance.
Broad steps lead to the main entrance on the north side
of the building and also to the east and west entrances. The basement, which
is a feature of the new school is well lighted and roomy and can be entered
by doors which open under the east and west stairways and can be entered
also by a door which leads into the furnace room. There are several rooms
in the basement which as yet have not been finished off and which will later
be used for purposes which the school faculty may designate.
In the west end of the basement is the boys laboratory
with modern and sanitary fittings and a similar apartment in the east end
for the girls. In the middle of the south side is the furnace room containing
the triple furnace heating plant and also the ventilating apparatus which
is so arranged as to furnish pure air all over the building. This is done
by a big rotary fan encased in an air tight case which draws the cold air
from a large duct on the roof of the building and forces it over the heating
plates of the furnace and on up to the halls and various rooms. Ventilators
placed in the walls of the rooms regulate the temperature and insure proper
ventilations.
Broad stairways, well lighted, lead from the basement
to the main floor. The interior is finished in Oregon fir and there is not
a sharp coroner in the building. Directly opposite the main entrance is the
superintendent's office. On this floor there are seven classrooms three of
which are finished. The doors are what are known as the double A, swinging
bout in and out noiselessly and there is not a lock on any of them except
that to the superintendent's office and the doors that open out of the building.
Separate coat stalls for boys and girls are furnished for all rooms and are
situated in the hall, entrance into them being by doors leading from the
classrooms.
On the upper floor there are four class rooms and the
large assembly room and auditorium which occupies the entire north front
of the building. From this a magnificent view of the Columbia and Mount Adams
is obtainable. A room on this floor has also been set apart for the laboratory.
A two inch pipe for fire protection runs throughout the
building and 100 feet of hose will be supplied for this purpose on each floor.
A fire escape of the latest approved type extends from the top floor in the
rear to the ground.
One of these rooms which are unfinished will be selected
as a library and when the fittings are properly installed the new high school
will furnish Hood River with an educational institution that will rank with
the best in the state.
The exterior of the building is finished off in red brick
with gray trimmings. The steps are painted in this color and frieze which
extends round the top of the structure has on it the names of classical
characters. On the east wing on those of Aristotle and Virgil, on the front
Ursinus, Gracchus, and Homer, and on the west wing, Agrippa and Napier. The
architecture of this structure which was planned by P.M. Hall-Lewis is plain
and impressive, the front view particularly giving the impression of a
substantial utilitarian structure adapted to the uses for which it was erected
without any gingerbread or spectacular ornamentations.
The building was built by Stranahan & Slavin, well
known contractors, and as far as possible the work was done by Hood River
labor and industries.
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© Jeffrey L. Elmer