pglgone.html

The Hood River News, Hood River, OR., September 12, 1957, page 1
Includes photograph, titled:
LANDMARK GONE - The row of trees that sheltered Pine Grove school for 68 years is gone, leaving an open parking area. For the 68th year, however, teachers and pupils still cluster a neat file outside the front door in the traditional pledge to the flag.

PINE GROVE LANDMARK GONE

A major landmark look quite different, yet much the same this week, as the Pine Grove school started its 68th year of educating valley children. The heavy grove of trees that shaded generations of Pine Grove students during the two world wars and the years in between, have been cut down, leaving the historic building exposed to full view from the road for the first time since it was built.
Fittingly enough, the great-grandson of a man who made this school possible is now learning his basic figures, letters and social behavior at Pine Grove.
Tim Weygandt, Pine Grove student, is a direct descendant of Virgil Winchell, pioneer Pine Grove resident. In 1889 Mr. Winchell gave the land for the one-room school building then needed to educate the handful of children living in the area.
The site was particularly desirable, for the row of mature, shade-giving trees that already towered over the tiny school house. The following year, another room was added, expansion being a habit with Pine Grove people.
By 1904, the Hood River valley was moving into a modern era, and people flocked here to take advantage of the climate, the work and the living conditions. Results: in 1904 the two school rooms were jacked up and two more were popped in between, providing a boxy four-room school. Most people figured it would serve the area for years to come. It did, for 20 years, to be exact. Then, 1924, what was considered to be a glorious modern building was begun on the site of the old school house. The result was the landmark school building that still stands sturdy and friendly for who knows how many more generations of Pine Grove the school kids?