Washington Elementary School

Kalamazoo Public Schools

An article in the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1904 commented that due to the growth in the City of Kalamazoo, the Board of Education would be both building new schools and renovating older structures. One area that needed a new school was the growing neighborhood to the south of the city, now known as the Edison Neighborhood. Lake Street School, now Edison Environmental Science Academy, located at Lake and Russell Streets, received several additions by this date, but it would not be enough for the children living in new homes at the south part of the neighborhood.

By 1906, the Board of Education decided to construct a new school on Portage Street between Lay and Lane Boulevards, choosing the architectural firm of Bradley and Allen from Fort Wayne. The red brick and sandstone building, completed by February of 1907, was three-stories high and had twelve classrooms, six recitation rooms and an assembly room large enough for six hundred used by the school and the community.

Located in the middle of elm, maple and walnut trees, the school contained kindergarten through the ninth grade. Originally known as the Portage Street School, the description of the building at its dedication was “…one of the most modern structures ever erected for grade school purposes and will be a most valuable addition to the magnificent school system of this city.” Library service came in 1919 as a branch library opened in the school basement an early site for what is now the Washington Square Library on Portage Street.

That same year, bids came in for the construction of a gymnasium. Completed in 1920, the two-story building held two gyms, one for boys and one for girls complete with a piano for folk dancing and marching. Additionally there were two classrooms, offices, showers and a locker room. The school’s Parent Teacher Association used the gymnasium for regular meetings. As the Gazette reported, “The new addition is enjoyed and appreciated by all.”

By 1920, both Lake Street and Portage Street Schools had many more students than both could handle. Voters approved the funds needed to build a new three-story building facing Lay Boulevard. The local architectural firm, Billingham and Cobb received the contract for the design.  Completed in 1922, it held twelve classrooms along with rooms for art, music, literature and penmanship in addition to another 600-seat auditorium and another gymnasium. This Collegiate Gothic structure had crenellations at the roof, multiple double-hung windows and two impressive arched entrances. All elementary grades moved to this building while the junior high students stayed in the original structure.

In 1923, the Portage Street Parent-Teacher Association requested the name of the school change to Washington for both the Elementary and Junior High Schools. There are no reasons given as to why the parents wanted to do this; however, several schools in Kalamazoo adopted Presidential names so Burdick Street became McKinley, Frank Street became Lincoln and East Avenue became Roosevelt. Portage Street chose our first president and became Washington.

By 1930, the junior high alone had 600 students and twenty-six teachers, making it the largest of the junior high schools in the city. Along with the four hour of classes, the 7th, 8th and 9th graders had every day, an hour each of vocational work, home room and “vigorous play.”

This is the way things remained at Washington for the next twenty years until 1950 when at the completion of the new South Junior High School on Maple Street, all junior high students at Washington transferred. First graders and those in kindergarten moved to the classrooms in the original building. Over the years though it ceased to be used and came down in 1963 mainly because of concerns it did not meet fire safety standards. Later, a small building connected the gymnasium with the remaining school building.

Washington Elementary became one of the system’s magnet schools in 1999. Renamed the Washington Writers’ Academy, it now contains students from kindergarten through the fifth grade. It received a new gymnasium in 2003 replacing the older two-story structure. The 1922 school building came down in 2013 to make way for a new school building which opened in January of 2015. The structure is over 25% larger than the previous school and integrated the gym into its design. In addition, one of the original arched entrances is located near the front entrance with information about the roots of this school which has been a part of this neighborhood for well over a hundred years.

Compiled by Lynn Houghton, Regional History Curator, Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collection, April 2021