Construction of Warren Avenue School began in 1902, and the school opened in 1903 on the corner of Harrison Street and Warren Avenue in Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne district. Possibly named for Revolutionary War hero Major-General Joseph Warren, the three-story, wood-frame building helped relieve crowding at nearby Denny and Mercer Elementary Schools at a time the city was booming. In the 1940s, the school added programs for blind and sight-impaired students, hearing-impaired and deaf students, and those with cerebral palsy.
In 1959, with planning under way for Century 21, the Seattle World’s Fair, the school property was condemned and sold to the state; the students and programs were moved to other schools. The Washington State Pavilion, later renamed the Coliseum, and then Key Arena, was built on the site.
This image shows Seattle’s Warren Avenue School in 1903 at about the time it opened.
Caption information source: Nile Thompson and Carolyn J. Marr, Building for Learning: Seattle Public School Histories, 1862-200 (Seattle: Seattle Public Schools, 2002).
ID Number: SHS7726
Date: 1903
Physical Description: 1 photographic print mounted on cardboard: b&w ; 17 x 13.75 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
