The building may be new, but the school is not. Fact is, it's a hundred years old, give or take a couple.
On Saturday, June 2, Queen Anne's Coe Elementary School at 2424 Seventh Ave. W. will celebrate its centennial throughout the day (see schedule on page 10).
Coe actually dates back 102 years, to 1905, when two temporary wooden structures were built on the school's present site as an annex to the Queen Anne School. Those structures were replaced in 1907 by an eight-room, two-story building designed in classic Ionic style by architect James Stephen, and Coe School was officially opened.
The school was named for Dr. Franz H. Coe (1856-1904). Dr. Coe began his career as a public school principal in Michigan. In 1884 he entered medical school, and four years later he began his medical practice in Seattle.
Although he became a prominent physician, he never forgot his early days as an educator. He served on the Seattle School Board from 1901 until his death in 1904.
A progressive thinker, Coe was one of the first school administrators to hire women as principals, earning him the posthumous honor of having a school named after him.
The neighborhood grew, and in 1914 eight rooms were added to the north side of the school, housing 575 students. (This year there are 435 students.)
Thousands of students have filled Coe's hallways and classrooms over the years. Early alumni remember separate playgrounds for girls and boys, marching into the building each morning to a student playing the piano, and a library that consisted of a table of books outside the principal's office.
The school served children in kindergarten through eighth grade until 1950, when eighth-graders were sent to junior high at Queen Anne High School. Seventh-graders followed in 1955. Kindergarten was cancelled in 1959 when a school levy failed, but was reinstated the following year. McClure Junior High opened on Queen Anne in 1965, and sixth-graders left Coe for McClure Middle School in 1989, following a districtwide grade-reconfiguration policy. Coe has served children in kindergarten through fifth grade ever since.
IN 1974, DICK KEARNS started teaching at Coe.
Kearns, who grew up on Queen Anne, knew from a young age that he wanted to be a teacher. "I liked all the teachers I had," he says. "Classrooms are a lot of fun. There's a lot of interaction." He earned a degree in education at Seattle University in 1962, and taught at two other schools for a total of 12 years before coming to Coe.
He has taught different grades at Coe, ranging from first to fourth. This year he is teaching second grade, his favorite. "They're more like your own kids," he says. "They lean on you. They want to hold your hand. You can talk to them and they respond." By the time kids reach the third grade, he says, they are more independent.
Kearns was attracted to elementary grades because he wanted to teach reading. The approach to teaching reading has changed since he started. "Reading and writing are more integrated with other subjects like science and math," says Kearns. "On science and math tests, like the WASL, more written answers are required now, not just computation."
Things have changed at Coe, too. "It used to be more working class," says Kearns. "Many kids were not well supervised. They played in the streets until all hours, back when it was safer to do so."
When Southeast Asians began to immigrate to Seattle in the 1970s, the school district selected Coe as a bi-lingual center. "For a number of years in the 1980s, about 150 of our students were ESL students," he says.
As for the rest of the student body, they are no longer children of the working class, Kearns notes. "There's a lot more money on Queen Anne now," he says.
SOMETHING ELSE that has changed at Coe is the building itself. Back when the community was discussing renovation of the 1907 building, Kearns was in the small minority that favored demolishing the old structure and building a new one.
He got his wish, but not in the way that he would have liked.
The old building was being remodeled, and it had been gutted to a hollow shell. On January 21, 2001 (Inauguration night), a fire broke out and burned it to the ground. The cause of the fire was never determined.
Fortunately, no one was hurt - it happened near midnight, and the school was being temporarily housed in Magnolia during remodeling.
"It was just a building," says Kearns, "but a setback nonetheless - a great loss, especially for the children. It was a terminal event for them, a total shock. The whole community was very sad." He remembers the boiler room with its enormous furnaces, the beautiful woodwork and the sound of children's footfalls on the stairs.
"But I don't miss it being 40 degrees on winter mornings!" he says.
Now the stairs sound different, and "there's lots of light," says Kearns. "It's quiet, spacious and safe. Teachers had a hand in designing it. For example, coats and backpacks are hung outside classrooms now."
Although its exterior architecture pays homage to the old school, the place is modern inside, featuring the latest computer technology and earthquake-proof engineering.
A final change - for Kearns, anyway - is that he is retiring at the end of this year. "I never looked forward to the end of any school year, and I'm especially not looking forward to this one. I'm apprehensive." But, at age 69, after 33 years at Coe, it's time.
Once retired, he will substitute teach, spend more time with his grandchildren and be more physically active than his job has allowed him to be.
WHAT HASN'T CHANGEDabout Coe? "We've always had good kids here," says Kearns, "and the staff is great - fun but hardworking, and very collegial." Kearns himself has worked about 60 hours a week his entire career. "You have to," he says. "Teaching takes a lot of planning.
"The community of neighbors and parents has always been very positive," he continues, "and the PTA does a lot for our school."
Coe's PTA has big plans for June 2. They're setting up a "memory table" to collect alumni's anecdotes and memories about the school and its community. In addition, there's to be a historical exhibit, a professionally modeled vintage fashion show, a time capsule burial in the Coe Cougar, carnival games and more. Food will be available to buy. Come one, come all!
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Saturday, June 2
11 a.m.: Alumni check-in and opening of historical exhibit
12 noon: Opening remarks by Dick Kearns
12:15 p.m. : Vintage fashion show
1 p.m.: Alumni procession
1:30 p.m.: Carnival games and student activities
4 p.m.: Staff appreciation and recognition of retirees
4:30 p.m.: Time capsule dedication
4:45 p.m.: Cake ceremony and closingemarks by principal David Elliott
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