Despite its status as an historic landmark, the Old Hay building will likely be renamed after Caspar Wistar Sharples.
However, the decision to rename Old Hay as Caspar Wistar Sharples has been delayed until the Jan. 6 School Board meeting, said a school district spokesperson.
Though the Seattle School Board developed an action plan Nov. 4 to rename Old Hay, at the Nov. 18 meeting the action was postponed to allow for further discussion with the Sharples family and the Landmark Preservation Board, said Patti Spencer-Watkins.
A two-pronged notion
The need to rename the school is two-pronged: firstly because the Old Hay building will house an "option" school program in fall of 2011 (though the program will commence in the fall of 2010 in the interim site at Lincoln High School) and secondly, because of a promise the district made in a resolution passed in 2000 to the Sharples family to name something of "...equivalent civic, architectural and educational importance such as a school...For Dr. Caspar Wistar Sharples." In 1999, the school board re-named the original Caspar W. Sharples building after Aki Kurose, which led to the resolution.
"Seattle Public Schools believes," Spencer-Watkins said, "it is important to create a distinct name for the Old Hay building so that it will not be confused with the newer John Hay building."
The Old Hay building was closed in 1988 following a decision to build a new John Hay school as a replacement, but the Old Hay building has been used as an alternative site since 1992. Recently until this year, the Old Hay building housed the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center.
But Old Hay's historic landmark status does create few road bumps, as far as signage goes - a concern for Char Eggleston, the president of the Queen Anne Historical Society.
"The society is not interested in seeing either of those buildings defaced by putting a name across them," Eggleston said.
OK with change
However, Eggleston added, "We're OK with naming a school after this gentleman. I have no qualms with that. I'm OK if they decide to rename Old Hay, if they put a temporary sign up like the wooden one that's up there right now."
Because of the building's landmark status, any removal or changes to the original signage would have to be approved by the city's Landmark Preservation Board. Old Hay, the wooden building, was built in 1905, and the brick building on the site opened in 1922. Both buildings' exteriors were designated city landmarks in 1981.
"SPS has been discussing signage at Old Hay with the landmarks board," Spencer-Watkins said. "While we have not received a final determination, we believe that the landmarks board will ask that the district retain the current signage on the building."
Eggleston said she understands and accepts the renaming of the school, but her main frustration stems from the potential "defacement" of the buildings in connection with the lack of communication from the school district, though the district's action report does indicate an effort to reach out to the historical society and community members, including nearby principals.
"The school district hasn't communicated what they plan to do," Eggleston said. "If they go to the landmark board and their way of presenting a new signage is to deface those buildings we will be adamantly opposed to it from a preservation point of view. We're not opposed to the Sharples name; that part I understand."
Decision may be moot
Another plausible option to Eggleston would be to put the Sharples name on the "new" John Hay School because of Old Hay's history. But with a postponed decision from the school board and ongoing discussions with the Landmark Preservation Board, concerns about the building's landmark name may be moot.
"Whatever the final name of the school," Spencer-Watkins said, "we would propose that we add appropriate signage that features the new name, without in any way damaging existing signage."
Apart from the district's promise to the Sharples family, renaming Old Hay after Sharples would maintain the building's connection with the medical community that was established in the early 1900s when the school supervised the Children's Orthopedic Hospital School. Sharples was the principal medical founder of Children's Orthopedic Hospital and served as Head of Medicine from 1907 throughout the rest of his life. He was also one of the first of nine people to take the state medical examination in Washington state and was certified in 1889.[[In-content Ad]]
