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Moscow High School

          Community members of Moscow, Idaho decided to save the town’s old high school, but not for K-12 public education. Today, the renovated building serves as the 1912 Center, a community center located in a historic residential neighborhood. Following is a compilation from the article “Lost America Revisited: Saving Moscow’s 1912 High School Turns Into a Community Dilemma” by Wendy McClure and Nels Reese.

          In 1912 the citizens of Moscow, Idaho and its school district made a conscious decision to invest in education and architecture, believing that the two should be interlinked. The community commissioned Spokane architect Clarence Hubbel to design a new high school to replace its predecessor, the Whitworth School (circa 1890). The design of the new school embraced the ideals of the Progressive Era of education. Through its neoclassical architecture and prominent location, the building continues to speak of an era when learning and architecture were integrally linked and when ordinary citizens were community builders. The school is one of a very few quality historic public buildings in the city of Moscow.

          According to former state architectural historian Elizabeth Egleston, the school’s design and construction “represents both the maturation of the community and the city’s educational system and reflects a local response to the Progressive Era of reform of school curriculum” (National Register Nomination, 1992).

          During the Progressive Era, school buildings were community icons. The 1912 building was no exception. The three-story school was sited on top of a grassy knoll where it commanded attention at the threshold between the city’s oldest residential district and its historic downtown. The school’s design featured several important characteristics of the Progressive Era, including centralization of regional high school education, concern for safety, capacity to support an expanded curriculum and neoclassical architecture. The school was large enough to serve the entire district’s high school population. Efforts to protect the safety of occupants are represented by the building’s fireproof brick construction and its exiting system which is organized along a central hall leading to fireproof stairwells and exterior exits at each end of the building. Specialized classrooms accommodated new course offerings in science, art and physical education. Community investment in the architectural design of the three-story school is evidenced in the rich materiality and craftsmanship of both its interior and exterior.

          The gradual decline of the 1912 high school began in 1939 when a new high school was constructed across Third Street. The [1912 high school] was used as a junior high until 1957 and abandoned for academic use in 1974. In the late 1980s, the school district considered demolishing the school and replacing it with a parking lot to serve the high school.

          In 1990 the consensus view of Moscow’s architectural community was that the school was a prime candidate for rehabilitation. Based on the collective professional experience, the path to rehabilitation seemed relatively straight forward in spite of over 30 years of deferred maintenance. Moscow’s community of architects composed and signed a letter to that effect and submitted it to the school board for consideration.

          In 1992 design consultants concluded that it would cost about $1.8 million to rehabilitate the building for academic use, significantly less than new school construction at the time. In spite of supportive technical and economic reports, the school board remained skeptical, believing that rehabilitating the building for academic use was too risky and that they should surplus the building. In 1993 the Idaho State Board of Education conducted a separate evaluation, citing that the slightly undersized classrooms failed to meet board standards for mainstream classrooms. Local preservationists could not convince school board members to consider the value historic architecture could play in education by providing district students firsthand contact with cultural heritage.

          Fear of the unknown commonly plagues rehabilitation projects and the 1912 building was no exception. Many who toured the 1912 building were discouraged by its outward appearance. The school district elected to cover all of the original double hung windows with plywood, amplifying the structure’s neglected condition. In spite of years of abuse the building, according to technical engineering reports, was structurally sound and could be affordably upgraded to meet standards of the Uniform Code for Building Conservation (UCBC) and seismic requirements.

          Supported by grants from the National Trust and University of Idaho, a team of University of Idaho researchers led by Wendy McClure developed a computer visualization tool to demonstrate the capacity of Progressive Era schools to adapt to emerging trends in education and to clarify interventions required to meet contemporary building performance standards. The assessment tool addressed each of the major issues surrounding the rehabilitation process. Computer animation sequences clarified the architect’s original design intent including day-lighting systems, exiting systems, spatial organization, a performance auditorium illuminated by skylights, and requirements of the Progressive Era’s expanded curriculum. Strategies to meet contemporary (1990s) standards for academic use were also modeled including necessary mechanical, electrical, and energy retrofits as well as interventions to improve seismic performance. Before and after image sequences demonstrated the potential of classroom spaces to accommodate contemporary educational needs and simultaneously preserve architectural integrity and restoration of the building’s most significant architectural features.

          None of the studies convinced the school district that the building was an appropriate resource to harness for educational purposes and it ultimately voted to surplus it. The school district offered to sell the building to the city of Moscow.

          In 1997 the Moscow City Council voted to purchase the building for a community center with the restriction that only private dollars would be used for its rehabilitation. The city charged several citizen committees including fundraising, technical and programming to develop a rehabilitation and fundraising plan. An anonymous donor provided $2 million to complete phase one of the rehabilitation, which included such highly visible improvements as site work and terrace, conversion of the former gymnasium to a community room, the boiler room to a community kitchen, and several classrooms to centers for seniors and citizens with disabilities.

          After renovation, the 1912 Center’s great room, kitchen and plaza were opened to the public in 2001. In June 2002, the 1912 Center Senior Center and Friendship Hall were opened. Today, the great room and kitchen are available for reservations. According to the City of Moscow, the 1912 Center is a landmark that is the “perfect home for Moscow’s first multigenerational, multipurpose community center.”

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