FAREWELL TO WASHINGTON SCHOOL

A student walked past a mural at Washington Elementary School painted by Craig Thomas. The future of the mural, which depicts the history of the area, remains uncertain.

An antique IBM bell clock hangs in the hall of the school. The clock is only a display now.

J.B. McClard knows every nook and cranny at Washington Elementary School.

Its maze-like hallways can be confusing to visitors and new students, but for McClard, the school's custodian, it's all just part of the charm of the 85-year-old building.

"I hate to see this building close," said McClard.

The school at 621 N. Fountain is slated to close later this year, replaced by a new elementary school being built on North Sprigg.

The new school likely won't be finished until after the start of the new school year. Superintendent Dan Tallent said students likely would begin the school year at Washington before moving to the new school in the fall.

The district eventually hopes to sell the old school.

Washington School was built in 1914, tying it with Louis J. Schultz School as the school district's oldest building.

The brick and masonry structure originally contained 40,000 square feet.

The school was expanded in 1926 and 1931, adding six rooms and a gymnasium and increasing the size by 16,000 square feet. The school was renovated between 1967 and 1968.

For employees like McClard, it will be tough to say farewell to the old brick school with its many stairways and lasting memories.

To McClard, the school is like a second home. Four generations of his family have attended the school.

"I was in school here from third through sixth grade," he said. His last year at Washington School was in 1974.

His grandfather was the school's custodian in the 1950s. His children have attended the school, with his youngest child finishing the sixth grade this year.

McClard has spent the past 16 years as the school's janitor. "I do a little bit of everything," he said.

Students stop to talk to him in the hallway, and he gives them "high fives" and encouraging words. "I know every kid by their name," he said.

The old building has its charm. "The new ones are just too modern," McClard said. "They don't have that rustic charm."

Cape Girardeau Councilman Melvin Gateley served as principal of the school for two years in the 1950s.

"It's a great little place," he said.

The place felt like home for both students and teachers. "They were just like a family," Gateley said.

Many of the district's administrators over the years started out as principals at Washington School.

Barbara Blanchard attended Washington School and later served as principal. She retired last year.

The 60-year-old Blanchard spent much of her life at the school, beginning when she was 6 years old and extending through a 30-year career as a teacher and later principal of the school.

Blanchard attended Washington School in the 1940s and early 1950s.

"We would take our change to school and buy war bonds," she remembered.

Blanchard taught first, fourth, fifth and sixth grades at the school before becoming principal.

The old school is full of memories for Blanchard.

"I was a pig in a play," she said, remembering her days in elementary school.

"To me, there are still the same smells, the same sights as there were when I was a little girl."

When Blanchard was growing up, the students all walked to the brick school.

There was no school lunch. Students walked home for a meal. Today, the school serves breakfast and lunch.

Over the years, the school has continued to be a part of the neighborhood. Neighbors, Blanchard said, took an interest in the school.

So did parents. The school has had its share of notable parents. Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. was a Washington School parent, as was Missouri Secretary of State Bekki Cook.

In her Twin Lakes home, Blanchard has newspaper clippings and minutes from Washington School PTA meetings.

The clippings include one showing five sets of identical twins who attended Washington in the 1957-1958 school year.

She has an aging bust of Lincoln. It once graced the main hallway of Washington School.

"He's a nice old guy," she said of the bust, which she rescued from the boiler room where it had been stored in recent years.

Blanchard has become the unofficial historian of the school.

There has been a school at the site since 1911 when a two-room frame cottage was remodeled for that purpose, she said.

The property was purchased for $4,500. It cost the district $300 to remodel the house.

The property was bought from the J.F. Anderson family. The family raised chickens.

After the renovation, the hens continued to lay eggs on a side porch. The eggs were sold and bulbs were purchased and planted on the grounds.

As the bulbs grew, many dollars were earned by selling the blooms at two dozen for 25 cents, Blanchard said.

She considers it to be the school's first moneymaking project.

Blanchard said she will miss the old school even as she welcomes the new elementary school, which will be named in her honor.

Kindergarten teacher Nancy Godwin has taught at the school for 22 years.

Godwin used to teach first grade in a room on the top floor. Students often would get lost trying to make their way around the school.

"I did lose some students and we would send out a search party," she said. "It is a very tricky building."

Special education teacher Nora Stranahan has worked at Washington School for nearly three decades.

Stranahan loves the school. "The thing that makes Washington what it is, is the people," said Stranahan who is retiring at the end of the school year. "We all work together as a unit."