A Brief History

In a heavy old ledger at the Washington County ESD, there are county school records written by hand with a steel pen point held in a wooden handle. The writer had to dip the pen into an inkwell every line or so. The entry, on page 274 of the District Boundary Record book reads:

Upon a petition now on file in this office signed by a majority of the legal voters in Joint School Dist. No. 42, Multnomah and Washington Counties, it is hereby ordered and determined that the territory included within boundaries described as follows; to wit:

Commencing at the N.E. corner of S.(1) ? (1)S.R. (1) W. thence South 3/4 of a mile, thence west 1 mile, thence N. 1 mile thence E. 1 3/4 miles to place of beginning, shall constitute a school district to be known as School District No. 67 of Washington County, Oregon

Granted under my hand this 10th day of November A.D. 1884 at Middleton, Oregon.
T.T. Vincent, C. School Supt.

In accordance with petition, all that portion of Dist. No. 57 lying north of Barnes Road, has been taken from that district and added to Dist. No. 67.
March 2, 1894 , J.H. Stanley,School Supt.

In 1984, this charter was celebrated at West Tualatin View Elementary School and marked exactly 100 years since the clerk wrote the words that marked the formal beginning of our school.

Our school has had four locations and at least three names, but the children attending it have always lived on approximately the same land. In 1984, two students were "fourth-generation" - they had a parent, grandparent, and a great-grandparent attend school here.

1884: A Log Cabin

Leahy Road Survey Map (from 1917), with a star showing the location of the log cabin school on what is now S.W. 83rd Ave.

The oak tree on S.W. 83rd Ave, grown from an acorn planted near the log cabin school.

The first location for school children in this area was a log cabin on the John Johnson farm on Leahy Road, where we now call Lori Heights. Alas, not very much is known about it: such as when it was built, or how long it was a school, or how many students attended, or who the teachers were. Most of the land in this area was farmland and berry fields. The children in the vicinity would pick strawberries during berry season and some referred to the Lori Heights area as "Strawberry Hill". We do know that near the corner of the log cabin, John Johnson planted an acorn. While the log cabin has been gone for a long time, the oak tree still remains less than 100 yards up 83rd Avenue from Leahy Road.

1888: A Real School Building

Swedeville School, Students and Teacher, circa 1900.

A "real" school building better than a log cabin was needed however, so in 1888 one was built on Barnes Road across the road from the present telephone company building. (If you drive straight out of the driveway of Sylvan Heights apartments, and do not turn onto Barnes Road, but go straight ahead, you would run into the site of "Swedeville School".) It got this name because many people of Swedish ancestry had settled the farms in the area along Barnes Road from Sylvan Cemetery to Cedar Hills.

The school had a white frame, and a bell in a belfry. It had only one room and one teacher. The front door faced Barnes Road and buggies could pull into its driveway. The playground was very hilly. We're lucky enough to have a picture of it that includes some of its students and a teacher.

At 8:30AM the teacher would pull a long rope and ring the bell to warn children to hurry. School began at 9:00AM and ended at 3:00PM. Everyone brought a lunch and ate in the yard or inside in the classroom if it rained. There were from 15-25 students each year, all in one room, grades 1-8. They had eighth grade examinations and graduation. At first, many students received no further education because it was a long way to Beaverton, where the only area high school was.

1926: A New School With a View

Tualatin View School, at the corner of Leahy and Barnes Road, circa 1930

In 1926, more room was needed. A new stucco-and-frame school was built a little farther down Barnes Road, and the Swedeville School was torn down. The new one-room school was called Tualatin View, perhaps because non-Swedish people had moved into the area -- it also has a very nice view of the Tualatin Valley.

When it was first built, at a cost of $7,250, it had indoor plumbing, a great improvement from the community water-bucket and outdoor bathrooms (out-houses) at Swedeville School. The old belfry and bell from Swedeville School were moved to the Tualatin View School. The little school's room then held all eight grades and were handled by two teachers, one of whom served as principal. Later, the school was remodeled making two small classrooms, hallway, plus cloak-room closet.

TV School Classroom, 1965

As the population increased, it was necessary to bus the 7th and 8th graders clear over to the Barnes school, located on Walker Road. In 1948, TV school became too small to handle the ever increasing number of students, so it was consolidated with Barnes District 57 and became a primary school with upper grade students attending Cedar Hills or Barnes school. In 1958, the TV School building was leased for a year to the Catlin Gabel School to use as a pre-school, and the TV students were moved to West TV. In 1960, first graders were again schooled at TV school while the upper graders went to West TV. Mrs. Clara Sehorn and Mrs. Anne Stark taught the last two classes of 22 and 23 first-graders at the little school in the summer of 1965. Beaverton School District 48 discontinued use of the two-room Tualatin View School at the end of the 1965 school year.

 

Tualatin View School Building now used by the Oregon College of Art and Craft, January 2002

In 1970, the old-fashioned bell on top of the building was still in operating condition and could still be run by pulling the rope. Alas, today the building no longer has a belfry and the location of the bell remains a mystery to be solved.

The building was later occupied by the West Haven Bible church until the 1990's when it was sold to its current occupant, the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Today in 2002, the trees planted on each side of the door have grown taller and the old TV school is still looking pretty good.

1955: Our Current Location

Original West TV School building as viewed from Leahy Road, August 1957

Back in 1955 , another school was built further down Leahy Road by the (then) Barnes School District , and named West Tualatin View School to preserve the previous school's name. The 7.2 acres of property was acquired from a Mr. Keyes. His home sat about in the middle of our present school property and the land was covered by strawberry fields.

Both schools were initially run independently, and each had its own principal. TV school was used solely for the 1st grade and West TV held the 2nd through 6th grade classes. While West TV was built at our school's current location, it was only a small part of what we have today. The original school's rooms were those down "short hall": A102, A118, A120, A122, and what is now the Teacher's room, but was then a classroom that was later divided into the smaller rooms we use today.) The original building (shown here in a picture taken in 1957 from Barnes Road) also included a boiler room and a big bare basement area. Before we had a cafeteria or a gym, some mothers felt it would be good to serve a hot lunch once a week, and the weekly "hot dog" sale began.

As the community population continued to grow, so also did the school. Plans were drawn up and bond issues were eventually passed to allow extensive construction and landscaping improvements to start.

Expansion planning drawing showing original building, proposed room, gym, and breezeway additions and landscaping improvements for ball field and paved parking and play areas, and future classroom addition, May 1958

On March 6, 1958, corners were staked out marking the beginning of the construction for many of the school areas we know today: room A101, the school office and small isolation health room, the gym with a covered connecting breezeway , and the "main hall" rooms down to the bathrooms. One of the original six classrooms was also converted into the teachers lounge and work room we have today. Here's a picture taken in May 1958 showing construction underway for these additional classrooms and what they called a ""multi-purpose room"" (and we now call the Gym). There was also extensive earth moving and grading done to provide playfields and parking areas.

West TV School ""long hallway", offices, breezeway, and gym under construction, May 1958

Also in 1958, the basketball standards were installed in an area leveled and paved for playing basketball and the baseball diamond got a "little league quality" backstop. The West TV School erosion and beautification plans were completed when 200 Port Ordford cedars were received from the state forest nursery and planted along Leahy Road by Boy Scouts of troup 198. This is also the year that WTV got a landmark "red roof" that remained until the '90s when it was resurfaced with its current natural color.

In 1959, the concrete retaining walls and access ramps to the ball field were installed, a Library was added to the basement, and curtains were installed for the stage in the multi-purpose room. In 1960 the Display case that is outside the school office was installed, (after much debate by the Parent Teacher's Club about whether to spend the $200 on library books or the display case.)

Thirteen Beaverton-area school districts were reorganized in 1960 to create today's Beaverton School District 48. At that time, they were operating 22 elementary schools and two high schools and ... Barnes School District was operating five schools: Barnes, Cedar Hills, Tualatin View, West Tualatin View, and William Walker.

In 1968, the West TV library received an award placing it second in the Nation for the library programs and facilities. The library had approximately 14 books per student then, whereas some schools had only 8, plus the library was open with someone on duty throughout the school day.

According to a PTG scrapbook, there is a tree planted "this side of the basketball courts, which was planted on Arbor Day about 1960. All the participants in the planting ceremony placed their names in a bottle and it was buried along with the roots." In 1970, "the tree has remained rather small ... perhaps because the bottle has stunted it growth."

More construction was completed in 1965 to build four additional rooms at the end of the long hallway to accomodate growth and the inclusion of studends from the TV school that closed earlier that year. In 1971 rooms 6-9 were built, and later an addition was built to expand the library. (That space had previously been another classroom.)

In 1984, West TV celebrated it's 100 year anniversary with many centennial events and celebrations. A centennial time capsule, kept in the school office, should also reveal interesting information someday when it get opened by a new generation of West TV students and families!

The "modulars" under construction, 1987

In the summer of 1987, the "modulars" were added, giving the school another four classrooms and a large connecting common area to again handle an increasing student population. Here is a picture showing how modular this construction really was! District money was in high demand and pleas were made by the principal and PTA for a covered play area to offload use of the gym on rainy days. But it wasn't until ?? that our current play area was covered.

The library was enlarged (with funds provided in a school bond approved in 1996) to include the windowed side room and allow for more books and students, and as a place to hold meetings.

With the 2000 school year, the student leadership was asked to update our school logo. In 2001, a local high school student painted our new West TV All-Star logo in the breezeway to the gym and on the covered play area wall as part of his community work towards becoming an Eagle Scout .

It's been quite a journey from a log cabin, to Swedeville School, to Tualatin View, and finally what we know as our West Tualatin View Elementary School. We hope you've enjoyed this history of our school. Perhaps in another 100 years, this high-tech website technology will seem as quaint as the steel pen and ink well does to us from the previous 100 years. We'll just have to wait and see!

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Forty Years of Education

With the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year, the Beaverton School District celebrated 40 years of educating students in a growing community. Following several years of debate and discussion, 12 independent K-8 school districts and the Beaverton High School district agreed to merge on July 1, 1960. It was rapid growth in the area and a desire to coordinate education policies and standards that drove the merger. Forty years later, residents of the Beaverton School District are sending their children to 45 schools where the standards for what all students should know have been clearly defined, and where expectations are consistent and consistently high. Schools throughout the District encourage parents and community members to visit their local schools and to help celebrate four decades of excellence in education.

Go back even farther in local school history by reading the book, School Days: A History of Public Schools In and Around Beaverton, Oregon 1856-2000. The book, written by former District director of public relations, Gerald Varner, is available for $20. Contact the Beaverton School District's Office of Community Involvement at (503) 591-4360.

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*We'd like to acknowledge many now unknown sources of information it took to prepare this history of our school. Much of the work was done by volunteers and PTC members for the 1984 West TV Centennial Celebration under the organizational direction of Merilee Bruce, 1984 PTC President. Further information was gleaned by David Kinder from newspaper clippings and photo scrapbooks kept by a PTG/PTC "historian", a position that was occasionally filled during the last 50 years. Also, information from the book , "School Days: A History of Public Schools In and Around Beaverton, Oregon 1856-2000" by Gerald H. Varner provided historical insight. Please contact our webmaster if you have additional pictures or information about our school history we can include, or if you can clarify any factual errors in the story told here.