Her View: Watching WSU students move in sparks memories of days gone by

As I sit here looking out my dining room window watching the world go by, I reflect on the changes to Pullman over the years I’ve lived here. There are also many things the same. School starts today and the past weekend, I saw a lot of students moving in since I’m surrounded by rentals. Good theater. I grew up on Alpha Road near Harvey Road which was the north city limits then. Stadium Way didn’t exist — it came after the war and watching it go in was good theater too. I attended Edison Grade School in what was recently Stubblefields.

I attended grades 1-6 there. We had no kindergarten then. The main floor had six classrooms, an auditorium, girls’ rest room, library and nurse’s room. The boys were sent downstairs to the bathroom. The janitor was more or less in charge or discipline there, but Mrs. Campbell, our principle and sixth-grade teacher, also was known to charge in there when necessary. The lower floor had two classrooms that were variously used over the years. Sometimes they were used for what would now be referred to as “special ed” classes. Our Camp Fire Girls were also allowed to meet there after school.

A second elementary school — Franklin — was built on Pioneer Hill on Dexter. It was newer than Edison. It had a larger gym/auditorium with a larger stage then the one at the high school so whenever the high school drama club put on a play, it was staged there.

Junior high and high school were in what is now Gladish, part of which didn’t exist then. It’s been added onto several times. Junior high was the four classrooms on the south end of the main hall. For gym, home economics, band and the like, we used the high school’s rooms. We had four junior high teachers who taught math, science, history and English as well as other classes, and we changed rooms between those classes. Band and physical education were taught by high school teachers.

The old, old high school was attached to the north end of the main building. When I was in school, it housed the band room in the basement, the wood shop on the mezzanine, the auditorium/study hall plus two classrooms and a restroom on the main floor. On the second floor were home economics, both sewing and cooking labs, the offices for the superintendent and principal, the classrooms for typing and shorthand and a small room that housed the mimeograph and ditto machines.

The main hall between the junior high and the old building had classrooms only on the east side of the building. On the lower floor, there were two classrooms and the girl’s locker room. One of those classrooms was used for chorus practice. The other variously for an additional first or second grade as needed. On the southwest corner of the basement was the cafeteria and above that the gym. It had only minimal seating for spectators around the perimeters of the main floor and the narrow balcony above. The boy’s locker room was off the west end of the gym.

There was an exterior door there that we used during physical education to reach the playfield, if it could really be called a field. It was more like a mud hole or a dust bowl depending on the weather — no grass.

My summers were spent at Reaney Park pool where I took lessons in the mornings and played the rest of the time it was open. It was a lot smaller then. Being right next to the railroad tracks, the trains rumbled by regularly — twice a day in both directions for passenger service and freight trains as needed.

I’ve only touched on those landmarks that most affected me in my younger years. All in all, I think it was a great place to grow up in — and still is.

Harding lives in Pullman and is a longtime League of Women Voters member. She also has served on the Gladish Community and Cultural Center board. Reach her at lj1105harding@gmail.com.