Frank B. Cooper School

Infobox nrhp
name = (Old) Frank B. Cooper School
nrhp_type =

---

caption = The old Frank B. Cooper School, now Youngstown Cultural Arts Center
location = Delridge, Seattle, Washington
nearest_city =
lat_degrees =
lat_minutes =
lat_seconds =
lat_direction =
long_degrees =
long_minutes =
long_seconds =
long_direction =
area =
built = 1917, expanded 1929
architect = Edgar Blair, Floyd A. Naramore
architecture =
added = 2003
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum = 03000161
mpsub =
governing_body =

Frank B. Cooper Elementary School, usually called Cooper School, serves students from kindergarten through 5th grade. Located in the Pigeon Point neighborhood of Delridge, Seattle, Washington, it is part of the Seattle Public Schools district. The school’s 14 acre site is immediately adjacent to the convert|182|acre|km2|sing=on West Duwamish Greenbelt, one of Seattle’s largest wildlife habitat corridors. This rich natural environment enhances the school’s environmental education program.

While the current building, located at 1901 SW Genesee Street, was opened in 1999, Cooper School enjoys a long history in the community, dating back to 1906, when a group of 70 students, children of steel mill workers, attended classes at Youngstown School in a small building offered by the Seattle Steel Company. A year later, a wooden building—know as Riverside SchoolHarv|Thompson|Marr|2002|location="Cooper": [http://www.seattleschools.org/area/historybook/cooper.pdf Cooper] .] —was built for the school at the base of Pigeon Hill. As the population of the community grew, the wooden structure was replaced by a brick building 1917, which was designed by Edgar Blair, with a 1929 expansion designed by Floyd Naramore. In 1939, the school was renamed to honor Frank B. Cooper, a former Seattle school superintendent. The historic Youngstown School building, located at 4408 Delridge Way SW, now houses an arts and cultural center. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. [http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/wom/2004/cooper.htm Seattle, Washington: Frank B. Cooper Elementary School] , National Parks Service, Women's History Month pages, 2004. Accessed online 16 September 2007.]

One of the school's assets is its diversity. Approximately 80 percent of Cooper students are racial or ethnic minorities and approximately one-quarter are bilingual.

The first African American teacher hired to teach in Seattle Public Schools, Thelma Dewitty, worked at Cooper School from 1947 until 1953.cite news| title = Our Schools, Our Selves | date = 2006-10-29 | url = http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw10292006/2003326811_pacificpcooper29.html |publisher = Seattle Times |author= Judy Bentley ] The Thelma DeWitty Theater at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is named after her.

Notes

References

*Citation
last =Thompson
first =Nile
last2 =Marr
first2 =Carolyn
publication-date =
year =2002
title =Building for learning - Seattle Public Schools Histories, 1862-2000
place =Seattle
publisher =Seattle Public Schools
url =http://www.seattleschools.org/area/historybook/index.dxml
access-date=2007-12-09. Apparently no ISBN. Available online as a series of PDFs, including [http://www.seattleschools.org/area/historybook/cooper.pdf Cooper] .
* Karen Gordon (City Historic Preservation Officer), [http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/lpbCooperDesignRpt.pdf Report on Designation] of the Cooper Elementary School as a Seattle landmark, August 27, 2002.

External links

* [http://www.delridgehistory.org/ History of Delridge and Cooper Elementary School]
* [http://cooper.seattleschools.org/ Cooper Elementary School]
* [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1163 HistoryLink.org essay on Thelma Dewitty]
* [http://historicseattle.org/preservationseattle/pendinglandmarks/defaultaugust.htm Preservation Seattle article on the original Cooper School building]