Vashon’s High Schools Reflect the Community

Vashon high schools have always reflected the values and aspirations of the community at the time they were built, also reflecting the community’s understanding of the need for change. There have been a total of six high schools on Vashon beginning in 1903, and we are now in the process of building our seventh.

The first high school on the island was built in 1903 on the Burton Peninsula when there were enough students in the Burton area to attend a public high school. Up to this time students who wanted a high school education on Vashon went off island or attended Vashon College’s Academy. The first high school, which graduated its first class in1909, is seen with its church-like tower in the Burton High School photograph. This building, like most school buildings of the time, was a simple building, yet tried to communicate the sense of being a temple of learning.

In 1912 both Burton and Vashon decided to build high schools. The choices made in the designs of the buildings reflected the differences between the north and south ends of the island. Burton’s growing population of high school aged youth spurred the decision to build a second high school. Vashon School District’s combination with Vermontville School District (the Glen Acres area) and the rapid growth of the north end of the island, led to the decision to build the first Vashon High School.
 
The Burton Union High School was just south of the Judd Creek Bridge and was a two-story brick building overlooking Inner Quartermaster Harbor as seen in the Burton Union High School photograph. This building was a functional, straight-lined, industrial looking building which reflected the practical no-nonsense approach of those living south of Vashon’s Mason-Dixon Line.
 

Vashon High School was built north of Vashon on the main highway where Vashon Elementary School was later located and where The Harbor School and Vashon Fields are located today in 2012. This school was an imposing, shake clad, three-story building with columned porticos on each side and a cupola on top as seen in he Vashon High School photograph. This building reflected the expansionism of the rapidly growing town of Vashon and the north end of the island.
 

In 1928, as consolidation of Vashon’s original thirteen school districts swept the island, voters approved a merger of the two high schools into a single Union High School. The Union High School was built where the current high school is located and was a large brick building, with two wings designed very much in the International Style popular at the time. It was a functional building whose design reflected the times and the growing development of education as an industrial function.
 

The photograph of the current Vashon High School, designed by islander Keith Putnam, was taken in 1977 after it was built and opened in 1973. The burgeoning "baby boom" school population of the 1960’s made the old "Union" high school impracticable to handle the numbers of students. This new building reflected the trends in modern architecture of the 1960s with it’s Mid-Century Style which emphasized the organic, less functional approach of the times, with open floor plans and modular constructions. The cultural revolution of the 1960s emphasizing personal freedoms, and the sweeping changes affecting American society’s views of individual liberties at the time were all reflected in this new building.
 

The new Vashon High School, which will have its groundbreaking ceremony on June 15, at 11:00 AM, is just as much a reflection of our times and our community, as high schools in the past have been reflections of theirs. The design of the new high school is very much in the Post-Modernist Sustainable Style of the early 21st Century. It is an enclosed yet open building that takes advantage of the proximities of its parts to enhance educational exchanges. Sustainability is integrated into the new building design through the use of native plants, water capture and reuse, solar cells, a more sustainable heating and cooling system, increased use of LED fixtures, and green construction techniques. The building it is replacing was built at a time when sustainability was not at the forefront of people’s minds. This new building reflects Vashon’s "think globally, act locally" mindset. As seen in the architect’s drawing, the new building will be a reflection of who we are at the beginning of the 21st century, and, when in the future, as islanders look at this design, they will know who we were.