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TUALATIN CENTENNIAL
January 3, 2013
into Portland.
1858
—The “Hoosier,” a
small steamboat. plied the
Tualatin River for a short
time.
1860
—Many settlers
went to the Idaho mines.
1865
—The Little Red
Schoolhouse was built on
the corner of Avery and
Boones Ferry Road.
1865
—The steamboat
“Yamhill” plied the river de-
livering farmers goods to
market.
1867
—Washington Coun-
ty erected a toll bridge to re-
place the old free bridge at
Bridgeport.
1868
—The steamwheeler
“Onward” navigated the riv-
er.
1880
—A fierce storm
raged through the Valley,
toppling trees like tooth-
picks.
1880
— Farmers began
draining the swamps and
groving products, especially
onions, on the rich beaver-
dam soil, and found some
huge bones, thought to be
from a prehistoric animal.
1887
—Chinese laborers
laid a narrow gauge railroad
through the area. John
Sweek platted out a new
town site around the new
train station, naming it “Tu-
alatin.”
1889
—The first east-west
railroad train came through,
and a store and hotel were
built close by.
1892
— John L. Smith
brought his extended family
TUALATIN
TIMELINE
Continued from page 6
Continued on page 12
By SAUNDRA SORENSON
Pamplin Media Group
W
hen Tualatin High School cel-
ebrated its 20-year anniversa-
ry at the start of the school
year, the Timberwolves had a
lot to be proud of: a record of extensive
community service, 16 state championships
in athletics, a drama and a music depart-
ment that could boast several tours nation-
ally and internationally. Facilities also
looked as fresh as they did in 1992.
But it was hardly the first Tualatin High
School.
The original Tualatin High School was
established during a boom time in the city’s
development. Historically, a rising demand
for educational facilities is a great economic
indicator, and this was especially true in
Tualatin, where John L. Smith’s 1890 arrival
in town further propelled Tualatin’s status
as a financially viable place to live and
work. His Tualatin Mill Company venture
combined the town’s relocated sawmill
with logging and lumber businesses, pro-
viding steady salaried work for an increas-
ing population.
Farming families and the families of
skilled laborers had produced a school-
aged population which, according to school
records of the time, was then at around 90.
This was not an exponential increase
from 30 years before, whenWashington
County School District 25’s sole one-room
schoolhouse was overflowing with 38 chil-
dren. A new, larger red frame school was
built around 1863 on Boones Ferry Road,
forming districts 25 and 26 — until a fire
claimed the older log cabin school in 1866.
The newer structure that remained
standing was put up on jacks more than 30
years later in order to add a new first floor
— and a complete four-year high school
program. In 1911, the building was once
again raised to meet the changing needs of
the student body, and toilets and a central
heating systemwere added.
Incoming Tualatin Heritage Center presi-
dent Art Sasaki identifies his father, also
Art, as one of eight members of the Tuala-
tin High School graduating class of 1927.
Until Tualatin High School reopened as
we now know it in the early 1990s, 1936 was
its final graduating class.
From that point on, teenage Tualatin stu-
dents were given the choice to attend one of
the far more spacious nearby campuses: ei-
ther Sherwood or Tigard high schools. (By
the time the younger Art Sasaki was in
school, the split happened as early as sixth
grade. He opted to attend Sherwood, he said.)
This opened up the top two levels of the
Tualatin schoolhouse. Even so, primary
school grade classes had to be held at City
Hall.
By the time the younger Art Sasaki was
in school, he said the split happened as ear-
ly as sixth grade. He opted to attend Sher-
wood schools.
With Tualatin’s remaining students still
scattered round town, the school board de-
cided to modernize with a building large
enough to give each grade its own room—
and to invite students from the much small-
er nearby Tonquin and Malloy districts to
attend. The project used premade plans
from another school and was funded in part
by the Public Works Program, in part
through land sales.
The old three-story schoolhouse then be-
came an apartment building before being
demolished some years later.
Although the city’s sons and daughters
completed their education in surrounding
towns, they held fast to their Tualatin roots.
Farmer’s daughter Nellie Wesch worked
tirelessly as a caddie at the Tualatin Coun-
try Club and ended up financing her way
through college not through her earnings
on the green, but through a collection put
together by regular golfers such as Julius
Meier. Wesch Returned fromwhat was
then Oregon Agricultural College and be-
came a popular teacher at Tigard High
School.
“She taught business education, typing,
accounting, book-keeping. In fact, several of
our members here had her as a teacher.
They attribute their success in their ca-
reers to her,” said Larry McClure of the Tu-
alatin Heritage Center.
The Tualatin side of the school district
grew to include three elementary schools,
Tualatin, Byrom and Bridgeport. It wasn’t
The history of Tualatin
schools show countywide
collaboration
An educational Odyssey
TIMES FILE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE
Tualatin High School math teacher Mark
Dolbeer grabs homework assignments
from his students. He retired last spring
after 29 years of teaching. At left,
Tualatin Grade and High School was built
in 1900 and closed down in the 1930s