When the building was purchased by the City of Spokane's Housing Authority and renovated, it was renamed Agnes Kehoe Place in honor of Agnes Kehoe, state representative for Spokane from 1939-47. Born in Iowa about 1875, Agnes lived the last 57 years of her life in Spokane, serving the community in a great many capacities, garnering, among others, the
Marian Award for “significant contributions to the community” from Holy Names College in 1951. Agnes passed away in Spokane on November 17, 1959.
After the school was closed in 1932, it was turned into apartments and allowed to deteriorate until for many years, after which time it was purchased by the City of Spokane's Housing Authority about 2011 and renovated at a cost of $6.5 million. Today it is a 51 unit complex of low income apartments. Ten are set aside for formerly homeless veterans, while another 10 are set aside for disabled persons.
During the $6.5 million renovation a rumor began to circulate that the housing authority planned to house registered sex offenders in the building. Though it was utterly untrue, it nevertheless caused a bit of "angst" in the community. The Spokane Spokesman-Review ran an article on the situation on May 19, 2011, a bit of which can be read below.
New apartments cause angst
Rumors wrongly contend housing authority placing sex offenders in Hillyard
The Spokane Housing Authority is spending $6.5 million on a complete renovation of the former Hillyard High School, now named the Agnes Kehoe Place. Construction began last fall, and the building is scheduled to open in spring of 2012. Everything is progressing according to plan, except one thing: a persistent rumor that the building, located on the 5300 block of North Regal Street, will be used for registered sex offender housing.
Recently, a threat was made to burn down the finished building.
“Some individual walked up to one of the workers at the site and filled him in on the sex offenders we are supposedly going to be housing in the building,” said Art Noll, development director for the Spokane Housing Authority. “He said he feared for his kids and his family and that he was going to burn the building down. We don’t house registered sex offenders at any of our facilities, period.”
Noll said the Spokane Housing Authority is taking threats seriously and is now sending representatives to community meetings in northeast Spokane to dispel the rumors.
Read on at theSpokane Spokesman-Review