The Place:
John R. Rogers High School was built in the early 1930s, at a time when money was scarce and the PWA/WPA was not yet in high gear, meaning that the city, desperately in need of a new high school at the time, had to somehow conjure the required $500,000. This it did by issuing a bond, a somewhat risky venture at the time. The contract for the planning and design of the new school was issued to local architects John K. Dow and William A. Wells, their only collaborative effort, on April 10, 1930, the building being constructed by J. J. Lohrenz. Designed to initially house 800 students, expansion possibilities would enable it to accommodate 1,000. Given the unemployment situation at the time, it was stipulated in the contract that all labour and materials be sourced locally.
Given the striking visual appeal of such a large Art Deco building, among other things, the building was entered in the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2011. One of those "other things" was the fact that the school had undergone a two year restoration and addition which was completed in 2009. During the restoration non sympathetic additions to the building were removed, returning it to essentially its original appearance.
The Person:
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| John Rogers |
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A mere nine months after the start of construction the school was complete, with dedication taking place on March 1, 1932. Named after
John Rankin Rogers, the third governor of the State of Washington, the school is a bit of a screen star as it has been the site of the shooting of two movies,
Vision Quest in 1984, and
Hangman's Curse in 2002.
John Rogers was a native of Brunswick, Maine, born there on September 4, 1838. Leaving home as a teenager he slowly made his way west via Boston, Mississippi, Illinois and Kansas, finally landing in Puyallup, WA in 1890, where he operated a drug store. Along the way he apprenticed as a druggist, managed a drug store, farmed, taught school, edited the
Kansas Commoner and helped organize the
Farmers' Alliance.
Rogers became an active member of the farmer-based wing of the populist movement. In Puyallup Rogers became leader of the Populist party and in 1895 was elected to the state legislature as a Populist. Responsible for the drafting and passage of the "barefoot schoolboy bill", legislation designed to afford equal access to education to all children in the state, Rogers was elected the one and only Populist Governor of Washington State in 1896. As governor, Rogers was a staunch supporter of state education reform, government efficiency and prison system reform. In 1900 Rogers was reelected governor, this time as a Democrat.
A prolific writer, while in office Rogers authored many volumes with populist themes, including
The Irrepressible Conflict; or An American System of Money, 1892;
The Rights of Man and The Wrongs of Man, 1893;
Politics: An Argument in Favor of the Inalienable Rights of Man, 1894;
Homes for the Homeless, 1895;
Free Land: The Remedy for Involuntary Poverty . . ., 1897;
Looking Forward, or The Story of an American Farm, 1898;
Life, 1899; and
The Inalienable Rights of Man, 1900.