Whittier School - Utah Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Whittier School, constructed in 1908, is important for its association with the education reform following Utah’s statehood. These reforms included a statewide curriculum and the construction of numerous unified schoolhouses. The Whittier School represents both the early development of the public school system in Utah and the specific evolution and improvement of public school facilities in Logan City. It is also the location of the first kindergarten organized in the state.

The building is an original design by Joseph Monson who, as supervisory architect for Utah state schools, helped establish a unified style of school architecture and specific guidelines to ensure quality and safety of schoolhouse design and construction. This building embodies the characteristics of the Victorian Romanesque Revival and Prairie School styles associated with school design of early twentieth-century Utah. The Romanesque influence is found in the heavy visual massing, arched entry, and decorative stone and brickwork. Prairie School features include the pyramidal roof, wide eaves, and narrow, paired windows. Only approximately thirty examples of this once-common style remain in Utah, with the Whittier School being the only example in Logan.