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ABOUT NORTH BEACHHow North Beach began....
North Beach Elementary school began in a burst of community activism on a May morning in 1950. The North Beach residents on 95th had long enjoyed a view of the Olympic Golf Course. They woke one morning to the announcement in Seattle newspapers that the Army was leasing part of the course to use as gun emplacements. By that evening a group of 25 individuals held a meeting to try to find a way to preserve the park-like grounds. Soon this core group swelled into a meeting of 350 people in the fire station on 15th Ave NW where neighbors elected a committee to petition the Army to find another location. This encouraged the Seattle School Board, which was negotiating for the same golf course land leased by the Army. The struggle for the land continued through several meetings with the Army, school board and the community. Ultimately however, the community petitioned the Seattle City Council to purchase the land for a park. Accordingly, 10.3 acres were purchased for a playground. Records from the Seattle School District show that in June 1954 they had a identified a "School Station" with a capacity for 16 rooms to cost $600,000. John Graham Jr was hired as architect (he later gained recognition as the architect of the Space Needle and the first modern-day shopping center, Northgate Mall. The new school was to be called Northwest Elementary School and would be constructed the next school year. Construction began in fall 1957 and North Beach Elementary entered the Seattle Public School system in September 1958 with an enrollment of 446 pupils and 13 teachers. Ronald Pickett was our first principal. |