Lewis & Clark Jr High School history

1873 Albany Collegiate Institute graduates its first class.

With the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1880, Washington State efforts to attract immigrant labor made it necessary to fund a new, larger high school.

In fact, it was founded in 1883 as schoolhouse called Central School, which became the high school when the city built separate elementary schools to accommodate the steady population growth in the last years of the nineteenth century.

1884 Richard Hopwood Thornton begins teaching the first law students at Northwestern College of Law in Portland, then the state’s law school.

1886 Northwestern College of Law graduates its first two students.

A $250,000 school bond was authorized by the voters in July, 1890 for the construction of a high school and four elementary schools.

Central School was moved to 5th and Washington to make way for the new high school. It was then referred to as South Central High School when the new North Central High School was opened in September 1908.

Tragically, the original South Central High School was gutted by fire in 1910, leaving only an unsalvageable exterior shell.

The formal dedication of Lewis and Clark High School took place on Wednesday afternoon, April 3, 1912.

1915 The state of Oregon establishes a law school in Eugene, while the Northwestern College of Law remains in Portland and becomes an independent entity.

In 1917, the building was expanded to offer more space for the school's programs.

In 1925, an article in Colliers magazine said, "When Henry Hart became principal of Lewis and Clark High School, two ideas dominated him…one that education must be given beauty and color and interest, the other that pupils must get the sense of owning.

1934 College opens a lower-division extension campus in Portland.

1942 Trustees name Morgan Odell president and purchase Fir Acres Estate from the Lloyd Frank family for $46,000.

1945 The college establishes its first graduate program, a master’s degree in secondary education.

1946 Enrollment increases as veterans return from World War II. College begins importing military buildings to serve as classrooms, offices, a theatre, and dining commons.

1951 The graduate program is expanded with the addition of Master of Music Education degrees.

1962 The college begins an overseas and off-campus program, which sends students abroad, immerses them in foreign cultures, and introduces them to contemporary world issues.

1963 William Stafford, professor of English, wins the National Book Award in Poetry for Traveling Through the Dark.

1965 Northwestern College of Law merges with Lewis & Clark College.

Lewis & Clark Junior High was built in 1966.

Classes began for 449 students in the new school in September of 1967 with Earl Knuth serving as principal.

1970 New law school buildings open on a 20-acre site just west of the Fir Acres campus.

1978 Pioneer Athletic Hall of Fame inducts 10 charter members.

In 1979, students and faculty members raised money to restore the organ.

On the main campus, the closing of Howard Street in 1980 was the dream of Spokane Hutchison, LC English teacher and ASB advisor. "Mrs.

1982 College adopts new student governance model, which includes the Student Academic Affairs Board.

The college issues the first Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology degree; by 1983, master of science degrees were also offered.

1992 Doctor Robert B. Pamplin Jr. ’64, ’65, ’66, chair of the Board of Trustees, challenges Lewis & Clark community to a series of physical fitness events to earn $1 million toward expansion of Aubrey R. Watzek Library.

1993 Doctor Robert B. Pamplin Jr. announces a $12 million gift commitment, the largest in the college’s history, to endow the Doctor Robert B. Pamplin Jr.

In 1994, Yakima voters approved a $49 million bond issue.

1995 Aubrey R. Watzek Library is renovated and expanded to nearly double its original size.

The Lewis & Clark project began in 1996 and consisted of modernization of approximately 57,700 square feet of existing building and new construction of approximately 32,300 square feet.

In 1998, Spokane voters approved a $75 million bond for improvement of schools city-wide.

Isaac Holeman BA ’09 receives a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, the college’s first since the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established the program in 2000.

2001 Renamed Graduate School of Education moves into its new home on south campus.

2002 Lewis & Clark is one of only four colleges in the nation this year to receive a Truman Foundation Honor Institution Award recognizing commitment to encouraging outstanding young people to pursue careers in public service.

2003 College’s traveling exhibition, “The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,” opens at the Jefferson Library, near Monticello, Virginia.

2004 Graduate School of Education establishes a doctoral program in educational leadership.

2007 Lewis & Clark Law School opens the Small Business Legal Clinic, providing legal advice to local small businesses and entrepreneurs.

2011 The Diane Gregg Memorial Pavilion is dedicated in April, completing architect Paul Thiry’s original vision for Agnes Flanagan Chapel.

2013 Mary Szybist, associate professor of English, wins the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry for Incarnadine.