Digital Bob Archive

When the new school house on Fifth Street opened in the fall of 1887 it had two rooms and there were two teachers. There were outdoor privies, no running water and a very swampy playground filled with stumps. But the building had lots of windows and somewhat more space than the old log cabin where classes had been held for two years.

Actually, according to the records of the U.S. Bureau of Education, which operated it under the direction of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, there were two schools in the one building. Juneau School No. 1 was for whites and was taught by George B. Johnston who was paid $120 a month. The enrollment was 25. Juneau School No. 2, for Natives, was taught by Miss Henrietta Jensen and the enrollment was 67. She was paid $80 a month.

But despite the greater total enrollment in School No. 2, the average daily attendance was not that much different. Many of the Native families were away from town during much of the fall and spring. Governor Alfred Swineford, in one of his annual reports, stated that at some schools Native parents demanded pay for sending their children to classes. They regarded such attendance as a form of labor and saw no reason why it should be performed for free. In Juneau, the most regular attendance at School No. 2 was by the boys who lived at the Presbyterian mission which was also on Fifth Street. By 1890 a total of 25 of the pupils in School No. 2 were living at the mission.

School No. 1 lost some of its enrollment when the Catholic Church opened a school, but Juneau was growing and by the following year enrollment in that school was up to 36. Miss Henrietta Jensen, the teacher, taught only the one year. After the school year ended she married Juneau lawyer John Heid.

Commencing in the 1888-89 school year, Miss Rhoda A. Lee taught School No. 1 for three years and was followed by Lilly G. Reichling, D. Davies and S.A. Keller, one year each. School No. 2 was taught by Miss Alice R. Hill, Miss Cassia Patton, who transferred from Sitka, Mrs. Seth Tozer, Mrs. W.S. Adams and Mrs. Margaret Saxman, each for one year. Mrs. Saxman was the widow of Samuel Saxman who was drowned while in search of a consolidated school site near present Ketchikan. The Native town of Saxman was named for him.

By 1893 the two-room school house was very overcrowded and arrangements were made for a separate building for School No. 2. Dr. Jackson claimed Block 32, on Calhoun Avenue, as a school reserve and a one-room school house was erected there. It was known as \"the little white school\" but was for Native children only. In time it, too, became too small and a new Native school was built on Willoughby Avenue. That made Block 32 available for the Governor's House when the federal government got around to building it in 1912.

After School No. 2 moved out, in 1894, the school house on Fifth Street was repainted and refurnished, new sidewalks were built around it, running water was installed, the swampy ground was drained and some of the stumps were removed.