History of Thompson School building on 12th Street
By Tom Peterson
When you’re driving east on 12th Street toward Richmond Street in The Dalles, you can’t miss it.
The building comes into view as your rise up on the hill. It seems out of place amongst the homes in East The Dalles.
It’s kinda old school. Thompson School, that is.
Herb Crook at 2527 E. 14th St. knows the building well. He lives next door to it.
The former Wasco County Tax Assessor bought it some 20 years ago. He has hopes of turning it into residential units in the future. But for now, he is preserving it, having completed some new siding on the lower half of the building. He and his wife, Pam, also use the accompanying land to grow fruits and vegetables that are donated to locals needing food.
But for decades- going back 100 years - it was the four-classroom Thompson School. And the feet of hundreds of young students have pounded through its hallways.
Barbara Tumilson sent this photo to The Crook family in 2013 with the caption Allen Bowdie, Janet Moxley. The date on the photo says May 56.
At the front entrance of the school, the concrete is stamped with the name. An “EAST 12” sign - noting the school district of that era - still adorns the building at its entrance.
The school was in full use from the 1920s and through part of the 1950s and 1960s, according to Curator Rymmel Lovell with the North Wasco County School District 21 Archive Museum.
The building was reopened in 1956 for classes, about the time The Dalles Dam was under construction.
Eventually, the building became the site for District 12 Administrative offices as well as a supply center.
“I remember coming here to get art supplies in the 1970s when I was in middle school,” said Valerie Mulvaney.
Check our work
If you know more about the school or we have erred in some manner, please let us know so that we can update the story and provide a stronger history of the school. Contact us at news@columbiacommunityconnection.com
This story is sponsored by Brown Roofing, preserving history one roof at a time, and Seal Kote Plus, Inc., providing asphalt maintenance.
Comments from Facebook
From Steve Garrett: I attended Thompson Grade School from 1957-1961. There were only 4 classrooms, first through fourth grades. Besse Chapin was my first-grade teacher. Inez Stein was my second-grade teacher. Mrs. Walters, (Malethea or some such first name) taught third grade. Ms. Margaret Mattes was the fourth-grade teacher and Principal.
From Mike Doyle: I attended Thompson second through fourth grade, ‘61 to 6'4 and it was only a 4 classroom school, one for each grade.
From Dale Klindt: I attended Thompson Addition School from 1954 (Mrs. Chapin) through 1958 (Mrs. Mattes). The lad holding the ball in front is Dennis Miller. He graduated from DHS in 1966. He now lives in Utah. As Steve stated there were only 4 classrooms (all upstairs). Mrs. Mattes would ring a handbell and the students would line up by class and march inside. The restrooms and lunchroom were downstairs. We either went home for lunch or carried a lunchbox. No hot meals at school. A simpler life. Many of us that went to school there have remained lifelong friends.
From Laura Gould McGlothlin: In the late 1970's it was referred to as the "RAM CENTER". It was the home of all printing done for Dist. 12. Dick Yency was the director.
From Connie Janzer: I attended. It must’ve been ‘63-’67? I remember standing outside the back doors to say the Pledge of Allegiance before going inside in the mornings. Lunch was in the basement, and we had to mind our manners!
From Paula Christy: When I first moved to TD, my "office" as a traveling teacher was in the basement under the stairs at the RAM Center. Dick, Sharon, Lisa, Theresa were the hard-working team. Maybe one other who isn't quite coming to mind. Not only did they do printing, but they also created awards, processed new library books, laminated posters, and after printing, made many workbooks for use in classrooms,
From Naomi Thompson: I lived down the block on 14th St. when I was a kid about 1970. When the snow would fall it became sledding central for all the local kids.
Did you go to Thompson School or know somebody who did? Tell us about it and your experiences with the school so that we can add to this story. Click here to comment.
From Mary Burslie Mertz Daviis
From Mary Burslie Mertz Davis: I attended school at Thompson Addition - starting the Fall of 1951. We had small classes, wonderful teachers, a fun playground with the "giant strides", and a hill to slide down on cardboard in the snow. We were like one big family! Great memories!
From Susan Buce via Email: I went to school there for four years; Mrs. Chapin my teacher in first grade, Mrs. Stein in second, Mrs. Hardy third, and Mrs. Mattes in fourth. (Carol Schmoker Malcom called her “Mrs. Mad At Us” because she wasn’t a pleasant person. She had fallen and broken a hip the year before and was on crutches and crotchety all the time.)
Mrs. Chapin was very sweet, and I learned to love reading under her tutelage, with the adventures of Jack and Jill and their dog Tip. It was like she gave me the key to unlock the wonders of the world. I won a spelling bee in third grade with the word “vacation.” At the time my sister had an LP by Shelley Fabares (who had been on the Donna Reed show) with a song with lyrics that went: “V-A-C-A-TION, Summer Vacation Fun!” I knew how to spell that word like lightning. I still hum that tune when I spell it out. In fourth grade, we attempted to learn under the gloomy cloud of Mrs. Mattes. My mom said she should have retired years before. Mrs. Mattes scolded us for everything. She hated Red Skelton, thought we should drink hot water in the morning, and used to discipline kids by whacking them with her crutch. I developed a hatred and fear of math under her gaze. There was no asking her for help if you didn’t understand something, you just had to muscle on and pray for the end of the school day. Recess went better; we had a merry-go-round that could launch you into space, the huge metal slide that would scorch the skin off your butt in the hot months, giant strides to swing on, monkey bars… all with a dusty, dirty playground. A little hard on school clothes, back in the day when little girls all wore dresses. (Pants for girls didn’t become accepted attire at school until I was in middle school.)
My siblings also attended Thompson. When my older brother Jack was preparing to enter first grade, my mom spent weeks sewing him a new wardrobe of shirts to wear. His first day there, he was out on the playground and fell off the top of the large metal slide and broke his arm. He had to wear a sling, and they had to split the sleeve of his shirts so he could get it on over the cast. Mom was NOT happy. A few years ago someone said to Jack that they remembered he got pushed off the slide. He never realized he had been pushed; he just remembered falling.
It was the RAM Center when I was in High School, and when they condemned the Whittier building, a month before the end of school my senior year of 1974, we had to move Doug Leash’s art classes out to the RAM Center. (Chuck Kornegay’s art classes moved to the Ag Center). Boy, did the school look smaller when I went back as a senior. It felt like someone lowered the ceiling in the downstairs lunchroom.
Talk to Lisa Becharas about when the RAM Center closed. She probably knows. When I moved out of town in 1984, both Lisa and Teresa Hepker (it’s how they first met) were working at the RAM Center at Thompson. I remember thinking Lisa had the only job in town I wanted, so I moved to Portland so I could find work as a graphic designer.
Here is the concrete near the front entrance with the words, Thompson Addition School District NO. 12 stamped into it.
Herb Crook, the former Wasco County Tax Assessor, purchased the school building some 20 years ago and hopes to eventually turn it into residential units.
Here is a photo of the school, with a date of June 56.
Another historic photo of Thompson School students circa 1956.
