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Overview

This two-story Olympic Elementary School was one of several being built to meet a new wave of Baby Boom-aged children arriving in Edmonds. By the mid-1960s, the Edmonds School District experienced dramatic growth in its school-age population, increasing from 5,000 to 20,000 students in 10 years. To accommodate this growth, it planned five new schools, made an addition to another, and engaged architects to design six more. The five new schools and the addition to the sixth was estimated in 01/1967 to cost $7,067,187; the six new ones would add another $7.5 million. In 1967, the Edmonds School District maintained 24 elementary schools, six junior high schools and three high schools. (See Bob Lane, "Edmonds District Building 5 Schools, Planning 6 More," Seattle Times, 01/22/1967, p. 9.)

Building History

In 01/1966, the Edmonds School District received $2,793,639 from the WA State Board of Education to build three new schools. This funding included $491,621 toward the needed $639,590 to erect the Olympic Elementary School. Other funding obtained was $2,020,799 for Woodway High Schoool and $281,219 (of the $430,761 required) to build an addition to Mountlake Terrace High School. (See "$5,986,353 in State Funds Go to Schools," Seattle Times, 01/28/1966, p. 47.)

Another article later in 1966 related the following basic details about the school's construction: "The architect, Waldron & Dietz, Seattle, selected the two-level design to take advantage of the sloping site. The upper floor of the 20-classroom building will open onto the uphill part of the site. The ground floor will have a separate entrance in the downhill area. The school, which will include a library, administration offices and a multipurpose room, will cost $840,272, The state will pay about $500,000. The school will have load-bearing brick walls, with a wood truss-and-joist roof. A stairway and a service elevator will be in a central court." (See Bob Lane, "Edmonds to Begin 2-Story School," Seattle Times, 06/12/1966, p. 6D.) Waldron and Dietz worked with the Roxbury Construction Company of Seattle as general contractor, the firm of Stoll and Freeze, mechanical contractor, and Ewing Electric, the electrical. Work on Olympic elementary was set to take 270 days from 06/1966.

Building Notes

The architects specified that the school's second floor be carpeted to cut down on noise.

Money for the project included the construction of a road, Viewland Way, as part of the school's cost. (See Bob Lane, "Edmonds to Begin 2-Story School," Seattle Times, 06/12/1966, p. 6D.)

PCAD id: 20954