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Overview

Thomas Taylor Minor (1844-1889), a Yale-trained physician who migrated to the Pacific Northwest first to Port Townsend and then to Seattle, became very active in civic and business affairs. A sophisticated person with a strong interest in cultural anthropology, he was elected Seattle's Mayor in 1886-1888. He died prematurely in a canoeing accident while returning from a Whidbey Island hunting excursion, and the city mourned his loss by naming this school in his honor on 07/21/1890, about a year after his death.

Building History

Saunders and Houghton planned the school for a lot about 2 acres in size, located on a plot bounded by East Pike Street on the north, 18th Avenue on the east, East Union Street on the south and 17th Avenue on the west. The school opened on 09/17/1890, and functioned for the next 50 years, closing for good in 1940.

Building Notes

Designed by Charles W. Saunders (1857-1935), an architect raised in Boston, MA, designed this school in the Colonial Revival idiom he knew so well. The school had the familiar English Georgian characteristics seen frequently in New England, a projecting portico, fanlight in the gable, cupola, clapbaord siding and a Palladian window over the front door. By 1906, the architectural tandem of Saunders and Houghton had designed four schools for the Seattle Public School System.

Alteration

Two additions were made to the school in 1894 and 1900, the latter by the Seattle firm of Josenhans and Allen. The 1894 addition supplemented four rooms on the building's east side, while the later addition augmented four rooms to the west side. (See Nile Thompson and Carolyn J. Marr, "Seattle Public Schools, 1862-2000: T. T. Minor Elementary School," HistoryLink.org Essay #10562, accessed 11/23/2016.)

The Seattle Times said of the 1900 addition in its edition of 03/31/1900: "The Minor School addition is about completed and will be ready for occupancy within a couple of weeks. This addition cost $13,000 and contains four large school rooms that are very much needed." (See "Real Estate News," Seattle Times, 03/31/1900, p. 13.)

Demolition

The T.T. Minor School #1 was razed in 1940, replaced by a new building designed by Floyd Naramore and Clifton Brady.

PCAD id: 6646