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Building History

According to Priscilla Long and other HistoryLink.org staff members, the development of the Denny-Fuhrman School which became renamed the "Seward School," occurred as follows: "The new school, on Franklin Avenue in what will become Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood, is named for the Denny-Furhman Addition, the neighborhood's name at the time. It will be renamed the Seward School in 1905 when a second building is added. A third building will join the others in 1917. The three historic buildings, designated landmarks in 1981, will become the home of an alternative program known as The Option Program at Seward and later TOPS K-8 School."

The first building on the former Denny-Fuhrman property was the Denny-Fuhrman School, opened in 1895. The Seattle architectural duo of Chamberlin and Siebrand, whose firm lasted only three years or so in the mid-1890s, designed this first school. Ten years later, Seattle Public Schools' architect James Stephen designed another building on the site. As the city had been profitting tremendously from business generated by gold miners heading north to the Klondike and Alaska, school officials suggested that this new building be named for the man who negotiated the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the US, Secretary of State William Seward (1801-1872) on 10/18/1867. It cost approximately $7.2 million to acquire the 586,412 square-mile territory.

Alteration

The original two-room school was later altered and eventually made part of the Seward School ensemble.

PCAD id: 8529