Lowell Home PageHistory of Lowell School The first Lowell School was built in 1885. It was a two room wooden structure that housed the first four grades and served Missoula's West Side. It was located just east of the current Lowell School. There were only two teachers on staff. Mrs. Flake Howard Barnard taught the first and second grades. Miss Faherty taught the third and fourth grades. Double desks were used because of crowded conditions. All other grades, fifth through eighth, from the West Side went to Whittier School on the North Side, to which the students walked over the Northern Pacific viaduct, or across the Northern Pacific tracks by the old Interstate Lumber Company on Toole Avenue. In 1909, the first Lowell School was moved to the 1400 block of Phillips Street and construction of a new Lowell School began at the present site at 1200 Sherwood. The first Lowell School, moved to Phillips Street, served for several years as the home of the St. Paul African Methodist Church. Later this building was remodeled completely and made into a family residence with the address of 1427 Phillips Street. It was at one time the home of Mr. and Mrs. Roy C. Erickson, whose children attended Lowell School. The new 1909 Lowell School was designed and built byA.J. Gibson. It was constructed with eight rooms but had no auditorium, kitchen, or gymnasium. When it opened there were only seven grades. Eighth grade students attended Whittier School. The first principal was Mr. Christopher A. Rupp, who simultaneously served as Whittier Principal. He was respected as a strict disciplinarian. The “City Superintendent”, who presided over the elementary schools, was J.U. Williams. The Members of the Board of Trustees were R.W. Kemp, Chairman, W.C. Peat, Vice-Chairman, T.A. Price, Herman Kohn, and J.C. Ambrose. They passed a motion to furnish and build Lowell School for $40,000. In the construction photo below, the bell tower is completed. It held the huge bell whose ringing announced the start of each school day. The original bell works and is located there today.
Above: Looking up into the bell(left) and the bell as it hangs today (right).
Lowell School as it was in approximately 1910. Note the one central door and that there is no west side addition or eastside annex.
(Koelbel, Lenora. Missoula the Way It Was: A Portrait of an
By 1911, Lowell School included an eighth grade class, taught by Mrs. Ray Rocene. It was the first eighth grade class to graduate from Lowell School. The eighth grade class from 1929, in the photo below, contains thirty-seven students. They are posing for their “graduation photo” in what today is still the school’s main entrance. Eighth graders had an evening party and dance for graduation, supervised by parents and teachers.
(1929 8th Grade Class photo provided by Mr. John H. McDaniel. This is the graduation photo for his 8th grade Lowell class.) Front Row: (left to right): Shirley Lund; Lester Madsen; Howard Tom; Chelsey Lyons. Row 2: Kathleen Arnold; Mary Ellen Hunter; Mary O. McDaniel; Vivian Johnson; Margaret Pigg; Audry Lumby; Alice Howell; Kaja Lind; Laila Glenn; Noreen Dishman; Lucille Bakker; Wilma Stewart. Row 3: Esther Ramer; Marie DeCanufel; Violet Coughren; Irma Wilburn; Frederick Erickson; Sigholt Jacobsen; Charles Anderson; Aloysia Richardson; Della Price; La Wrene Christensen; Jean Henri. Row 4: Faye Harrison (male); Rupert Vinson; John Woodward; Joseph Hoffman; John H. McDaniel; Phillip DeSarmo. Top Row: Helen Smith (Helen Smith Gibson) 8th Grade Teacher; Earl Lyons; Harold Wilcox; Corlus Coughlin; Floyd Fredrickson. Below is pictured the "Schoolday Memories" autograph book of Ruby Iola Blair, circa 1929.
Teacher: Miss Smith, Friend: I'll never tell, Study: Arithmetic, Music: Piano, Flower: Rose, and Sport: Dancing.
On November 1, 1911, about thirty West Side Community residents met in the 8th grade room of Lowell School for the purpose of organizing a women’s club to serve the Lowell School and the Westside Community of Missoula. This club was named the West Side Club and would work closely to support Lowell School for over eighty years. The Club bought (amongst other items) many pictures, milk for children, library books, globes, portable dictionary stands, and a special yearly gift for the school. The Club provided funding for the drilling of a hole through a cement wall to make the custodial quarters, as well as the school’s first and second kitchens. In 1928 Mr. Russell Neal became the Lowell School Principal. He also taught 8th grade mathematics at Lowell. Mr. Neal and his wife Elaine were very active in the West Side Club and the PTA. They loved sports and the arts. Formal physical education classes began at Lowell in 1930 when Mr. C.S. Porter became the Physical Education Supervisor for the school district. Lowell School did not yet have a gymnasium, so physical education classes were held outside. All team games and practices were held at Whittier School, where Mr. Neal had been the principal. Mr. Neal coached the Lowell School seventh and eighth grade basketball team for fifteen years. For ten of those years, during the late 30’s through the early 40’s, the Lowell team had the honor of being the City Champs. The team name was the “Bobcats” and their colors were red and white. Mr. Neal required students to march energetically to music when going to and from lunch and recess. The West Side Club bought a piano for the school to help provide the needed music. Classes began their morning and afternoon sessions with song. Mr. Neal also helped locate other buildings to use for student music practice and performance. “City choruses” were held at the Wilma Theatre and were comprised of district students, directed at the time by Mrs. Muriel Pierson Waters. The Wilma Theatre also showcased student recitations and poetry readings.
The first and second grade classrooms were held in the basement of Lowell School, each teacher having from 35-40 students. In the 1920's, 30's, and 40's it was not uncommon to have up to forty students in each classroom. This photo is not dated, but is believed to be from circa 1932. The class shown is by the school’s main entrance and contains 39 students. The school averaged 400 students each year.
Other photos from 1932.
In 1933, the West Side Club adopted as their goal the building of an addition to Lowell School, which would provide a gymnasium and an auditorium. The Club’s work enabled the school district to get a Government Loan (Depression Era, 1935) through the U.S. Civil Works Administration, which provided funds to build the Lowell School addition, as well as Central School in Missoula, (now Missoula Children’s Theater). The entire 1935 addition to the Lowell School was built due to West Side Club members’ efforts in locating funding for the construction. The architect was H.E. Kirkemo and the construction contractor was Charles E. Pew. This addition provided more classrooms, a gymnasium, a teacher restroom, and an auditorium. The West Side Club notes in its scrapbook that the PTA accepted the new wing as it was built for Lowell School on October 21, 1935. After that, a dedication ceremony was conducted. During this time, Ira B. Fee was Superintendent of Schools, and H.C. Carnall was Clerk. The Members of the Board of Trustees were F.G. Dratz, (Chairman), C.B. Quinn, (Vice Chairman), R.L. Arnold, Mrs. C.W. (Mary) Leaphart, L.M. Fenton, Oscar Helding, and John Patterson. In 1937, Missoula School District No. 1 owned the two blocks where Lowell School and West Side Park are located today. At that time, there was no West Side Park, just vacant lots in which the students played. Hawthorne Street ran between the two blocks. The West Side Club set a new goal to provide better and safer playground space for Lowell School. The Club was able to convince the City Council to close the street, so that the students would not have to cross the street to play in the lots. Under the leadership of Club president Mrs. Millie Leslie and her officers, the Club members circulated petitions towards the street’s closure. Enough signatures were secured for the petitions to be presented to the Missoula City Council to request that the street be closed. The City Council granted the request. After the street was closed, the Club members proceeded to landscape the entire area, planting the trees and bushes which grow there now. The West Side Club created and landscaped (out of vacant lots and a closed street) West Side Park adjacent to Lowell School for student use. It is still in use today.
A city dump was also planned to be near the school. However, the Club petitioned the City Council to move the dump further west of town. The Club worked for railing to be added to the Higgins Avenue Bridge, once again working for children’s safety. Mr. Neal has the honor to date of being the Lowell School Principal for the longest duration, having been in the position from 1928-1960. The famous composer and pianist, Hoagie Carmichael, is said to have attended Lowell briefly as a boy and to have played Lowell’s piano on occasion. Hoagie was asked to come back and play for Mr. Neal’s 1960 retirement party, but had to decline due to other engagements. Mr. John Hayes was a custodian at Lowell for many years, and was here when Principal Neal was at Lowell. He lived down the block from the school and kept a close watch over the building. During the winter, he often slept in the custodian's office near the boiler room to keep the boiler going and the school warm. He would be found often during the day, sitting on the second floor, in the hallway between the double staircases, monitoring student behavior and making certain no damage was done to the building. He took great pride in Lowell's beautiful woodwork around the doorways and windows, keeping it highly polished, and recruited teams of volunteers to help with this. He was on vacation, just having returned from Flathead Lake, when Lowell School was hit by lightening and a fire broke out up by the bell tower. He cut his vacation short and came immediately to help put the fire out. Here are some photos taken of the charred beams in Lowell's attic by the bell tower. You can see the original beam, charred black by the fire, and the uncharred beam placed next to it as the repair beam.
John eventually went to work at Lewis and Clark School in Missoula, but the "Grand Old Dame", Lowell School, would forever be a part of his heart. By 1960 C.S. Porter was the Superintendent of Schools, with Donald Pettit and W.H. Swearingen as Clerks. Members of the Board of Trustees were Harry T. Northey, Chairman, Mrs. L.R. Jourdonnais, Vice Chairman, Mrs. Dallas J. Reed, Sr., Dr. John E. Minckler, Sherman V. Lohn, Dr. Thomas Payne, Mrs. Ernest Koestner, and Harry N. Stetler. Mr. Leo Schroeder became the Lowell School Principal. He had been an eighth grade teacher and a coach at Lowell. He is known to have been a colorful character, a great golfer, and a very inspirational coach and teacher. The West Side Club once again set a goal to obtain a new addition for Lowell School. The Club worked for school bond funding to provide a second addition to Lowell School, as well as the building of Rattlesnake School, Emma Dickinson School and an addition to Russell School. The West Side Club is credited for the passage of the school bonds. The second addition was built in 1960 onto the east wall of Lowell School, giving the school four new classrooms. It is called “the annex”. H.E. Kirkemo and J.W. Kirkemo were the architects for this addition.
Mr. Schroeder was a great proponent of reading and of having books available for all students. In 1970, under Mr. Schroeder’s leadership, the Lowell School Library was created. It served, and continues to serve, the school and the west side community. The Lowell School Library was set up on Lowell’s third floor in the south side of the old auditorium of the 1935 addition. Mr. Schroeder remained as Lowell School Principal until the spring of 1974. He went on to become the Emma Dickinson School Principal in Missoula and retired in 1979. In the fall of 1974 Mr. Steve Johnson became the Lowell School Principal. He was spoken of as a “cowboy from Dillon, Montana” who worked as a Special Education teacher at Missoula’s Central School, from 1967-1973, and also as the vice-principal at Lewis and Clark School prior to working at Lowell School. In the spring of 1976, the school board voted to close Lowell School. The community promptly formed a committee named "Save Our Schools". This committee was headed up by Mr. Dan Gallagher. The committee backed three community members to run for the school board during the upcoming elections. They were: Mrs. Irene Hiller, Dr. Gary Eudaily, and Mr. Dan Mullen. These three won, unseating the incumbent board members who had voted to close the school. One of the first items of new business for the newly elected school board was to reopen Lowell School. The motion was made and seconded, discussion held, the vote taken, the motion passed, and Lowell School was reopened. In 1980, talent events were held for each class in the auditorium, which had not yet been divided by permanent walls. The auditorium was still its full size, from north to south. An accordion divider could be drawn down the center of the auditorium, providing privacy for the library on the south side and the science classroom/lab on the north side. The beam on which the divider was attached can be seen just above today’s library door. When the entire auditorium was needed for stage events, the divider was opened and furniture was pushed aside. Mrs. Kay Keeley, a Lowell teacher, remembers her second grade class performing the play “Stone Soup” in the full auditorium. The school year 1980-1981 was the last year that Lowell served all grades kindergarten through eighth. Mr. Johnson was still the school principal when Lowell started serving only the fourth through eighth grades in the fall of 1981. Lowell’s kindergartners through third graders once again attended Whittier School. The change from a neighborhood school serving all eight grades to serving only part of the grades was quite controversial at the time. Mr. Johnson left Lowell by the fall of 1982, to work as the Emma Dickinson School Principal, later retiring from that position. After that, he worked for Beach Transportation, driving coaching buses for Special Olympics. In 1982, the beginning of a follow-the-leader “job-swapping” of sorts began between Mr. Glenn Hoffman and Mr. Tom Brennan. Mr. Hoffman was the Lowell School Principal from 1982-1983. Mr. Tom Brennan was the school’s principal from 1983-1984, then back to Mr. Hoffman for 1984-1989, only to go back again to Mr. Brennan from 1989-1991. The two principals each weathered program changes, as had Mr. Johnson before them. Under Mr. Hoffman’s leadership in the fall of 1985, Lowell went from serving grades four through eight to a school serving kindergarten through sixth grade. In 1987, Mr. Hoffman led Lowell School in the change of serving kindergarten through fifth grade, as it does to this day. Mr. Hoffman retired in the spring of 1990. He is remembered as a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, and friend. A great sportsman, Mr. Hoffman enjoyed fishing and hunting, and still enjoys them. He also made clocks. In the fall of 1990, Mr. Tom Brennan was back at Lowell, reconfiguring classes to offer a new multi-aged program for grades kindergarten through fifth. Mr. Brennan is remembered for his sense of humor and sports enthusiasm. He left Lowell to become the Paxson School Principal. He later left Missoula to work in Nevada. Dr. Ed Courtney served as the Lowell School Principal from 1991-1993. He is remembered for his work as a smoke jumper and also as an excellent gardener. He had taught seventh and eighth grade science at Russell School. In the fall of 1993, he went to work at the Missoula County Public Schools Administration Building, from which he later retired. In the fall of 1993, Roberta Stengel, previously a teacher at Lowell School, became Lowell School Principal. Both Dr. Courtney and Mrs. Stengel continued the multi-aged program for Lowell School. Mrs. Stengel’s tenure as principal coincided with several new services and programs being implemented at Lowell School. These included: From the fall of 1999 through the spring of 2004, Mr. Jerry McVay was the Lowell School Principal. He had been the Prescott School Principal in Missoula. After Mr. McVay came to Lowell, the modular addition, placed in 1995 on the north-west side of the school, was removed. Mr. McVay left Missoula in 2004 for a position in Oregon. He is remembered for his love of horses and his work on the ski patrol. Mrs. Cindy Christensen was next to become Lowell School Principal. Mrs. Christensen had been a special education teacher in Hamilton and also at Mt. Jumbo School in Missoula before becoming the Prescott School Principal. While holding that position, she also served as one of three special education coordinators for Missoula County Public Schools. In the fall of 2004, Mrs. Christensen became the Lowell School Principal, a position she holds to this day. Under Mrs. Christensen’s leadership, full day kindergarten was implemented during the 2005-2006 year. The Flagship Program came to Lowell School in 2006. The Lowell School Family Resource Center and the PTA are also still active. Many Missoula County Public Schools employees have worked at Lowell School. Lowell students, parents and staff remember Mrs. Peggy Williams for her work on behalf of the entire Lowell School Community.
After serving in Missoula as the Whittier School Secretary from 1973-1975, then the Jefferson School Secretary from 1975-1984, Peggy was the Lowell School Secretary from 1984 until her retirement in 2006. One Montana State Superintendent of Schools worked at Lowell School as well, that being Mrs. Linda McCulloch, who was the Lowell School Librarian from 1984-1985. LOWELL SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ROSTER 1909-1928 Mr. Christopher A. Rupp 1928-1960 Mr. Russell L. Neal 1960-1974 Mr. Leo Schroeder 1974-1982 Mr. Steve Johnson 1982-1983 Mr. Glenn Hoffman 1983-1984 Mr. Tom Brennan 1984-1989 Mr. Glenn Hoffman 1989-1991 Mr. Tom Brennan 1991-1993 Dr. Ed Courtney 1993-1999 Mrs. Roberta Stengel 1999-2004 Mr. Jerry McVay 2004-today Mrs. Cindy Christensen LOWELL SCHOOL SECRETARY ROSTER (unless noted, dates not available) Margaret ?????? 1973-1985 Mrs. Karla Long 1985-2006 Mrs. Peggy Williams 2006-2007 Mrs. Lori Willumsen 2007-present Mrs. Trish Kirschten LOWELL SCHOOL CUSTODIAN ROSTER (where not noted dates not available) Mr. Joe Crane Mr. Jim Mathers Mr. John Hayes Mr. Robert Cole Mr. Dwayne Houtchens Mr. Lee "Lightning" Gibson Mr. Tom Knuchel Mr. John Bigart Mr. Pat Reardon Mr. Judd Lee Mr. Leonard Zawada Mr. Bill Lambert Mr. Marty Wicks (- to 2008) Mr. Larry Setters (to present)
Mr. Kermit Morris (2008 - to present) Lowell School continues today as a dynamic public elementary school. We strive to provide a developmentally appropriate education for each student in a safe, stimulating, and supportive environment. Lowell School currently serves a population of 225 elementary students, grades kindergarten through fifth grade.
Lowell School History Main Page Sources: “History of the Lowell School” September 25, 1972, West Side Club. “History of the Lowell School P.T.A. by a Committee from the West Side Club, and “History of the West Side”, a research paper written by the Lowell School Blue Birds “Missoulian”, Centennial Edition, June 1960. |
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One page from the book. Under "My Favorites" Ruby lists the following:
The club is "Girl's Reserve". 
Lowell School still continues holding public poetry readings today. Go to 
