Remember When?

105 YEARS AGO • MARCH 29, 1917

VOTERS FAVOR NEW BUILDING

Work Will be Rushed as Rapidly as Possible for Occupancy in the Fall

That new schoolhouse! We are going to have it. By a vote of 142 to 44 the voters of the district authorized the issuance of not more than $12,000 worth of bonds to provide for the construction and furnishing of a two-story brick school building.

As soon as the bonds are sold, bids for the building will be advertised for. It is hoped that construction work can be started early in the summer in order to have the building ready for occupancy in the fall.

The final plans have not yet been drawn, but it is understood that the building will be of brick and be 50 feet by 80 feet in size. The lower floor will be divided into classrooms and the entire second floor will be used as a gymnasium, assembly room and auditorium.

The heating plant now in use in the present building will be used to heat the new building, an underground pipe connecting the two buildings.

Estimates as to the cost of the building were made before the proposition was even considered by the board and the sum voted will be sufficient to complete the building and equip it.

The teachers and pupils, all of whom have suffered inconveniences in the crowded building now used, are rejoicing over the prospect of the new schoolhouse and are looking forward with keen pleasure to next year's work under improved conditions.

THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE

The first schoolhouse in Thompson Falls was built of logs. Later a frame building took its place. In the spring of 1890 a two story building was erected. This building is now owned by Mr. B.F. Saint (corner of Preston Avenue and Ferry Street, now an apartment building). Money was donated by the people in town to buy the bell in the tower. This bell still belongs to the community but rings now for city council meetings.

The rooms upstairs have never been repainted and drawings of some youthful artist and many names can still be seen on the walls.

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The deep snow this winter and the heavy rains of this spring will probably mean lots of high water. This makes us think back to the time when there were no bridges across the river and ferries and boats had to be used to reach the other side. This was in the days before the dam was built and the river was very swift and it would always carry a great deal of debris making the crossing very dangerous. Whenever someone wanted to cross he would have to call across the river if the ferry was on the other side. The last ferry that was built here is still down by the pier.

30 YEARS AGO

APRIL 9, 1992

ESCAPE ROPE FOUND IN JAIL

A clean-up day at the Old Jail Museum Saturday uncovered more than dirt for the Whitepine Happy Workers 4-H club.

Club Leader Carol Deal said that while they were cleaning behind one of the old jail cells in the upstairs of the building, they uncovered a foiled attempt to escape from the famed crowbar hotel.

Deal found a knotted rope of torn bed sheets stuffed down between a cell wall and the outside wall of the building.

The 4-H club had volunteered to help clean the building as part of a community service project. After a storm collapsed the roof of the building last year, the spaces between the walls and the cells collected plaster and other debris. The 4-H club offered to help clean out the debris.

The makeshift rope ladder didn't appear to have been used. Deal felt the apparatus may not have held up too well anyway under the load of a person.

Also found in the cleaning of the cells were numerous court papers that had been served on inmates, messages inscribed on bits of paper and some old clothes. The inmates apparently tossed them into the vacant space to avoid detection by the jail's operators.

After the storm destruction, the roof was rebuilt and the jail museum nearly ready for reopening.