Five Mile Prairie Schoolhouse

Text

The original Five Mile Prairie Schoolhouse was built in 1901. It was a small one-room building that housed fourteen students and one teacher. In 1912 the school, which had become too small for the expanding Five Mile population, was replaced by a new three-story brick structure. This second school lacked basic ammenities, such as indoor plumbing and a modern heating system, and was torn down after twenty-six years of use to make way for a more up-to-date building. The third (and final) Five Mile Schoolhouse, which is still in use today, was erected in 1939 and was one of the many Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects in the region.

The new $30,000 Five Mile School/WPA project was funded by $19,788 in federal dollars and the remaining $10,000 was financed by the citizens of the Five Mile Prairie community. Upon its completion in November 1939, the new grade school boasted two classrooms, a large auditorium, indoor plumbing and a formal dining room. One of the classrooms held first through fourth grade students, while the other classroom held fifth through eighth graders. By 1941, seventh and eighth grades were moved to other schools in the nearby Mead School District and the Five Mile Schoolhouse would, from then on, hold only first thorugh sixth graders. By 1969, the school population was at forty-four students. From 14 kids in 1901, to 44 kids in 1969; these numbers are representative of how Five Mile Prairie was spared the expansive growth of its urban counterpart, Spokane.

The year of 1970 saw, after the failure of a bond levy, the last year of instruction at the Five Mile Prairie School (for at least thirty-five years). In 1972, "People for the Preservation of Five Mile prairie Elementary", leased the old school building from the school district and utilized it for community meetings and events. In 1976, the building was closed as a community center due to an increase in costs. Mead School District #354 was, by 1976, using the boarded up building as a storage facility. The Five Mile School house was used in this manner up until 2004 when a district levy was passed and extensive renovation began, its doors reopened for instruction in 2006 as an educational resource center for the Mead School District.