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HISTORY AT A GLANCE
AofrOnt-page headline of the Sept.
29, 1937, Shelton-Mason County
urnal read "New School
Adorns Wilderness!" The story began
with the fact that motorists passing
through Belfair often stopped to won-
der about the community's newest
construction project -- a chalet-style
building with a steeply
pitched roof. "Few ever
suspected it was to be
Belfair's new school-
house. Few suspected
the story behind the
By JAN structure. They didn't
PARKER know the building is
virtually 100 percent a
home product of the community which
it will serve."
In October 1935, the Belfair school
board had obtained a $14,000 Work
Projects Administration (WPA) grant
to build a new school for a student
population that was approaching 100.
Belfair businessman Sam Theler do-
nated 27 acres for the school. "Exclud-
ing the wages paid to the local men
who are building the schoolhouse, and
a few of the supplies such as desks,
blackboards and sanitary equipment
which will be installed inside when the
structure is ready to occupy, it is 100
percent a product of Belfair and the
primeval forest which surrounds it."
The school was built almost entirely
of materials native to the Belfair area.
Hand-hewn fir and cedar logs and oth-
er timbers, sand, gravel and rubble-
stones used in rearing the edifice were
gathered from the building site or the
immediate vicinity. Wooden shakes
covered the roof. Hand-sawn window-
frames were set firmly in walls built
of rocks picked from the ground at the
site. All labor was done by WPA work-
ers whose children would attend the
school.
The school, which became known
as the "Chalet School," opened in
September 1937. There were four
classrooms and a combined audito-
rium-gymnasium. According to =The
History of Belfair and the Tahuya
Peninsula" by Irene Davis, each of the
four classrooms was 22 feet by 30 feet
with inlaid oak floors and knotty cedar
paneling. The combined auditorium-
gymnasium was 60 feet by 72 feet and
52 feet high at the peak of the roof.
The building also had a principal's
room, social room, kitchen, cloak
rooms, lavatories, dressing room and
furnace, all on the ground floor. The
20-foot high attic was for storage.
In 1938, an additional WPA appro-
priation of $12,681 paid for grounds
work, landscaping, a garage, porches,
cupboards, improved lighting and
plumbing, and the water system.
By the 1940s, the school popula-
tion had reached 300 and the gym was
partitioned into additional classrooms.
As a result of the influx of Navy Yard
workers during World War II, federal
funds were made available and a
building for additional classrooms was
constructed to the north of the Chalet
in 1942.
By 1965, the building had become
a liability. According to an article
in the April 11, 1965, Seattle Post-
Intelligencer, fuses blew whenever a
new light bulb was installed. During
a cold spell that January the tempera-
ture in the gym never rose above 40
degrees and classroom temperatures
never got above 60 degrees. Although
the building had 10,490 square feet of
floor space, much of it was taken up
by a wide hallway. Classrooms were
too small, and the attic was unus-
able, Two state agencies had declared
the Swiss-style cobblestone and wood
panel walls, and the varnished round
poles that supported the structure, to
be dangerous for children.
A structural engineering firm re-
ported that it would cost $98,496 to
bring the Chalet School up to modern
school-building standards, adding that
the building was totally unsuitable for
rehabilitation. The school was closed
in 1967, when the state fire marshall
declared that it was a fire trap and a
hazard to children.
Belfair residents had a sentimental
attachment to the landmark building,
and a committee was organized to try
to save it for community use. However,
by that time the timbers had dry rot
and the roof leaked. With the furnace
turned off, moisture was coming up
through the floors. The group was un-
able to raise the considerable funds it
would cost to renovate the building.
Prior to demolition in the summer of
1971, the school was opened to the
public, which had the opportunity to
purchase old books, desks, and even
the wall paneling and insulation.
According to Davis' book, it took a
wrecking crew only a couple of hours
to demolish the entire building.
The Mason County Historical Soci-
ety has reprinted "The History of Bel-
fair and the Tahuya Peninsula," 1880-
1940, by Irene Davis. It is available at
the museum at FiPth and Railroad in
Shelton for $21.95.
• Jan Parker can be reached at
parkerj@hctc.com.
A new schoolhouse in Belfair neared completion,
materials native to the North Mason area.
Photo courtesy of Jan Parker
built almost entirely from
Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 -Shelton-Mason County Journal- Page A-21
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270 SE Spring Place
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Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
EST. 1887
SHELTON-MASON COUNTY