FOLKLORE      GHOST STORIES      PARK CITY HISTORY

Over the years, former students of The Washington School have stopped in for a visit and shared some of their fondest school memories. Here are some of their stories.

Students who attended the school recall the tall ceilings of the classrooms. The rooms were cold by their accounts -- the furnace just wasn't adequate enough to heat such large rooms. Former students especially remember the dark, dreary, scary attic and storage level on the third floor, the current location of our three suites.

Students remember being allowed to ring the school bell and raising the flag up the flagpole as a reward for good behavior. Those jobs were normally done by a janitor named Peter Pawl. Students remember that he didn't care for the kids too much, but he sure rang the bell on time. Veteran Parkites remember the school bell ringing each school morning precisely at 8:00am.

Other students recall lining up outside the building each morning and marching to the tap of a ruler to their classroom.

The coal chute in the lower level of the building -- now the location of our spa and private ski locker facility -- was a popular place for mischievous behavior. Students had fond memories of sliding down the coal chute without being caught!

Another former student -- who used to live up the street from the school -- remembers the building years after it was abandoned by the VFW -- a cool, dark, dreary, dilapidated place to be sleeping in sleeping bags with bats buzzing in their ears!

Our rooms at the Washington School Inn are named after some of the teachers who taught in the school. Former students have stopped by to share some of their teacher memories. Ms. Thatcher for example only lasted a few months at the school -- she fell in love with a man at the post office and left teaching to assume a married life. One former student remembers Ms. Evans whose mother taught her mother and sisters in the later 1800s at the Snyderville school 8 miles north of Park City. Ms. Evans had a short stay at the school. She left at the end of her first year to join the staff at the Lincoln School because it was closer to her home on Norfolk Avenue. Ms. Hagar, the school principal is remembered by a few former students as a small lady (5'2 in.), but a woman who got your attention -- perhaps because of the yardstick she carried and occasionally made use of! Ms. Reese lived in a small house across the street from the school. Ms. Reese also sold tickets at the Egyptian Theater. In their later years she and her husband enjoyed people watching on Main Street. Ms. Urie was a redhead who eventually became secretary of the school board. In the summer time Ms. Urie was a bookkeeper at the Beggs Garage just down the street from the Washington School. The old garage still stands across the streets from the Kimball Art Center.