For more than a century a three-story beige brick schoolhouse with red trim has served as a landmark in the Parkland area of Pierce County.
“People often make the comment that when they're coming off of Highway 512 on to Pacific Avenue/State Route 7, they know they've arrived in Parkland when they've seen the Parkland School building,” said Philip Edlund, a lifelong resident.
Last year, the building's owner Pacific Lutheran University announced plans to put Parkland School up for sale as the university tries to reduce its physical footprint.
It might have been demolished by now, if not for a group of neighbors with the Parkland Community Association, who came together to try and save the structure. The building still stands, but the group faces a key fundraising deadline next week. They’re trying to raise more than $2.8 million dollars in total, to buy the property.
Edlund along with Wendy Freeman, stopped by KNKX’s Tacoma studio to discuss what they've learned about the school, and what their plans are, if they're successful in acquiring it.
Click "Listen" above to hear the full interview.
Interview Highlights
On the stories they’ve heard from former students
Freeman: The stories that have come to us, of course, are related to anyone who went to school there, and their favorite teacher or how that impacted them. Folks that have gone into the science field because of their seventh grade science teacher, the kinds of things that you would expect. But there were also things that I didn't expect: a woman who came and said, 'the school changed my life, it means everything to me. My parents were both alcoholics, and I had no safe place after school. And I would come here, and this was my safe place.' And she said, 'it's part of who I am now.'
On their vision to convert the school into a community center
Freeman: So we went out to many opportunities to have conversations in the community...and they came up with answers to those questions that were unique for them. The three areas that the community gave us feedback on: they wanted youth and senior programs, they wanted health and nutrition and they want to recreation and fitness.
Edlund: One of the crown showcase areas of it is the gymnasium that was built in 1937 is one of the few remaining WPA projects from the Great Depression. The way that it's been described, and there are pictures on our website, if you've ever seen the movie Hoosiers, it looks very similar to that style of gymnasium.
On the condition of the building
Freeman: There's several answers to that. And the first answer is that the building is sound. We had Vernon Abelsen, who's the historic architect, come and do a complete assessment for us. It's 44 pages of every single thing that needs to be done in that building. And he, fortunately, identified the things that are critically important, initially, and we can phase the rest of it. My unofficial opinion is you could teach classes in it tomorrow, if you wanted to. The roof needs to be replaced. We would like to have an ADA elevator that would go up to the three floors. We would definitely want to ‘trick out’ the kitchen to do the nutrition programs. Probably, I would like to paint the outside, although it looks fine. But we've got a real long to-do list. But it's nothing that's not doable.
On the prospects of raising the needed money to continue moving forward with the purchase
Freeman: I will quote Nelson Mandela, 'it always seems impossible until it's done.' And I believe wholeheartedly that we will have this building if it's meant to be. And that's for me... I don't know if you can say this on the radio, but for me, that's God's will, not mine. Mine is very strong. I believe we can do this. But if it isn't the right thing, then it won't happen. If it's the right thing, nothing will stop it.
Edlund: To have been a lifelong resident of the Parkland community...my mother – and even though I never heard them talk about it – my grandfather had to have gone to the school [there] because he was born in 1913 at the edge of Brookdale Golf Course and that was the only school in the area. Just seeing where we started from and different roadblocks that have been in our way or hurdles to clear, that if this was not meant to be, it would have stopped months ago.
The Parkland Community Association faces several fundraising deadlines, the first of which is Nov. 3, to keep the process of purchasing the building moving forward.
