Old Central School

Ken Bott
Dec 5
1 min read

Prior to Brigham City forming its own school district in 1896, education was provided by the 4 wards at their individual school houses with some other buildings being used for higher education. In 1900, the school district built its first school, Central, directly west from the Tabernacle. According to the Sanborn maps, this area was labeled “Tabernacle Square” in 1884 and “Public Square” in 1890 and August 1900 map.

The date of its construction on the school itself is noted as 1901. Floyd and Percy Knudson, in their oral history interview, recalled the school was built in 1902, the same year as their father’s home across the street west on the south corner. The Knudson home still stands and, the Knudson brothers note, was built of the same brick used to build the school. The school experienced a fire on Jan. 22, 1923 and “little damage was done” according to a newspaper article. On August 9, 1947, a devastating fire broke out and the building was lost. Bushnell Hospital, at this time nearly vacant, provided the needed location to continue the children's education until a new school could be built on the old site. Karl L. Krusmark was the architect for the new Central School. J. D. Gunderson was principal of the school during this time.

The photos are used for nonprofit educational and noncommercial uses only. Majority of photos from the Compton Collection at the Merrill-Cazier Library at USU. Thanks to Scott Jensen for his work collecting, and restoring some of, the photos. Newspaper articles collected from https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/

Some information taken from https://brighamcityhistory.org/.../box-elder-school.../The