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100 years of lessons in history

Battle Ground schools celebrate their centennial with community spirits high

By Marissa Harshman, Columbian Health Reporter
Published: January 10, 2010, 12:00am
3 Photos
Helen Bradley (left center) and her grandchildren (from left) Colton Warner, 8, and Damian Warner, 12, look at the old Glenwood Heights Primary School's bell during a scavenger hunt Saturday at Battle Ground High School.
Helen Bradley (left center) and her grandchildren (from left) Colton Warner, 8, and Damian Warner, 12, look at the old Glenwood Heights Primary School's bell during a scavenger hunt Saturday at Battle Ground High School. Photo Gallery

Dennis McGee can still remember the bell in the tower atop Glenwood Heights Primary more than 70 years ago. He and his classmates loved the chance to give the bell’s rope a hearty pull and watch it swing, filling the small building with sound.

It no longer hangs in a tower and hasn’t been rung in years, but McGee still takes pride in the old bell. He rescued it from storage in 1993, removed the clapper to silence it, sanded the surface and gave it a fresh coat of silver paint. Then he took it back where it belonged — Glenwood Heights Primary.

As the district celebrated its 100th birthday at Battle Ground High School on Saturday, the bell was on display. And right beside the bell stood McGee, showing visitors a black and white photo of the tower and pointing out an old newspaper article about the bell’s restoration.

“It was in the warehouse,” McGee said. “I worried even another few years, nobody would know what it was. I just didn’t want that to happen.”

The history of the bell dates to 1910 — the founding year of Battle Ground Public Schools. The district bought it with money left over from building the original Central School, McGee said. It was shipped to Portland and taken by wagon to Glenwood Heights Primary. When the school was rebuilt in 1955, the bell was mounted outside the new building, where it was damaged by vandals years later and put in storage.

McGee left primary school in 1943 and graduated from Battle Ground High School in 1950. In 1979, he joined the school board, where he served for nine years, and he spent 16 years as a volunteer in Battle Ground classrooms.

On Saturday, McGee was one of Battle Ground Public Schools’ 100 Heroes honored at the district’s centennial celebration. More than 1,000 people flooded the high school to take part in Saturday’s birthday party, school officials said.

“We are ecstatic,” said Gregg Herrington, district spokesman and chairman of the celebration committee. “We are absolutely ecstatic about the number of people and the spirit.”

Tanya Johnson, a 1990 graduate of Battle Ground High, said she was impressed by the turnout.

“I think it shows a strong community,” she said.

Johnson entered the district as a kindergartner. After high school, she moved away for 10 years but returned to raise her kids.

“I always thought it was a good school district,” she said. “I’m proud of the history it has.”

Details of the district’s history were on display Saturday. The high school’s hallway was lined with booths from each of the district’s schools. Visitors strolled from station to station, admiring framed black and white pictures of schoolhouses, flipping through scrapbooks full of class photos and reading yellowed newspaper clippings.

The event also served as a class reunion for many. Gladys Hill, of Battle Ground High’s Class of ’53, said she ran into several classmates and friends. Her sister, Janice Tooley, Class of ’52, saw her children’s old friends. The sisters brought their mother, Margaret Conner Hill, one of five living members of Battle Ground High School Class of ’32.

Hill came to Battle Ground as an eighth-grader and was part of the first freshman class in the new high school. Through the years, she watched as her four kids made their way through the district. Now she has great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren in Battle Ground schools.

Even those who didn’t grow up in the local schools or raise their children in the area could benefit from the community event, Herrington said.

“It brings a sense of unity and togetherness,” he said. “And what better vehicle than around schools?”

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.

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Columbian Health Reporter