Main School
It was the city's only school from its opening in 1934 until the opening of Denali Elementary School in 1951. It became a junior/senior high school for several years until Lathrop High School began operation. The school then became Main Junior High School until it was replaced by Ryan Junior High School and Tanana Junior High School during the early 1970s.
Following the disestablishment of Main Junior High, instruction in the building was mostly limited to alternative education programs. The building's primary purpose at that point was to house the administrative offices of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, a role it filled from 1976 until 1993. Most of those offices moved to the school district's current Fifth Avenue headquarters in the mid 1980s, and the building sat largely vacant for many years, eventually being completely abandoned.
The building has housed city offices since 1994, which moved from the longtime Fairbanks City Hall three blocks to the north. In addition to city offices, the former school gymnasium is home to the Fairbanks Boys & Girls Club. Previous non-governmental tenants of the building under city ownership have included the Fairbanks Boxing Club and the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 as Main School.
See also
The building was renamed the Patrick B. Cole City Hall after Patrick Cole, a long time City Manager and Chief of Staff to eight Fairbanks City Mayors.
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Main School". National Park Service. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
- ^ Bonnell, Ray (November 23, 2014). "Main School, now City Hall, is a Fairbanks fixture". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
- ^ "Patrick B. Cole City hall dedicated".