(side one)
For most of the 119 years between 1873 and 1992, a majority of Sioux Falls children attended one of three successive public schools erected on this site. The first, an unnamed small wood-frame elementary school, was replaced five years later by Central School, a large two story brick structure. In 1879 when 20 pupils enrolled to attend high school there, they became the first students of Sioux Falls High School.
A new high school building was opened in 1908. Named Washington High School (WHS), it
(side two)
was located north of Central School. In 1922 a second WHS unit opened south of Central. After "Old Central" was razed in 1934, a center unit was built to combine the three WHS units. The building was completed as it now stands in 1935.
In 1986 this huge neoclassical structure, built of locally quarried Sioux quartzite, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The original WHS closed in 1992 when a new WHS opened. After extensive renovation, the building reopened June 1, 1999, as the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science.
Dedicated in 2006 by the Minnehaha County Historical
Society and the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science
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