Sharples' relatives turn down offer to rename 'Old' Hay school for him

Ten years ago, the Seattle School Board promised to find a new building to name after Caspar Wistar Sharples, the late Seattle physician and School Board member whose name was unceremoniously stripped from the school now known as Aki Kurose Middle.

Board members at the time admitted they bungled the job — voting to rename the South Seattle school in 1999 without first contacting Sharples' relatives, some of whom live in the Seattle area.

Everyone agreed that both Sharples and Aki Kurose, a beloved Seattle teacher and peace activist, deserved to be honored. The board voted to find a new way to honor Sharples "as soon as possible."

That was in 2000. Now it's 2010. For the past few months, it looked like the board might finally fulfill its pledge by renaming the "Old" Hay school on Queen Anne Hill after Sharples.

That school, closed last spring after housing a program for immigrant students for a number of years, is scheduled to be reopened soon as an elementary to ease school crowding in the Queen Anne neighborhood.

But the Sharples family wasn't sure Old Hay would fulfill the School Board's promise to put Sharples' name on a building of "equivalent civic, architectural and educational importance" and, according to a granddaughter, wanted more time to consider the matter.

The district, wanting to move forward with a new name, gave the family until this week to decide whether to accept Old Hay as the new Sharples school. The granddaughter says the family did agree, but with conditions the district says it couldn't accept. So the School Board is moving on, and is considering calling the school Queen Anne Elementary, with a vote on that name scheduled for Jan. 20.

And the promise to honor Sharples?

"If another building comes up, we'll continue to stay in touch with the family," said Holly Ferguson, the district administrator who's been talking with the Sharples family. "At this point, there are no other buildings that are up for renaming."

During his lifetime, Sharples was a big deal in Seattle. He was one of the first nine physicians licensed to practice medicine in Washington state, longtime chief of staff at Children's Orthopedic (now Seattle Children's hospital), and a member of the Seattle School Board for nine years.

While on the board, he oversaw a building boom that included Roosevelt and Garfield high schools and revamped the school-lunch program. In 1949, eight years after his death, the district named a junior high after him.

Recently, the district thought it had found a good way to re-honor Sharples without ending up in another name snafu. "Old" Hay is named after former Secretary of State John Hay, and so is "new" Hay Elementary, which opened several blocks away in 1989.

"The heirs of the Hay family will not be offended since we still have a John Hay school," said School Board President Michael DeBell.

Hay served as secretary of state under presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, and was a personal secretary to President Lincoln.

Ferguson said the district sees Old Hay as a "beautiful old building" that, in its past, even had ties to Children's Orthopedic, where Sharples worked.

But several of Sharples' grandchildren, although happy the school district was finally attempting to uphold its commitment, felt it had set an unreasonable deadline.

Gloria Sharples, a granddaughter who lives in Oakland, Calif., said she and her siblings only learned about the proposal in October and that she hasn't had a chance to visit the Old Hay site.

The family, she said, is willing to consider an elementary school to honor her grandfather, but had a number of conditions. One was that Sharples' name would not be overshadowed by any program at the school. Another was that the name Hay be removed from the two buildings on the site, which the district couldn't guarantee.

Both are historic landmarks, and the name "Hay School" is prominent over their front doors — one in stone, the other in tile. Because the exterior of landmarks sometimes can't be changed, those features might have to remain, though other signs in front of the school could declare it "Caspar Wistar Sharples Elementary." That's what's been done at a few other schools, including John Stanford Elementary, formerly Latona Elementary.

Ferguson said the district was willing to continue to work on some of the issues, and offered the Sharples family a seat on a committee that will oversee the creation of the new elementary, hoping that would assure them that Sharples would receive appropriate recognition.

But the district first wanted the family's agreement on the site, and now the family's wait for another school — or some similar honor — will continue.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com