PAUL DORPAT

THIS LITTLE SKETCH of Lincoln High School history began by consulting Nile Thompson and Carolyn Marr's "Building for Learning, Seattle Public School Histories, 1862-2000." And within this nearly new book we learn that although Lincoln High closed its doors to Wallingford teens in 1981 the now nearly century-old story of the school on Interlake Avenue is far from over.

First in 1997 it was the students of Ballard who used a renovated Lincoln campus while a new Ballard High was built for them. Next followed the kids from Latona for their two-year stint during the renovation of their campus, and now Roosevelt High is harbored in these halls as that school gets its makeover.

In a way, the Roosevelt students' visit is a return of what that school took from Lincoln when it opened in 1922, capturing about half of the older school's territory with it.

Early in 1906, an anxious school board committee scouted the Wallingford site when there were still stump fields scattered from the original clear-cutting of the late 1880s. The 30-room "Little Red Brick Schoolhouse" was built with speed, and in the following September enrolled 900 students — many of them from Queen Anne. Two years later Queen Anne got its own high school, which it has also since lost. Still, Lincoln kept growing.

This view dates probably from 1914, the year its new north wing (shown here) was added. In 1930, a south wing followed, and in 1959 an east-side addition. That year Lincoln was the largest high school in town with an enrollment of 2,800. Yet, as enrollments declined 21 years later, Lincoln High, home of the fighting Lynxes, would close for a rest until it would reopen again and again. Most likely, it will open yet again.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.