Kirby's Fremont

What's A Neighborhood Without A School?

By Kirby Lindsay

Benjamin Franklin Day with Meta Lassen, an orphan cared for by Mr. and Mrs. Day.

In 1892 Benjamin Franklin Day and his wife, Frances, donated land for construction of a school in the town of Fremont. Childless, the Days were concerned about the futures of area children. The land was given to the School District on two conditions--the school would create a legacy for Mr. Day by carrying his name and the land would revert back to the state if it were not used for a school.

In 1985, the Seattle school district announced their plans to build a new B.F. Day School, on the old Lincoln High site in Wallingford, and re-name it Latona. The Fremont community put their collective foot down and mashed those plans into the mud.

When Diann Mize, secretary, first arrived at the oldest brick school in Seattle, at 39th and Linden Avenue North, fourteen years ago, it was "dark, gloomy and cold." The school district promised a new, state-of-the-art building in Wallingford and, when asked her opinion, the new principal of B.F. Day, Carole Williams, said, "It sounds good to me."

It sounded awful to Fremont. B.F. Day, the only public school in Fremont, is the oldest continually operated school in this district. The historic building would never be torn down but would sit like an empty, large, white elephant. The Fremont Chamber of Commerce saw this as another kick in the shins to a district barely regaining its legs while many in Wallingford thought it would be great to have another school in their neighborhood.

Suzie Burke didn't. "This will leave Fremont without a school," she promised at community meetings, "but if it stays we will support it." Business owners Marc Jones, Terry Denton, Jim Daly and Suzie went to the school board and pointed out that new businesses moving into Fremont had to refurbish their funky, old buildings. Why couldn't the School District? "Our interference at the school board as a business district," Suzie recalled recently, "made them step back and re-think. They were used to neighbors and teachers stepping forward, not businesses."

The school district relented. "I was never sorry they did not move the school," Carole explained recently, "we would never have gotten the help from Fremont that we did." Remodeling the old building took two years while B.F. Day students and teachers "camped out" at the Old John Hay School. Diann recalled, "we all pulled together, like you do when faced with a difficult situation. It brought us closer."

"Right away we turned around and went to the school and asked what they wanted," Suzie explained. Fund-raisers, donations of school supplies, development of a site council, volunteers and relationships have fulfilled the promise of support.

It is a promise from which Fremont is the biggest beneficiary. On April 24th, 2000, at the mayor's seismic program celebration on the Fremont Bridge, twenty children from B.F. Day came and gave a heartwarming performance for the crowd. It was another reminder, if we needed one, of what having a school can mean to us.

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