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A model schoolhouse

Lyle Kingsley was a tall seven-year-old when this photo was taken in 1940, in front of the second Union School, which had been built in 1901 on the south end of what is now Union Cemetery on 143rd. His teacher, Margaret Stoller, took photos of each of her students so they could glue them to bookends for Christmas presents for their parents. You can see her shadow cast by the low winter sun.

In 2010, he was able to use the photo to help him build an amazing model of the school, which he completed last summer. He brought the model for us to enjoy at the 2015 Cedar Mill Cider Festival, and we expect that he will bring it along again on October 16 for the tenth annual event.

He and his father, along with a team of men that included Bernie Young (descendant of JQA), were hired to demolish the old school in 1948, after it was replaced by Sunset Valley Elementary (where Home Depot is now). His father kept a door and a window from the school, and the window is now part of the family home, a log cabin just south of Highway 26 in the Marlene Village neighborhood.

Lyle used the known dimensions of the window to determine the scale for his model. He designed fixtures to hold the parts together while the glue set up. Family members provided help: his son-in-law made laser-cut cornices and desk frames, and his wife did some of the painting.

The assistance was vital, because Lyle was going blind. He suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive condition that began to affect his vision 50 years ago. He’s now legally blind, but can make out dark and light. He lives alone, quite comfortably, since he already knows where everything is. He continues to build fanciful birdhouses and other projects in his well-equipped workshop on the property.

He worked at Tektronix for 27 years, building the equipment used to manufacture cathode ray tubes. Once he retired, he helped his wife Joy with her “Pets of Joy” shop in Beaverton Town Square, making toys for parrots and other items. Joy passed away early last year.

Lyle created this fanciful gate out of various found objects, including several sizes of horseshoesers.	Lyle's log cabin: the window on the left came from the old schoolhouse	Lyle in his workshop. The door from the school is propped up against the wall at the rear.

His father Lionel was born in a sod house in Nebraska in 1897, and came with his family to homestead in Lyle, Washington in 1900. Lyle was born in Scappoose, and the family moved to the Cedar Mill area in the 1930’s. The timber to build their log home came from the trees that were cut by developer Fred McLain when the land was cleared for the subdivision.

He recalls many details about the school. The building faced south. The left side was for the fifth to eighth grades, and the right side was for first to fourth graders. Wood had to be chopped and brought into the rooms to stoke the woodstoves that heated the school. Originally the school was served by an outhouse, and in the early days many children rode horses to school and tied them up out back, near the cemetery. Lyle remembers that the cemetery was “where the snakes were!”

Be sure to attend the Cider Festival in October so you can see the model for yourself!

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