And the West is History: Whittier School and students – ca. 1900

Students and teachers face West 19th Street at the corner of Main Avenue around the turn of the 20th century. Known first as Northside School, this structure was District 9’s second school building. It was built in 1885-86 to serve elementary students in the north end of Durango. By 1898, the school was renamed Whittier after John Greenleaf Whittier, a well-known 19th-century poet and abolitionist. With the construction of Needham Elementary in 1951, the school was closed. In 1953, the entire north end of the block was sold and redeveloped by Shell & Continental Oil interests. The church steeple on the right in the background belonged to the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1892. Located at the corner of Main and 20th Street, the church and a brick parsonage were sold to the school district in 1941. Today, a two-story office building and a Speedway gas station are located on these sites. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum.org (Catalog Number: 93.23.28 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections).