Everett Archives: Everett High School
I bicycle past the old building five days a week and somehow it still commands my attention. It looks like something from a long time ago, even out of my peripheral vision. And for a good reason—it’s an incredibly lovely school, architecturally speaking.
Let’s take a closer look at the history of this iconic Everett building.
Everett High School was established in 1880. There were just over a dozen pupils—Everett in the early days had few families.
The first principal of Everett High School was Emma Yule, a pioneering female educator. Ms. Yule moved here at age 28 from Iowa. She had never been to the new industrial city of Everett, but agreed to take on the education of Everett’s 28 students.
Ms. Yule taught at EHS for about a decade before moving on to a long career of traveling and educating, including sojourns to Alaska and Asia. She is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett.
The current main EHS building was built in 1910. James Stephen was the architect. Remarkably, Stephen completed his education in architecture via correspondence course and is regionally famous for designing over a dozen schools in the Seattle area.
Starting in 1993, the high school underwent a two-year, $12 million renovation during which the school was mostly taken apart and put back together, also being retrofitted at the time to withstand earthquakes.
Everett High School is home to the fighting Seagulls. While not particularly intimidating, this is an apt choice of mascot, given the prevalence of the winged white bird in our mill town.
There have been a number of famous Everett Seagulls alums over the years, including actress Nancy Coleman, Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson and famous visual artist Chuck Close (And we can’t forget our very own Barb and Chris Lamoureux!).
The high school is known as the “School of Champions.” In the early 20th Century, the Everett High School football team lead by coach Enoch Bagshaw (of Bagshaw Field fame) won the state championship and went to regionals in California. This was a source of pride for Everettites. Today the school has “School of Champions” emblazoned on flagpoles outside of the building. Championship is a mindset.
The auditorium of Everett High School (located across Colby Avenue from the main building) was constructed in the late 1930s. The auditorium has a broad, tall, white facade adorned with statuesque engravings of school pupils.
Allegedly, the auditorium is the main haunt of a “blue ghost” that has been seen by multiple people. The story goes that during a renovation of the school, a repairman fell from scaffolding and broke his neck... fatally.
Today the high school is prized by locals and newcomers for its aesthetic value. The community, school board, and voters have done right by preserving this beautiful historic building for another generation.
Like so much of Everett’s architecture, this principle holds true for EHS: you can’t improve on a classic.
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