Historic Pleasant Ridge School and Cemetery, Mount Vernon, WA

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Historic Pleasant Ridge School and Cemetery

17666 Valentine Road

Mount Vernon, WA  98273

History was among the subjects which children of Pleasant Ridge pioneer families studied at their two-room schoolhouse east of La Conner, WA, near Pleasant Ridge Cemetery.  The school was built in 1891 and welcomed students until 1929, when its closure was hastened by area school consolidation and development of bus routes. Many famous La Conner area names, such as teachers Ida Leamer and Mary Chilberg, are linked to schooling on Pleasant Ridge. The 15-year-old Leamer held the first teacher’s certificate issued in Skagit County and taught classes at her family’s home. She would later wed E.A. Sisson, who partnered with A.G. Tillinghast and R.E. Whitney to dike and farm several hundred acres not far from town.  Albert Leamer sold land to Skagit County for construction of what became the Pleasant Ridge School, a structure noted from the outset for its stone foundation, shake roof, and striking bell cupola.  Inside the building remains a classic school blackboard still bearing chalk letters.

     The historic 1890s Pleasant Ridge Schoolhouse is now owned by Skagit Cemetery District #1. It’s hoped the building itself can help teach and preserve local history going forward.  Initial plans were afoot to restore the iconic Pleasant Ridge School. The old school, a house, and adjoining two acres of land were purchased in 2017 by the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery District, whose commissioners hoped to launch a private fundraising campaign for the proposed restoration.  They envision the former school, where plywood sheets were newly placed over the windows as 2018 started, ultimately serving as a gathering place following graveside and memorial services and special events, with the land making space for a possible future expansion of the cemetery. The Commissioners hope to bolster efforts made in the late 1970s by the Pleasant Ridge School Association, whose members – many of them former students – raised more than $3,000 toward restoring the building at that time. Their bid eventually stalled when the association was unable to secure ownership of the property.

     At that time, Commissioner Gail Thulen said of the school preservation goal that It’s in its infancy during a meeting of the three-member panel.  Thulen and fellow Commissioners Curt Buher and Eric Anderson stress that Cemetery District residents won’t be levied for restoration monies. The funds will be raised privately.  The commissioners were banking on donors stepping forward to invest in its preservation and cautiously optimistic that further handwriting on the wall would spell success in terms of reviving the school building, thus transforming an historic landmark into a venue for future generations to enjoy.  Unlike history, whose course is set, the restoration timeline is somewhat uncertain.  They recognized that patience and perseverance might well be the next lessons to be gleaned from the Pleasant Ridge School, and that it could be a 10-year project.

     However in 2020, the historic Pleasant Ridge Schoolhouse failed to make the grade on an engineering feasibility study that concluded the best option for the structure built in the 1890s is demolition.  To restore the building would cost about $500,000, said Lori Buher, secretary of the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery District, which has owned the schoolhouse since 2017. Funding to restore the school seems prohibitive, so the money already raised to restore the building east of La Conner was returned to donors.  Buher said while demolition is an option, it is not being considered. Rather, cemetery district commissioners are taking a wait-and-see approach to the structure’s future.  The long-vacant schoolhouse is close to the hearts of many. But it has seen better days, going from hosting students to a storage facility for gardening equipment and supplies, to now being a shell of its former self.  The commissioners posted a note on Facebook saying, “You may have read that the Cemetery commissioners decided to return contributions after getting a discouraging report on the state of the School from structural engineers. Just to be clear, there are NO plans to raze the School! In fact, renewed interest following the two recent articles has encouraged the commissioners to pursue a preliminary meeting with the county planning department to explore options.”