Irene S. Reed High School Memorial Wall

In mid-summer, 1985, as demolition was about to begin on the Irene S. Reed High School building at Seventh and Alder Streets, the Mason County Historical Society (MCHS) put forth a proposal to save symbolic parts of the building. MCHS wanted to preserve the lintel above the front door that featured the name of the school and the year it was built, plus ornamental blocks, to eventually build a memorial wall somewhere on school district property. The high school had been a gift to the town in 1923 from Mark E. Reed, head of the Simpson Logging Company. It was named after his wife Irene, who had been a member of the Shelton School Board from 1909 until her death in 1940, and had served Shelton students for 50 years. Demolition contractor Bob Kimbel agreed to save the pieces, and architect Harold Dalke offered to donate his time to draft plans for a wall.

MCHS put the blocks in storage, opened a preservation fund account at the Shelton branch of Seattle-First National Bank, and began a campaign to raise funds for the wall project, estimated to cost around $6,000. MCHS representative Berwyn Thomas said that the site of the old school would be the ideal place for the memorial wall; however, with the school demolished, the property had reverted to the Reed family and its future use hadn't been decided.

By early September, several hundred dollars had been donated. On September 6, a group of retired Irene S. Reed High School faculty members reunited at a special dinner at Lake Limerick Inn to issue a challenge to former students. Attendees pledged a total of $1,500 toward creation of a memorial wall. "We hope it will set an example," said one-time industrial arts teacher Emmett Oliver, who had coordinated the event. "Only with similar generosity on the part of former students will the fund-raiser succeed in coming up with the estimated $6,000 to $8,000 needed to erect the memorial wall." MCHS was offering a free one-year membership to anyone donating $20 or more to the fund.

By mid-October the account was over $3,000, including a $1,000 donation from the Reed family. In August, 1986, the fund held over $4,500 and the money was donated to the Shelton Library Association with the understanding that the wall would be constructed on the site of a planned new public library. In November, 1986, when the levy to finance a new library failed, the memorial wall fund was invested, to gather interest until such time as the project could go forward.

Early in 1987, Shelton was involved in a civic debate over which of two locations would be best for a new public library. The Shelton City Commission favored the old Lincoln Gym property at Fifth and Cota, which the city owned. However, a city ordinance gave the Shelton Library Board authority to select the site, and the majority of that board preferred the former Irene S. Reed High School property. The Reed family had earlier offered to donate the site plus $500,000 toward building a new library.

The Seventh and Alder Street site was selected, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 7, 1988. As the new library neared completion in April, 1989, the Mason County Historical saw its fondest hopes realized when the Irene S. Reed High School memorial wall, consisting of the name, date, and ornamental blocks, as well as bricks from the old school, was installed in the William G. Reed Library parking lot.

Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."