Grubbe, Lucy Woodward, Bill Quant, and Merle Williams
gather around the recently relocated Howard School
building. (Photo: Kevin Sperl, Central Oregonian)
A small group of former students from a remote area northeast of Prineville have remained true to their school. When Lucy Woodward and other former students of the one room Howard School heard that the building could be facing demolition, they took matters into their own hands. Lucy, who attended the school in the 1950s, led the charge, convincing her husband Craig to put his logging company to work moving the schoolhouse to their nearby property.
The school was named after the old Howard cinnabar mining district, owned by Jimmy Howard, Craig Woodward’s great- great- great-grandfather who arrived in Oregon in 1844. The building dates to around 1915, replacing the original 1895 schoolhouse after it was lost to fire.
On July 13, Woodward’s company, with help from the O’Ryan Ranch, Line Shack Log Structures, and SMAF Construction, raised the building on steel beams and, with a front loader on each corner, moved the old building less than a mile down Ochoco Creek Road, approximately one mile east of Highway 26.
A number of former Howard Students turned out recently to tour the building and reminisce, and Lucy Woodward is counting on the input of those with a connection to the old schoolhouse to determine what steps should be taken next.
For more on this story, read Kevin Sperl’s article in the Central Oregonian and see KTVZ’s feature.
