McLane's Long History

McLane School was established in 1883 by pioneer families in the Delphi valley. Our present school was built in 1987 and is the fourth McLane School building, the second on our site. Our school is comprised of 17 classrooms plus special use areas: music , resource room, gymnasium, multipurpose-cafeteria and play shed, and there are 3 pod areas for a total of 46,000 square feet. There are two field areas and a track on the 11.5 acre space. Community groups using McLane on a regular basis include: McLane YMCA Child care, Westside Cooperative Preschool, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies, Little Cougar Basketball , and Perpetual Motion Summer Camp.
The following article appeared in The Olympian on September 5, 1979

Times have changed at McLane School since the grandparents of present-day students warmed their hands over a wood stove in a one-room school house.

William McLane, who in 1852 pioneered the area approximately five miles west of downtown Olympia, donated land for the first McLane school in the 1870's.

Elsie McLane Shannon, grand-daughter of William McLane, attended school there 80 years ago when eight grades were in a single room.

" I started school when I was 5 but I only went one day," recalls Mrs Shannon. "We had double seats in the middle of the school room. The first day I was there the teacher came and gave the girl next to me a spanking. I wouldn't go back after that."

One year later Shannon got up the courage to start school again. She finished eighth grade at McLane, then attended Olympia High School. She boarded in town during the week in order to attend high school.

The building in which Shannon spent her early school years is still standing on Delphi Road, where it has served as the McLane Grange dining hall for many years. Another one-room school was built in 1911 close to McLane Creek on Delphi Road.The building, later enlarged to two rooms, was torn down in the1940's.

"It was nice and cozy, " recalls Neil Shannon, Elsie Shannon's son, who attended in the 1920's. "We had probably 35 students in our room."

The grades were divided into rows, and one grade worked with the teacher while others worked on their lessons.

Mary T. Neylon Penry taught grades one through four in the McLane School in the 1920's. She remembers having as many as 60 students in her class.

"Students say I was strict and fair," says the retired teacher. She taught phonetic reading and put heavy emphasis on good English. "Those were full days," she recalls. "I had to get there early. And I had to pay two boys to start the fire in the morning. A second room was added to the school in the 1920's. Also in the 1920's, McLane School District incorporated with three other rural districts. Students in seventh and eighth grades attended Plainview, and elementary students from the other districts came to McLane.

The present [sic] McLane school was completed in 1940 by the depression-era Works Project Achninistration. An addition was completed in 1954 and in 1966 the district was consolidated with the Olympia School District. Judy Keithley, an Olympia woman whose children attend McLane,last spring been exploring the history of McLane schools.

"I suspect McLane is the oldest school in the Olympia School District that still has its original name, Keithley says. Her original purpose was to gather the information for a presentation at the dedication of the school's newest remodeling project, which includes a gymnasium. She was intrigued by all the different stories she heard about the different school buildings.

Although Keithley has filled in many of the pieces, she still feels some are missing. "I'd like to see people who know something about McLane get their reminiscences down on paper, says the amateur historian.

"McLane is a great school," she adds. "There's a feeling of warmth there. I want the kids to have a sense of history, a sense of how far back McLane's history goes.

Mclane and Plainview became southwest Olympia's schools. Grades 1-4 were held at Mclane school and grades 5-8 were held at Plainview School. These two schools consolidated in 1922. These two pictures are Plainview students.

Plainview Class in 1935

Plainview Class in 1938