This history of Horace Mann School is taken from the second edition of Building for Learning: Seattle Public School Histories, which includes histories of every school building used by the district since its formation around 1862. The original essay was written for the 2002 first edition by Nile Thompson and Carolyn J. Marr, and updated for the 2024 edition by HistoryLink contributor Casey McNerthney.
Horace Mann
In September 1901, Walla Walla Annex, thus named because it was in the Walla Walla real estate division, opened in a rented store building at 21st Avenue and E James Street. It housed 174 students in grades 1-3 for a little over one year in order to alleviate overcrowding at T. T. Minor School. A year later, a permanent Walla Walla School opened, based on the “model school” plan developed by James Stephen. The original design included an addition to the north side of the school, but this plan was never realized. The school, a Colonial Revival structure, resembled Green Lake School built a year earlier.
In 1921, the Seattle School Board renamed the school Horace Mann, after the “Father of Free Schools.” Horace Mann (1796-1859) was a lifelong proponent of universal public education, which he felt was essential for democracy. He served on the Massachusetts State Board of Education and was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he promoted tax-supported elementary public education in other states and encouraged more women to join the teaching profession.
Kindergarten was added in 1931. From 1926 to 1938, Horace Mann School operated with a platoon system for children in grades 5-8 in which they spent about half of each day in a homeroom and then attended other classes elsewhere in the building. September 1938 saw the relocation of the 7th and 8th grades to an 8th grade center at Washington School.
The April 1949 earthquake weakened a chimney, and the school was closed for a week. That June, Dio Richardson retired after serving as principal for 30 years. A harmonica player since his childhood in Arkansas, Richardson organized and led a harmonica band at Mann from 1924 until his retirement, except during World War II, when harmonicas were not manufactured.
The school survived three arson attempts in 1958 and 1959, which destroyed at least two portables. Enrollment peaked in 1957-1958 with 596 students. By 1965-1966, it was down to 252 and the school was closed at the end of the 1967-1968 school year.
Nova
During 1970-1971, the building was used as extra space for Garfield High School projects and offices. From 1970-1975, the building housed the Extended Services Program (ESP), an alternative program for grades 9-12 developed by the Central Area community and the district. It provided more individualized instruction and attention than was possible in the regular school setting. Additionally, it gave students who had dropped out or who had been suspended a chance to continue their education. In 1975, ESP became GAP (the Garfield Alternative Program). That September, an alternative high school called Nova joined GAP at Mann.
Nova was founded in 1970 and had been housed in rented space at the downtown YMCA. Nova students earned all credits by fulfilling contracts, which they wrote themselves. Much of the learning was carried on outside of the classrooms and attendance was not required. Nova Alternative High School’s goal was to be a democratically governed learning community of broadly educated, creative, and independent thinkers who work collaboratively and demonstrate a high degree of individual and social responsibility. Nova offered language and culture immersion classes in French, Russian, and Spanish, literature, writing and poetry, and advanced mathematics and science. Environmental education and integrated classes in social studies and the arts were also included.
In 1977, two years after Nova relocated to Mann, the Summit school that started in the Summit School building also moved into Mann after the Summit building was sold. The Summit program started as an alternative program for grades 9-12 in 1974, but the program expanded to encompass all grades when it moved to Mann. The Summit program remained at Mann through spring 1979.
In 2003, several upgrades were made to Mann including remodeling rooms for science and art classes, installation of a new fire-alarm system, plumbing upgrades, another roofing replacement, and exterior renovations including window rebuilding. Principal Elaine Packard retired in 2004 after 30 years at the school. In 2007, a new science room was added, and additional windows rebuilt. Nova Alternative High School was the main occupant of the school until 2009, when the program relocated to Meany, which had recently closed as a middle school. Beginning in March 2010, the Mann building was leased by the organization Peoples Family Life, which ran a program called Work It Out, educational and vocational training for at-risk youth. That group subleased space to the Seattle Amistad School, a private English/Spanish immersion school.
Landmark Designation
On September 19, 2012, the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board designated Horace Mann School as a Seattle landmark. The areas to be preserved were the building exterior, the interior first and second floor corridor and stair system, including all original fir flooring, running/standing trim and classroom doors, and the classroom and building site, excluding the portables and greenhouse. In July 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Board voted to allow site improvements. The plan included modernization of the 33,000-square-foot building as well as construction of a 15,000-square-foot addition with funds from voter-approved levies and a federal grant. Occupants were told to vacate by August 15, 2013, for the planned construction schedule.
However, the Africatown Center for Education and Innovation remained. This organization was not a legal lessor of the building, but operated in the building as an affiliate of Amistad, an organization that had leased space. Members chained up the interior, and an undisclosed number of them, no more than a dozen, began effectively living in the school. Superintendent José Banda organized a task force and talks continued for three months. In early November, the Africatown Center for Education and Innovation left after working out a tentative agreement with the district to lease the Columbia Annex. People continued to occupy the building although it was not clear what relationship the holdouts had with this organization. Holdouts, including activist Omari Tahir-Garrett, remained with a generator. Tahir-Garrett was part of a group that occupied the former Colman School in the 1980s to force the city to turn the abandoned school into an African American museum and cultural center. The remaining occupants were given multiple warnings of trespassing, before the district cut power and water to the building.
After reports of explosives and weapons from multiple unnamed sources, the Seattle Police SWAT team arrested the last four holdouts on November 13, 2013, and searched the building before clearing it for the district. There was an estimated $1,000 per day cost for the delayed construction start. No weapons or explosives were found in the search, and construction work began within days after the building was cleared.
Major Renovation
At Mann, the damaged entry stairs and historic front entrance were repaired, the basement was demolished, and the corridors, stairs, classrooms, and commons area were completely renovated. An elevator was added, and bathrooms were constructed on all floors to improve accessibility. The formerly white building with blue trim was repainted a brick red with white trim, and the addition was designed to seamlessly integrate with the historic 1902 building.
The building reopened in fall 2015 as a school and became the home of Nova High School, which returned to Mann after Meany was slated to reopen as a comprehensive middle school. Unlike most conventional schools, Nova students are accepted from all parts of the district and student learning is based in a non-graded, competency-based system that relies on student application of learning and performance-based assessment. To document student achievement and meet funding requirements, staff created an internal database teachers use to keep track of class attendance and assignments. That database generates reports on each student that calculate monthly progress and hours, and students meet monthly with their coordinators to review their overall progress. If it is determined that a student is not making progress, the student learning plan is revisited.
History
Walla Walla School
Location: 2410 E Cherry
Building: 12-room frame
Architect: Saunders & Lawton
Site: 1.76 acres
1902: Opened on November 2 or 3
1921: Renamed Horace Mann School
1968: Closed as an elementary school
1969-70: Called Garfield Music Annex
1970-2009: Site of alternative programs, including Nova (1977-2009)
2009: School closed; Nova relocated to Meany
2010-13: Leased to Peoples Family Life
2012: Designated City of Seattle landmark (September 19)
2013: Leases terminated; Construction began
2015: School reopened; Modernization and addition (TFC Architecture, PLLC); Nova program relocated to Mann from Meany
Nova High School @ Mann in 2023
Enrollment: 226
Address: 2410 E Cherry
Configuration: 9-12
Yearbook: The Nova Snail
