This school and the one that preceded it are a testament to how education was honored in the early coal-mining communities of Washington. After a crew of men began cutting trails and opened a seam of coal in Black Diamond in 1882, huge amounts of labor and capital were expended to build a railroad and open the mine from which a town was born and grew. Within a year of the first shipment of coal in Dec. 1884, Black Diamond School District #43 was chartered on Nov. 6, 1885. Mrs. Charlotte S. Davies Jones operated a boarding house in her home, so it was there that Black Diamond’s first school classes were held and taught by her daughter Lizzie Jones, the town’s first teacher.
In 1908, when this wooden structure was built, Black Diamond boasted about 3,000 residents. This photo appeared on an unused postcard that can be confidently dated between 1908 and 1914, and comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian and former archivist of the Black Diamond History Society’s Museum.
This view is looking northerly at the school with students assembled on the front concrete steps. Each morning, children lined up according to their grade level and were marched into their classrooms, keeping in step with a triangle beaten by the janitor. Indeed, the pupils were graded on their marching skills. In a funny twist of fate, little Carl Steiert, who later founded the Black Diamond Historical Society, was given an ‘F’ in marching on his report card.
During the early years, Black Diamond didn’t have a certified high school. In 1915, the district received accreditation and was allowed to be renamed Black Diamond High School, also known as Union M. Union high schools were those resulting from the consolidation of districts, and the letter M was the order when each Washington school was certified as such. At the time an 8th grade education was the most students received or frankly needed. To graduate from 8th grade, when most were 14 to 16 years old, a student needed a score of 75 to advance to high school. Boys needed to be 16 years old to work at the coal mine and couldn’t go underground until age 18.
By 1921, a new brick high school was built next door to the wooden school. Around 1943, this wooden school was torn down. That same year saw Black Diamond’s last high school graduating class. Thereafter high school students attended Enumclaw, while Black Diamond hosted grades K-8. The brick school was used until 1963 when it was replaced by a new elementary school that lasted until 2016.
On July 21, 1975, Black Diamond District #190 was dissolved and was fully annexed into Enumclaw School District #216. The newest and current K-5 school building opened in Sept. 2017. Under the Master Plan Development agreement between the City of Black Diamond, Enumclaw school district, and Oakpointe, several plots of land have been set aside by the Ten Trails developer for new school sites which the district is obligated to plan and build. Additional research for this column was provided by JoAnne Matsumura and Sherrie Evans’ article that appeared in the Fall 2021 issue of the Black Diamond Historical Society newsletter.
