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Thorp Grade School
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Thorp Grade School (Photo 2010)
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| Location: | Thorp, Washington |
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| Built: | 1936 |
| Architect: | John W. Maloney |
| Architectural style: | Colonial Revival |
| Governing body: | Thorp School District No. 400 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 09000541 |
| Designated NRHP: | July 16, 2009 |
Thorp Grade School is a notable building located in Thorp, Washington.
On July 16, 2009, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a significant example of American rural education.[1]
Built at a cost of $41,000 during the depths of the Great Depression using WPA funds, the building still stands and has been used continuosly by Thorp School District No. 400 since its construction. A finely crafted red brick Colonial Revival structure, it was designed by the noted Northwest architect John W. Maloney.
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Maloney was born in Sacramento, California in 1896. His family moved to the Puget Sound area in the early 1900s. He attended the University of Washington and Stanford University, and established an architectural practice in Yakima, Washington in 1922. His most notable building in Yakima is the A. E. Larson Building (1931), an eleven-story Art Deco masterpiece and the city’s first skyscraper.
In 1943, Maloney opened an architectural office in Seattle, where he went on to design a number of high profile schools, hospitals, and office buildings. He designed projects for several universities including Washington State University, Central Washington University, and Gonzaga. He also designed the entire campus of buildings at the Perry Technical Institute in Yakima (1940). Maloney also designed a number of buildings for the Seattle Public Schools system including Edmond S. Meany Middle School (1955), Jefferson Park Junior High School (1956), Asa Mercer Junior High School (1957), an addition to Grover Cleveland High School (1958), and Rainier Beach Junior-Senior High School (1960).
Maloney had a strong connection to the Catholic Church and designed dozens of churches and schools for the Archdiocese of Seattle. His designs in the Seattle area include St. Benedict Catholic Church in Wallingford (ca. 1958), Holy Family Church in West Seattle (ca. 1956), Sacred Heart Church in Lower Queen Anne (ca. 1959), and St. Anne Church and Rectory on Queen Anne Hill (1960). His chapel for St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore (1958), now home to Bastyr University, is considered one of the premiere film scoring stages in the nation due to its superb acoustics.
As a sole practitioner, Maloney designed a number of forward-looking buildings using innovative structural technologies and modern design elements. Notable buildings include the Northwestern Life Insurance Co. office (1952), a warehouse for the Seattle School District (1955), the Kittitas County Courthouse (1955), the Seattle First National Bank Denny Way Branch (1950), and the Blue Cross Insurance Building on Seattle's First Hill (1958).
In 1963, Maloney partnered with other architects to form Maloney, Herrington, Freesz & Lund. Among Maloney’s notable buildings during this time was the Lemieux Library at Seattle University (1966). Maloney retired from the firm in 1970.
He died in Seattle on January 23, 1978.