With the recent passage of the Seattle School District's Capitol Bond Proposition 1, Hamilton International Middle School will undergo a major renovation, bringing it up to modern standards.

Students, staff, alumni and members of the Wallingford community gathered on Jan. 30 to celebrate the school's 80th anniversary, while they waited for voters to approve the bond to pay for their new school. Construction is set to start in 2009. The bond has allocated $73,375,000 million for the Hamilton project.

Twenty teachers, staff, students and community members worked with an architect on the design of the new school. The group envisioned a curriculum with a global perspective highlighting foreign language, math, science and other traditional subjects.

The historic portion of the building will be remodeled and six small "learning communities" added to the school property.

During the anniversary party, people gathered around architectural drawings of the new school to learn about all the planned features.

There will be flexible learning spaces, special needs classrooms, a foreign language hub, performing arts classroom, applied technology lab, visual arts lab, digital arts lab, a three-story commons area, a 900 seat gymnasium, covered parking garage with outdoor play area and an energy efficient ground source heat pump system.

Linda Harveland was a substitute teacher who came to Hamilton during a 20 year period, now is on regular staff. "It's definitely time to do something. It will be a wonderful building," Harveland said.

During construction, the school will move to the old Lincoln High School building nearby. Lincoln has served as the temporary homes for Ballard, Roosevelt and now Garfield High, while all three of the schools had new facilities built.

The school is now preserving its history through oral interviews with the non-profit audio production organization, Jack Straw Productions.

Hamilton students, former students and staff sat down in front of microphones during their party to talk about their experiences at the school.

"We will work with the kids at the school to make audio pieces," said Jack Straw Productions Director Joan Rabinowitz.

Two years ago, students some eighth grade social studies students at Hamilton conducted oral history interviews of Wallingford neighbors and the business community. The group has worked with many schools going through renovations to document their history and stories.

One of Hamilton's after school programs will help produce the latest audio CD that will also be available for listening at www.jackstraw.org or on the school website when finished.

Several rooms were set aside as recording studios, where Jack Straw engineers set up computers and microphones.

The school opened on January 28, 1927 with 896 students. One of those interviewed was ninety-year old Priscilla Jue who attended the school from 1928 to 1931. Her family lived in the University District nearby.

Jue, a Chinese American, said she was the only Asian student at the time. Now Hamilton is very diverse with children from many different ethnic backgrounds.

"It was a long time ago. It's very interesting," Jue said, as she roamed the hallways looking at historical photographs set up on easels.

Jill Christ graduated in 1963. She recalled a longtime art teacher with a room on the top floor. The room had windows looking south.

"She told us how she watched them build the Aurora Bridge," said Christ.

Christ remembers the home made cinnamon rolls made by the lunch room staff. There were no computers or calculators and students were required to write in long hand.

One of her fondest memories was watching movies like The Fly, starring Vincent Price. Films were shown each week at Hamilton with a ten cent admission price.

In 1970, Hamilton was remodeled with the addition of new lockers, a learning resource center, updated auditorium, physical education facilities and a student services offices.

Seattle School Board President Cheryl Chow was assigned to Hamilton from 1971 to 1972, where she taught physical education.

"It was great, my first year of teaching," Chow said while sitting in front of a microphone.

Title IX, the act that ensured equality for girls in school sports had not yet been passed when Chow joined the staff.

"It as all girls physical education. I started varsity basketball and volleyball," said Chow.

Tim Barr, a 1971 graduate was watching festivities in the auditorium while the memories of Hamilton came back to him. He remembered the old wood hallways and the separate locker areas for the boys and girls.

Barr is pleased to hear the original Hamilton building will be spared from the wrecking ball. "I'm pleased it is being kept as is. It's a historic landmark," he said.

"It's part of the district's desire to put their focus and resources on middle schools. It's an important age group," said Chow.

Dean Wong may be reached at 783.1244 or dino@robinsonnews.com