Curtis School

Initial educational developments in the area of the Curtis School occurred under the auspices of School District 36, Arapahoe County, Colorado, which was established in the late 1880s. The district’s first school was a frame structure at East Quincy Avenue, then known as Breene or Breen Avenue, and South University Boulevard to the north of the present-day Curtis School. In 1898, a branch school was erected in the southern portion of the district in a house donated by Arthur deKoevend. The latter facility quickly proved too small and the district began exploring expansion options.  

In September 1901, the school district opened another branch school in the southern area, Curtis School, which replaced the deKoevend structure. The building was located on an acre of land which had been donated by Charles M. Curtis, an early landowner in the area whose children were among the first students at the school. The frame building at the northwest corner of East Orchard Avenue and South University Boulevard began classes with ten pupils in attendance. Residents of the northern portion of the school district, who dominated the school board, soon decided that they preferred the new building for their children. Therefore, in an action local residents called “the swap”, the new Curtis building was exchanged for the Breene Avenue schoolhouse which was moved to the East Orchard Avenue location. 

In 1914, the community demonstrated its commitment to education by erecting a more substantial brick building at the northwest corner of South University and East Orchard. The $3,200 building faced east toward University Boulevard and featured a gabled entrance bay topped by a shingled bell tower. The main floor of the interior held a large classroom with a stage, while the basement contained a large rectangular room and a separate furnace room for the coal-fired furnace. Gasoline-powered lanterns provided light as the building was not supplied with electricity. Restroom facilities consisted of two privies in the schoolyard. Since the school had no running water, the janitor brought water to the school each day in a ten-gallon jar. When construction on the new building commenced in 1913, the old frame school building was moved to the southwest corner of the property. A barn stood in the northwest corner to house students’ horses. Play equipment consisted of “swings made from old telephone poles and three or four teeter-totters”. 

Curtis School severed ties with School District 36 in July 1914. Upon petition of G. R. Enderick, J. W. Kraft, Loretta D. Paul, Frank M. Burnett, Mrs. C. E. Mayhew, and Cain Peterson, the school was designated School District 37 in Arapahoe County. The move probably reflected a desire for local control of the school, in contrast to the large, consolidated school districts of today, as well as lingering ill over the early swap of buildings by the old district in 1901. 

For the 1914-1932 period, Curtis School was a one-room facility that included grades one through six. For schooling beyond the sixth grade, students were transported into Englewood or Littleton. Over the years, the student body included a few Black children from families in the area and former students recall that the school was harmoniously integrated. Attendance for Curtis School was drawn from the immediate unincorporated Arapahoe County vicinity, which was rural in nature for much of the school’s existence. One early student recalled seeing coyotes on his way to school in the morning. Another remembered that the area around the school was prairie, sprinkled with Johnny-jump-ups and other wildflowers. 

Curtis School, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed January 4th 2021. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/84125578.

Curtis School, Wikipedia. Accessed January 22nd 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_School_(Greenwood_Village,_Colorado).