DEWAYNE’S CORNER: Marlow’s First Grade School Building

All that is left of the building are three steps. Yes, so far they have escaped the many changes to the school campus. Just off Seminole Street, south on what would have been Fifth Street, on the sidewalk remain one set of steps that lead up a piece west to the Marlow High School building built in 1909. There were two walks that led up to the building with a long water fountain in between. You look west from the steps you see a door, which I remember in 1963 was the Marlow F. F. A. class. Yes, the dome gym sits where the grade building was located.

The building front faced the East with two separate doors entrances. There was an entrance on the southeast and a door on the northeast. It was a three-story building with tall windows for a breezeway effect for cooling. Lower level was High School until either 1920 or 1921 when the new High School building was built on the corner of Main and Sixth. It had a fire escape tunnel on the outside for the third floor for classes 4th, 5th and 6th which were on the west end of building far from the stairs. A new Grade School building was built in 1951-1952.

The building was torn down in the '50s and a new Dome Gym was added to the campus. Some of the flooring was purchased by Gene Woolley and became the Marlow Skating Ring floor. Also, the steel beams were used in building the skating rink.

Source for article from Gray Wolfe and TeePee Annuals, and a Facebook post by Dan Poole and Mary Lou Mahaffey.