People driving or walking along Sherman Avenue in North Bend, Ore., can see a building resembling a Greek temple at the top of the hill. Pure white, the building is solid and square with fluted Ionic columns across the front that support a classical pediment.
Originally housing Roosevelt School, the building was meant to resemble the White House in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who had died in 1919. Classes for grades seven and eight opened in 1924. The new Theodore Roosevelt Military Highway – later to be called U. S. Highway 101 – ran past the school. Today, from the site one can look down on the highway which goes along the bay between the cities of North Bend and Coos Bay.
Before it closed in the late 1990s, Roosevelt became an elementary school in the early 1960s when a new junior high school was built in another part of town.
A religious organization called the Celebration Center purchased the alabaster building in 2000 to offer worship services, early childhood education, and other classes.
Sources: Greif, Steve. North Bend, Oregon: Coos Historical and Maritime Center, 2013. Personal Interview.
