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Inventory Form
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:94237 McGreer St historic name:Antelope School
Antelope, Wasco County current/other names:Antelope Community Center
assoc addresses:45500 McGreer St
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):2.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:3
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1924 second date: date indiv listed:06/07/2016
primary orig use: School orig use comments:
second orig use: City Hall
primary style: Classical Revival: other prim style comments:
secondary style: sec style comments:
primary siding: Concrete Block siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: School (General) architect:
builder:
comments/notes:
Original 1892 building burned in 1923. Significance as school; possible exceptional significance for association with Rajneeshees. 3/5/2024: Informed of updated or change of address for this property to the 94237 McGreer St instead of the previously added 45500. JES
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Antelope Selective RLS 2011 Survey & Inventory Project 2011
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 06/07/2016
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 05/08/2011
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The Antelope School is located at the northern edge of the small rural community of Antelope, in southeastern Wasco Co., Oregon. Completed in 1925 , the school is a single-story, concrete-and-stucco building on a roughly square plan, featuring elements of revival and classically inspired styles popular for school buildings of this era. The building exhibits characteristic stylistic elements associated with the Classical Revival style, including bilateral symmetry centered on the full-height grand entry, concrete-formed ashlar-faced walls below the water table and smooth, stucco finish above, and use of simplified cornice (no longer present), pilasters, and panels or medallions centered beneath each peaked parapet element. The school features only two classrooms, located at the front of the building, one on either side of the central entry hall. The rear half of the school houses the gymnasium. The basement, which currently houses City Council chambers, storage, and a flexible, multi-use space, is accessed by interior stairs at the northwest (closed) and southeast sides, where secondary entries open onto the half-landing between floors. The building has been updated over the decades, and exhibits materials frequently added to school buildings during the modern period, including fiber acoustic tile suspended ceilings, fiberboard wall treatments , updated lighting and electrical system, and rubberized stair treads. Other, more recent alterations include insulated replacement windows, updated restroom facilities, basement subdivided to create City Council chambers and kitchen facility, and chair lift allowing access to the basement and main floor from the southeastern side entry.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Antelope School is locally significant under Criterion A in the area of Education as a significant representative of rural education in central Oregon during the first half of the twentieth century. A testament to the continued commitment to education of the residents of the town and vicinity, since its completion in 1925 it has been by far the most substantial building in town, occupying the most prominent parcel in town, and is generally considered to be the most important building in the community, filling a wide variety of community roles. The school is the third built in Antelope, and was the central focus of education in the surrounding area for 60 years. The Antelope School stands out among other rural schools of its period because of its size (originally including four classrooms and a gymnasium as opposed to the far more common one room), and breadth of education offered (including primary through secondary until 1936), designed to meet the state requirements for Standard Schools at all grade levels through that time. The period of significance for Criterion A is from 1925 when the school was opened to 1936, when the Antelope School lost certification as a high school due to its maintaining only a single high school instructor. Although after 1936 the Antelope School no longer provided instruction for all grade levels, it continued to provide instruction at the elementary and intermediate levels until 1983, when it was closed as a public school, an event that is associated with the Rajneesh movement’s establishment of political dominance of the town. In the 1940s, state-supported rural school consolidation resulted in the centralization of public education throughout southeastern Wasco County and nearby portions of Wheeler and Jefferson counties at Antelope. From its construction in 1925 to the present, the school has been a focus of community activity, hosting school activities, community events, and locally produced plays. The school has also functioned as the local polling place and the seat of local government, concurrent with and subsequent to its role as a place of formal education. The Antelope School is also locally significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as a unique example of a formal, concrete Classical Revival-style school building in this extremely rural setting where one and two-room, wooden schoolhouses are far more typical. Completed in 1925, it is the largest schoolhouse in Wasco County south of Maupin (which provides separate grades K-6 and 7-12 school buildings and serves all of southern Wasco County), despite being built in a town that has never had more than 250 residents, and only approximately half that when the school was built. No other buildings in the community are built in as enduring a material as concrete, and the school is by far the most substantial building in town. It is built in a center hall block form, utilizing a relatively austere interpretation of the Classical Revival style, a form and style commonly employed for educational buildings of the period in larger communities (although frequently more elaborately adorned in those communities), but that is very rare in communities the size of Antelope. The Antelope School is prominently located on the highest ground in town, and its use of concrete as the primary material makes it the only historic-period building in town constructed of material other than wood.
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society: Other Respository:
Bibliography:
Beasley, Barbara. In-person interview with Baily Ring, April 11, 2014. Campbell, Art. Antelope: The Saga of a Western Town. Bend, Oregon: Maverick Publications, 1990. City of Antelope. "Some Antelope History." Electronic Document, http://www.cityofantelope.us/antelope-history/. Accessed May 12, 2014. Gunn, Kenneth. Fossil School National Register Nomination. NRIS No. 13000312. On file at Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Salem, Oregon. Harris, Bruce. The Wasco County History Book. (The Dalles, Or.): B. Harris, 1983. Henricks, Mary Rosina. History of Education in Wasco County, Oregon, from Mission and Fort Schools to 1910. Thesis (M. Ed.)--Oregon, 1944. Highberger, Mark. The Long Road to Lonesomeville: A Guide to Small Town Eastern Oregon. Wallowa, Or: Bear Creek Press, 2003. Jester, Thomas C. [ed.], Twentieth-Century Building Materials. Washington D.C.: Archetype Press, 1995. Lucy Burns Institute. “Oregon Rural School Districts, Measure 3 (1946)” Electronic Document, http://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Rural_School_Districts,_Measure_3_%281946%29. Accessed June 19, 2015. Mid-Columbia Economic Development District. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Antelope, Oregon. (The Dalles, Oregon): Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, 1978. Moffatt, Riley Moore (1996). Population History of Western U.S. Cities and Towns, 1850–1990. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Nielsen, Lawrence E., Doug Newman, and George McCart. Pioneer Roads in Central Oregon. Bend, Oregon: Maverick Publications, 1985. Oregon Department of Education. "Agency History". Electronic Document, http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=2012. Accessed May 12, 2014. Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. Site Information: Maupin Elementary School. Electronic Document, http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=v.dsp_siteSummary&resultDisplay=653916. Accessed 11/4/2015. Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. Site Information: Shaniko Public School. Electronic Document, http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=v.dsp_siteSummary&resultDisplay=39318. Quick, Donna. A Place Called Antelope: The Rajneesh Story. Ryderwood, Washington: August Press, 1995. Roth, Leland. A Concise History of American Architecture. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1979. Silvertooth, John. National Register Preliminary Eligibility Evaluation (PEE) Form For Historic Resources: Antelope Community Center. 2011. Staehli, Al. Oregon Inventory of Historic Properties: Historic Resource Survey Sheet: Colonel Wright Elementary School (1984). The Bend Bulletin, "Relocation of Road Made By Highway Board: Eliminates Shaniko and Antelope," The Bend Bulletin, April 7, 1921, Print. The Dalles Daily Chronicle. "County Library has 15,000 Books". The Dalles Daily Chronicle, May 5, 1921. Accessed May 12, 2014. The Dalles Daily Chronicle. "News Notes". The Dalles Daily Chronicle, May 5, 1921. Accessed May 12, 2014. The Dalles Optimist. “Antelope”. The Dalles Optimist, August 8, 1924. Print. The Dalles Optimist. “Antelope”. The Dalles Optimist, December 12, 1924. Print. The Dalles Optimist. “Antelope”. The Dalles Optimist, June 20, 1924. Print. The Dalles Optimist. “Antelope”. The Dalles Optimist, May 23, 1924. Print. The Dalles Optimist. “Antelope”. The Dalles Optimist, November 21, 1924. Print. The Oregonian. "A failed vision: Chronology of major events in the Rajneeshees' Oregon History”. The Oregonian, December 30, 1985. Accessed April 28, 2014. http://impact.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/print.html?entry=/1985/12/a_failed_vision_chronology_of.html. Quick, Donna. A Place Called Antelope: The Rajneesh Story. Ryderwood, Wash: August Press, 1995. Upton, Dell. Architecture in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.