610 3rd St
1937
School Builds New Garage
District Orders Work to Start on $7,000 Investment
Making an investment that may amount to $7,000, the Cheney school district this week started construction of a shop and storage garage for its school buses.
Excavation started Wednesday morning on the grounds behind the junior high school building, and work will be pushed so that the buildings may be completed this summer.
Plans provide for a shop 36 x 62 feet in one portion of the new building, while another 60 feet of frontage on Third street will be devoted to the space for six bus stalls for storage. The district now operates five buses.
The building is to be of concrete, and its top will be finished, according to C.J. Cooil, superintendent, with a smooth concrete slab that will then constitute tennis courts for the school. Plans are such that when completed, the tennis courts above the garage will be about on a level with the school grounds.
Work is to be let in small contracts by the school board, it was stated, and much may be done by day labor. The district is financing the improvement alone, without federal or state grants or W.P.A. assistance. Last year $3,500 was appropriated in the budget and a similar amount was added this year, though it is expected that the construction may be completed at less than the $7,000 thus made available, Cooil declared.
1971-11-11 City of Cheney & Cheney School District agreed on price in city's bid to buy the block with 1912 high school & bus garage. $80,000.
In 1977, the residents of Cheney voted for in a bond of $75,000 to convert the old school district machine shop and bus garage into a community center. The following year, the Cheney Environmental Association and Tilicum Club, which had started a recycling program by the Red Barn a few years earlier, convinced the city council to allow them to move the recycling center into the Third Street level of the community center. Mayor Blakely was said to have remarked, “Oh, let the ladies have their recycling center, it won’t last long.” And so, inadvertently, Gerald Blakely kicked off what has become a very successful, and long lasting recycling program in Cheney.
1979-03-22
1981: The Cheney Historical Museum relocates to 614 3rd Street. The City of Cheney generously provides space and utilities. The museum is located in a city owned building, the 1937
1993-04-02 The recycling center began moving into their new facility at 100 Anderson Rd. vacating their 1/3 of the lower level of the Wren Pierson bldg.
2009-01-02 Cheney's Wren Pierson community center suffers fatal structural damage when too much snow is allowed to accumulate on the roof.The structure is near collapse. 3rd & C streets are closed at the block. Erected in 1948 on top of the 1937 school district bus garage as the Ag Bldg of CHS, it was named from Ag & Biology teacher Wren Pierson.
2009-01-04 The Cheney Food Bank is moved from the lower level of the Wren Pierson Bldg to storage with Second Harvest in Spokane. Later it reopens at the recycling center on Anderson Rd. The clothing bank takes up residence at the United Methodist Church, and the Outreach Center it taken in by the United Church of Christ.
2009-01-06 The Cheney Historical Museum is evacuated out of the lower level of the Wren Pierson Bldg after 3 days of intense packing by many volunteers, and put into emergency storage at the City Hall and Cheney Public Storage.