[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page E2078]]


                TRIBUTE TO FOWLER SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 45

                                 ______


                             HON. ED PASTOR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 31, 1995

  Mr. PASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the Fowler 
School District No. 45 in Phoenix, AZ, on the occasion of its 100th 
anniversary.
  The year was 1895, Grover Cleveland was President of the United 
States and Arizona was a territory. Phoenix was a ranching and farming 
community with a population of about 4,500. On the west side of the 
Valley, F.M. Fowler established a home, butcher shop, and freighting 
business in the 1880s. The Fowler family donated land to build a new, 
brick school building on the present-day corner of 67th Avenue and Van 
Buren Street in Phoenix after the old wood-frame building burned. 
Phoenix School District No. 45 was renamed and will always be known as 
the Fowler School District.
  By today's standards, the school's beginning was modest. But for its 
time, the Fowler School was considered to be the best countryside 
school in Arizona Territory. On Friday, November 1, 1895, the Phoenix 
Daily Herald reported on ``An Elegant School House''. The article 
stated:

       The main class room of the school house is 30 x 50 feet 
     inside with ceiling 14 feet high. It is well lighted on all 
     sides and the ventilation is perfect. The main entrance to 
     the building is approached by a flight of stone steps and is 
     6\1/2\ feet wide with an arch overhead. Inside is a short 
     hall with cloak and hat rooms at either ends one of the lads 
     and other for the lasses. Over the left cloak room which has 
     an elegant bay window is the bell tower surmounted with a 
     flag pole from which the stars and stripes will float on 
     every school day. The building is surrounded by play grounds 
     of four acres donated to the district by the Fowler brothers.
       There are about forty-six scholars in the district who will 
     be welcomed to the new school house about the 20th of the 
     month.

  Fowler family members served on the school's trustee board into the 
20th Century. In 1916, the Fowler Women's Club organized. Beginning in 
1933, the club sponsored free meals for children during the depression 
era. The Fowler PTA began in 1926 and continues today without 
interruption.
  The school district purchased 3\1/4\ acres of land in 1929. A new 
schoolhouse was constructed with six classrooms, four small rooms, an 
auditorium, a basement for heating facilities which also provided a 
place for teachers to retreat and smoke that forbidden cigarette. As 
Phoenix grew, so did the Fowler School District.
  In 1942, new classrooms, a kitchen, and dining hall were added to the 
grounds. A bus barn and new classrooms were built after World War II. 
The 1950s and 1960s were decades of tremendous growth for the historic 
school district. New laboratories, eight new classrooms, administrative 
offices, a school nurse and teachers lounge were constructed on this 
bulging campus. Portable buildings were added in the 1970s to meet the 
students' needs until 1983.
  Sunridge School was built in 1983 to house the kindergarten, first, 
second, and third grades while new classrooms and laboratories were 
added at the old Fowler school site. By 1987, the old main building was 
declared unsafe and was torn down. A new building with a kitchen/
cafetorium and five new classrooms were built in its stead. Ever 
expanding, the Fowler School District opened Santa Maria Middle School 
for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in 1994.
  A school that opened with 46 students in 1895 educates 1350 students 
in 1995. This 1895 modern, one-room school house on four acres of 
desert land grew to 29 classrooms, auditoriums, laboratories, and new 
schools on 20 acres of land. The Fowler School District has produced 
many local community members whose entire lives center around it.
  I am proud of the continuing success of the Fowler School District 
and salute them on the 100th anniversary. I hope that my colleagues 
will join with me today in wishing them and the people of the Fowler 
School District the best of anniversaries.

                          ____________________