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For decades, the halls of Woodlawn Elementary in Sapulpa were filled with school-aged children before and after school as they ran through the activities of the day. The halls were filled again on Thursday afternoon, but there weren’t many school-aged children. Instead, it was grown adults who used to attend or teach at the school who were seeing the place one last time before it was scheduled to be demolished as part of the new construction for Sapulpa Jr. High and High School.
The building had been erected in 1955, replacing an aging Woodlawn school built in 1909.
John Mark Young started at the school when the building was only a year or two old. He said he tried finding the classrooms he used to attend, but wasn’t sure which one was where. “I can remember the name of every teacher I had in this school, but the place has changed so much, I can’t remember which classroom I was in,” he said.
LaNell Russell taught first grade at the school for less than a year in 1966 before she left to become a stay-at-home mother for several years. Her first time at Woodlawn was short but memorable.
“At the time, there was no state law for students to attend kindergarten, so there were only six or so students who had ever attended school before,” she said. “The rest came from home or daycare.”
Russell said in those days, there was no library, and no music or gym classes for her kids. “Upperclass got PE and music, but because we were first grade, we didn’t get anything.”
So what did she do with 30 children all day long and nowhere to send them? “I taught school!” she exclaimed. “I still had to teach them to read, to write…I remember that I had a piano right against this wall over here, and we sang songs, read stories, and played games.”
Russell said it was a student who told her about the “Walk Through Woodlawn” event, and she came, sporting a t-shirt supporting teachers and a Woodlawn Sapulpa hat.
Bill Mauch remembered when the building was built, as he and his family lived just down Thompson Street. Mauch, who just turned 100 in April, reminisced about the experience as he sat in a chair in the now-empty classroom. “All four of our children went here,” he said.
Patricia Mauch, daughter of Bill, had some memories of walking the halls of Woodlawn, but had something a lot of others didn’t—her original 1976 Woodlawn Elementary diploma.
Teachers and staff in the Woodlawn building have been moved to other buildings as school nears its end for the 2024-2025 year. The building is scheduled to be demolished on May 27th.
