35 East 100 North
Parowan, UT 84761
Phone: (435) 477-3331
Educational History
Education was an important value to the first pioneers of Parowan. After their arrival on January 13, 1851, they immediately started school classes. The men assembled a wicki-up from nearby trees. The children gathered inside the wicki-up around a small campfire with George A. Smith as their teacher. Throughout the school day, they would take turns sitting up close to the fire. There was only one grammar book that was shared among the children.
The Log Council Hall served as a school until the Parowan Rock Church was built. In 1868, with there being no public use for the Log Council Hall, it was divided into two halves and became the East Side School and the West Side School. In the late 1880?s, walls were built to divide the basement of the Rock Church into classrooms.
In the 1870?s, the lime-concrete schoolhouse was built in the center of the school block facing south (current school buildings stand on the original school block). Because of its construction materials, the interior and exterior walls of the building were white washed, thus the school was referred to as the white schoolhouse.
The number of school-aged children grew significantly around the turn of the century, thus overflowing the white schoolhouse, west side and east side school buildings. A fine three-story brick high school was completed in 1916. It stood on the southeast side of the school block with its front doors facing the corner. However, the third floor of the building was never finished. And with the swaying of the building during windstorms and mysterious noises coming from the third floor, it was determined that the building was not safe. The building was torn down and the “Yellow schoolhouse was built in 1918.
Additions to the Yellow Schoolhouse have been made to accommodate the growing number of high school students.
Today, the school block is home to Parowan Elementary, which stands on the southwest side, and Parowan High School, which is on the east side. There are several athletic fields for track, football, baseball, soccer, tennis and playgrounds.
In 2001, the high school track and football field was rededicated as the Alma W. Richards stadium, as a tribute to Parowan native and Utah’s first Olympic Gold medal winner.
