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The Churchill Public School (currently called Churchill Elementary School), constructed in 1911, is the oldest remaining public school in the City of Cheyenne. It is eligible to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its direct association with the growth of education in Cheyenne. The building reflects the primary importance the Cheyenne community attached to the education of its youth from its inception as a railroad town in 1867. Universal education was one of the first critical issues dealt with by Cheyenne’s first citizens and by the first Wyoming territorial legislature. The formation of school districts and the building of schools reflected how Cheyenne’s citizens felt about the permanency of their community and their faith in its future. The Churchill School is a substantial brick masonry structure built with community pride and permanency in mind, and which incorporated the standard designs advocated by the early twentieth-century educational reformers. This school was also used for public assemblies and civic celebrations, a place for the community to come together. It is also eligible under Criterion C in the area of architecture as a unique example of early twentieth century school architecture and as the work of a master architect. The original component is an American Foursquare of the Prairie School of architecture, popular in residential buildings from 1900 to 1920, and adapted here for an educational edifice. It is also a lasting legacy of the prominent Cheyenne architect, William Dubois, who designed many important public and commercial buildings in the city and state over his forty-year career.
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