(Photo Courtesy of SJC Historical Commission)
The original elementary school was built in 1896, a lavish structure that rose in the center of town. This building was T-shaped with a bell tower, gabled roof, three classrooms and no indoor plumbing. The bell rope hung down through the roof into a small entrance hall.
The school held all eight grades. There were two rooms, four grades in each. Because there were only two rooms and more than one subject being taught at a time, the students had to learn to concentrate and ignore the other lessons being taught. Hilda Perkins, a former student said, "There'd be a class in the next row reciting and we'd be studying."( Hilda Perkins oral interview) The school was small, but they studied the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, and English.
After the students finished all the schooling they could get in Bluff, up to eighth grade, they traveled twenty miles north every morning to attend high school in Blanding.
Around the early 1900's the schoolhouse caught fire and burned. There were only three small sections of the walls left. Around the 1960's the remains of the school were remodeled into the San Juan County Jail. The windows were filled in, and a new window and door were put in the north wall. A flat roof replaced the original gable roof. An addition was also built on the back of the jail. This had a sliding garage door and served as the fire station until around the 1980s.
The old jail was abandoned in the early 1980's, and the building has since been remodeled inside for use as the Bluff Library (Historical Site Form).
