#16 on Map

Blanche Draper, granddaughter of Herman and Annie Draper, the owners of the Children’s Industrial Home and Training School, was the owner of a gift and sewing shop in Des Moines during the early 1930s. She received the Lorraine Rebekah Lodge’s highest award for community service and in 1934 became one of Des Moines’ first telephone operators. She also served on the Board of Directors for Hill Grove Cemetery. Blanche made the quilt square depicting the brick Des Moines Elementary School.

Des Moines School (brick)

After the wooden school building was destroyed by fire in 1925, a new four-room brick building was built. As enrollment continued to climb, two more classrooms were added in 1936, and four more additions sprang up from 1950 to 1964. By the 1970s, however, elementary school enrollment had declined to the point that the school board has considered closing the school completely. Community reaction has kept it open to the present day.

—paraphrased from One Hundred Years of the “Waterland” Community: A History of Des Moines, Washington