Reid School changed jobs, but kept teaching Bend

Bend’s old Reid School wears its geology in the walls. The three-story building opened in 1914 with rock-cut tuff from a local quarry. The school took the name of Ruth Reid, Bend’s first public-school principal. Its modern equipment made the building a civic statement as well as a school. For 65 years, Bend children learned inside it.

After its school years, the building took on a second public job. Deschutes County owns Reid School and leases it to the Deschutes County Historical Society. The society operates it as the Deschutes Historical Museum. Its National Register nomination recorded museum as the building’s function when the nomination was prepared. The museum did not merely move into an old school: the tuff walls, Ruth Reid’s name, and 65 years of classrooms are themselves Bend history.