Jore School

Unlike the rest of the campus buildings the schoolhouse you see before you was never intended to be part of a college campus. Instead this building was created to teach the children of another community a few hours north of here.

Built in 1905 this one room schoolhouse is the oldest building on campus (although not erected on campus). It served the children of the community of Jore, another pioneering community that unlike Cheney is no longer in existence. The site of this community lies about five miles west of Newport, Washington (about an hour and a half north of here) and the Jore School was in use for 24 years before it was abandoned in 1924.

After being abandoned for nearly a century the abandoned schoolhouse was rediscovered by a college faculty member (Professor Miller) in 2000. Professor Miller decided to bring the school to Eastern Washington University and the schoolhouse was prepared for transport. The roof was disassembled and the foundation was replaced by wheels. Once the school house was reassembled and restored it was renamed the Cheney Normal School Heritage Center and stands today as a tribute to the colleges history of training teachers for the rural schools of Eastern Washington.