Site of Former Spencer Elementary School

Address: 340 East 800 South
Until 1912, only grades one through eight were being taught in schools in Orem. If further education was desired, students had to travel from four to twelve miles to Pleasant Grove or Provo. Many were denied schooling because family finances would not allow for the added expense.

In 1913, one hundred thirty-eight citizens, taxpayers and parents of Lincoln School District wrote a letter to the Alpine High School board requesting that the future needs of the young and growing community be addressed.

Three years later, the Alpine School Board officially began ninth and tenth grades in Orem. They were taught in the two rear rooms of the Spencer School located at 811 South State Street.

In 1921, the Lincoln High School building was completed across the street from the Spencer School. Grades nine through twelve were taught there. Because some students had been attending eleventh grade at other schools the previous year, there were eight students in Lincolns first graduating class in 1922.

Over the years, there were several additions to the original building including an east wing, a music room, an activity and physical education room, an Industrial Arts Annex and finally the lunch room and additional classrooms were built on the east side.

In 1956, Lincoln Junior and Senior High School became Lincoln Junior High School upon the completion of Orem High School. In 1962-63, when Orem Junior High School was built, half the students went there.

Then in 1975-76, Lincoln Junior High School was vacated. The building had been condemned as a fire hazard. Lincoln was closed and demolished with the exception of the Industrial Arts annex which is still standing.

(Orem Historic Homes and Sites of Interest.  Orem, UT: Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, 2009.) Used with permission.