First school, Grand Junction, Colorado 1881 1882 400 block Colorado Avenue Grand Junction Mesa Colorado 81501 USA Grand Junction's first school was a small picket house, already in existence, on Colorado Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets. It was a subscription school. Nannie Blain was hired as the first school teacher. The school operated from 1881 until 1882, when the building collapsed. The building was of rough pole construction, with poles placed in a trench that had been dug in the ground and bound together, and more poles laid across the top for a roof. When the well-meaning superintendent of schools dug an irrigation ditch to deliver water to the school, so that a Sunday School begun by Nannie Blain could have a clean floor (the water was used for cleaning), it resulted in the collapse of the building. The school session was finished in the Armory. It was replaced by an adobe building on Main Street between 7th and 8th Streets. Information taken from "In the Beginning... A History of the Districts and Schools that became Mesa County Valley School District Number 51: 1881-1951. Albert and Terry LaSalle. Volume One, Reorganization. *Photograph courtesy of the Museums of Western Colorado yes yes