Anders Cote was curious about the history of his school as he headed into his junior year at Boulder’s Fairview High, so he started to research.
He gathered so much information, he ended up writing a book. His book includes more than 150 photos and covers Fairview’s architecture, academics, sports, music, culture and happenings over the school’s 60-year history.
“People in the community didn’t really know much about the school’s history,” he said. “I love history and architecture. I decided to put it together all in one place.”
He graduated last summer, but continued to work on the project and self published “Chronicles of the Knights; The History of Fairview High School,” in November. He’s currently a freshman at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
“After two and half years, it’s very, very nice to have it finally done,” he said. “It came out really well.”
Cote, who did all his research for the book in his free time, started by joining Fairview alumni groups on Facebook. He ended up interviewing 40 former and current students and staff members.
“One interview led me to another,” he said. “I got a lot of good information and stories.”
He also read through all the school’s yearbooks and visited Boulder’s Carnegie Library, where he found historic photos, old newspaper clippings and floor plans and pictures from the original building.
“I didn’t expect it to be as rich and as detailed a history as it is,” he said.
Fairview, Boulder’s second high school, was originally located in the building that’s now Platt Middle School. As the school became overcrowded, a new site was found on top of a hill in south Boulder near Viele Lake.
The new building, which opened at its current location at 1515 Greenbriar Blvd. in 1971, was designed by local architect Hobart Wagener. His design featured lots of concrete, deep window wells and ramps, as well as following the “open school” model popular in the 1970s.
“People make fun of the design all the time,” Cote said, referring to comparisons of the school to a prison. “But even with all the concrete and lack of windows, I think it’s a really interesting building.”
The building’s classrooms-in-the round design also was meant to support a college style education program developed by the teachers.
“It was kind of like a mini college, with a college schedule,” Cote said. “It would be cool if they brought some elements of that back.”
He documented multiple changes to the school’s academic program over the years, as well as uncovering little known facts about the school.
One is that Fairview, for most of its history, only had three grades: 10th, 11th and 12th. Ninth grade was added in the ’90s. Another is that the school’s first “head girl” was Joan Van Ark, who went on to play a character on the television show “Knots Landing.” Then there was the 1978 snowstorm that led to the collapse of the roof over the school’s student center. Students were taking the ACT on the other side of the school at the time, so no one was injured.
He also debunked the rumor of a pool hidden under the school. While there may have been an initial plan to add a pool, the only thing that’s been underneath the school’s gym is a large storage space.
Principal Don Stensrud helped by loaning Cote copies of all of the school’s yearbooks, sharing information from his 17 years leading the school and giving him names of alumni and longtime teachers.
“He did lots of really fun research,” Stensrud said. “He did a great job. It was his labor of love.”
Cote said the project reinforced his love for history, a subject he’s considering choosing as his major.
“The whole process taught me how to research for a big project, how to be impartial and how to make sure things are accurate,” he said.
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Fairview High grad self publishes book on school’s history - Boulder Daily Camera
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