A Brief History of the
Utah School for the Deaf
Compiled & Written by Jodi Becker Kinner
Edited by Valerie G. Kinney & Bronwyn O'Hara
2014
Edited by Valerie G. Kinney & Bronwyn O'Hara
2014
1884 - The Utah School for the Deaf began in 1884 as as a territorial school for the deaf students in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was established at the University of Deseret (later renamed to the University of Utah) in Salt Lake City, Utah by parents of Deaf children, William Wood and Joseph Beck. Upon recommendation of Dr. Edward M. Gallaudet, president of Gallaudet College, Henry C. White (deaf) was appointed principal of the Utah School for the Deaf in Salt Lake City by Dr. John R. Park, president of the University of Utah (The Utah Eagle, February 1922). The school, established by the Legislature as a department of the state university was opened in a room in the University building on August 26, 1884.
Utah School for the Deaf at University of Utah Campus @ APH Callhan Museum
1886-1887 - With Deaf Professor Henry C. White’s own funds, he boarded the students in his home in Salt Lake City, Utah for one year in 1886.
Source: Histories of Americans School for the Deaf, 1817-1893
Source: Histories of Americans School for the Deaf, 1817-1893
Utah School for the Deaf at Henry C. White's home, Salt Lake City, Utah
This is the picture of the Main Building (front), showing the Annex Building (back). The Main Building was originally built as a territorial reform school. It was still the reform school when this picture was taken. All those people we see in it belonged to the reform school that time. In 1896, the reform school became the Utah School for the Deaf and the Blind.
Territorial Reform School, Ogden, Utah
1896 - When Utah was admitted into the Union in 1896, the legislature transferred the Utah School for the Deaf on September 15 into the Territorial Reform School on 57 acres in Ogden. For the first time, the school for the blind was added and the school became Utah School for the Deaf and Blind.
This is the picture of Main Building of the Utah School for the Deaf in Ogden, Utah. The Annex Building is in the back of the Main Building.
This is the picture of Main Building of the Utah School for the Deaf in Ogden, Utah. The Annex Building is in the back of the Main Building.
Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Ogden, Utah, 1896 @ APH Callhan Museum
This is what the Main Building looked like back then. Superintendent. Frank M. Driggs & his wife used to live on the 2nd floor before their campus home was built, 1901-02.
The Main Building of the Utah School for the Deaf
Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Ogden, Utah
1954 - A new Main Building, known as Adminstration Classroom Building, was built in front of the old Main Building at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Ogden, Utah, 1954. Soon after the completion of the new Main Building, the old Main Building was torn down.
A new Main Building of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Ogden, Utah
Extension Division in Salt Lake City, Utah, 1959.
1959 - The Utah School for the Deaf set up an Extension Division in Salt Lake City, Utah. This school allowed deaf students to attend classes near home. The Extension Divisions were eventually established in different parts of the state of Utah in order to provide a day program for aurally deaf children in more heavily populated areas.
1960s - Under the leadership of Dr. Grant B. Bitter, a staunch advocate for oral and mainstream education for deaf and hard of hearing students, Utah's trend toward mainstreaming grew steadily in the 1960s, before the term became popular with the passing in 1975 of Public Law 94-142, now known as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Over the years, Dr. Bitter was a teacher and curriculum coordinator of the Extension Division School for the Deaf in Salt Lake City, Utah, a director and professor of the Oral Teacher Training Program under the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah, and coordinator of the Seminary Program of the deaf under the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day in the State of Utah. He was also the father of a deaf daughter, Colleen and became a strong proponent for the oral teaching method. With Dr. Bitter’s effort in 1962, a new policy of USD embraced the Dual Division, known as the “Y” system. Through this system all deaf and hard of hearing children had to begin their education in the Oral Division and were not allowed to enter the Simultaneous Communication Division until age 11 or 6th grade.
When the Utah State Board of Education approved the Dual Track Program in June 1962, the Utah School for the Deaf (USD) in Ogden summarily divided into two divisions, i.e., the Oral and the Simultaneous Communication Division. Each had separate classrooms, dormitory facilities, recess, and co-curricular activities, except athletic programs (The Utah Eagle, February 1968; Ogden Standard-Examiner, October, 19, 1970).
1970s - The Deaf community in the form of the Utah Association for the Deaf battled for 10 years against the “Y” system. The “Y” System was then replaced by the “Two-Track” Education System at the Utah School for the Deaf, becoming official for the 1971-1972 school year. This was authorized by the USDB Governor’s Advisory Council and Utah State Board of Education (Ogden Standard-Examiner, December 29, 1970). The new system was designed to provide options for parents to choose between oralism and total communication for a child from 2 ½ to 21 years old of age (Note: Simultaneous Communication had been replaced with Total Communication) (Deseret News, December 29, 1970). Despite the new program, Dr. Bitter continued to strongly promote oralism and mainstreaming. As the numbers of deaf children being mainstreamed increased, the USD alumni sadly watched the school and deaf education slowly change over the years.
1960s - Under the leadership of Dr. Grant B. Bitter, a staunch advocate for oral and mainstream education for deaf and hard of hearing students, Utah's trend toward mainstreaming grew steadily in the 1960s, before the term became popular with the passing in 1975 of Public Law 94-142, now known as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Over the years, Dr. Bitter was a teacher and curriculum coordinator of the Extension Division School for the Deaf in Salt Lake City, Utah, a director and professor of the Oral Teacher Training Program under the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah, and coordinator of the Seminary Program of the deaf under the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day in the State of Utah. He was also the father of a deaf daughter, Colleen and became a strong proponent for the oral teaching method. With Dr. Bitter’s effort in 1962, a new policy of USD embraced the Dual Division, known as the “Y” system. Through this system all deaf and hard of hearing children had to begin their education in the Oral Division and were not allowed to enter the Simultaneous Communication Division until age 11 or 6th grade.
When the Utah State Board of Education approved the Dual Track Program in June 1962, the Utah School for the Deaf (USD) in Ogden summarily divided into two divisions, i.e., the Oral and the Simultaneous Communication Division. Each had separate classrooms, dormitory facilities, recess, and co-curricular activities, except athletic programs (The Utah Eagle, February 1968; Ogden Standard-Examiner, October, 19, 1970).
1970s - The Deaf community in the form of the Utah Association for the Deaf battled for 10 years against the “Y” system. The “Y” System was then replaced by the “Two-Track” Education System at the Utah School for the Deaf, becoming official for the 1971-1972 school year. This was authorized by the USDB Governor’s Advisory Council and Utah State Board of Education (Ogden Standard-Examiner, December 29, 1970). The new system was designed to provide options for parents to choose between oralism and total communication for a child from 2 ½ to 21 years old of age (Note: Simultaneous Communication had been replaced with Total Communication) (Deseret News, December 29, 1970). Despite the new program, Dr. Bitter continued to strongly promote oralism and mainstreaming. As the numbers of deaf children being mainstreamed increased, the USD alumni sadly watched the school and deaf education slowly change over the years.
1969 - In January 1969, the new facilities for the blind school were completed on another campus. Since then, the Deaf school was located at 20th Street and Monroe Avenue while the blind school was at 7th Street and Harrison Boulevard.
1991 - The groundbreaking ceremony for a new facility of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind took place October 1, 1991 on the campus at 742 Harrison Boulevard in Ogden.
1993 - Utah State Board of Education sold the old Utah School for the Deaf campus to the Ogden School District.
1993 - Both Utah School for the Deaf and Utah School for the Blind were consolidated and the new main Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind campus was built on the new 13.5 acre campus at 742 Harrison Blvd.
PHOTO: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1993. Control, Inc.
1993 - Utah State Board of Education sold the old Utah School for the Deaf campus to the Ogden School District.
1993 - Both Utah School for the Deaf and Utah School for the Blind were consolidated and the new main Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind campus was built on the new 13.5 acre campus at 742 Harrison Blvd.
PHOTO: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1993. Control, Inc.
Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Ogden, Utah
Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Salt Lake City, Utah. @ USDB Website.
1999 - After the Bi-Bi Committee of the Utah Association for the Deaf, chaired by Minnie Mae Wilding-Diaz had been working several months in search of a worthy educational program for deaf children in Utah: two leaders emerged: Minnie Mae and Jeff Allen, a hearing parent with a deaf daughter. In 1999, Jean Massieu School of the Deaf, an ASL/English bilingual program, was established as a public charter school in Salt Lake City, Utah. The new charter school was named Jean Massieu School of the Deaf in honor of Jean Massieu, a French Deaf teacher.
2005 - Legislative efforts by Joe Zeidner (hearing parent of a deaf daughter) on behalf of the Utah Deaf Education and Literacy, Inc, Jean Massieu School of the Deaf was merged with Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in 2005.
2005 - Legislative efforts by Joe Zeidner (hearing parent of a deaf daughter) on behalf of the Utah Deaf Education and Literacy, Inc, Jean Massieu School of the Deaf was merged with Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in 2005.
Jean Massieu School of the Deaf, Salt Lake City, Utah
2008 - In 2008, the Jean Massieu School of the Deaf merged with the Total Communication program of the Utah School for the Deaf. Most of the Total Communication teachers had been trained in the Deaf Education program at Utah State University. This program emphasized an ASL/English bilingual approach. The resultant merger allowed the Total Communication teachers to officially apply the ASL/English bilingual approach in their classrooms. The merger increased the critical mass of students which enhanced the educational environment and the students' peer group. This helped language growth and provided a stronger ASL/English bilingual school (Michelle Tanner, personal communication, July 8, 2011). Michelle Tanner, a long time teacher of the Total Communication Program and principal of the Jean Massisu School of the Deaf and Associate Superintendent of the Utah School for the Deaf, pushed for the merge, as it was her dream.
2010 - The crowning moment came in January of 2010 when the staff and students of the Jean Massieu School of the Deaf, along with a few other USDB programs, moved into the building located at 1655 East 3300 South in Salt Lake City, Utah. They finally had a home to call their own, after 10 years of frustrated, repeatedly denied requests from the Utah legislature.
Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Ogden, Utah
2011 - Under the administration of Trena Roueche', an USD Associate Superintendent, the ASL/English Bilingual program at the Ogden Campus was named in honor of Kenneth C. Burdett (deaf) who had a long history connected to the Utah School for the Deaf. Kenneth C. contributed unselfish service to the USD. He served the school for four decades from 1934 to 1974. He spent his fifty-two years at the USD as a student, Boy’s Supervisor, Head Basketball Coach, Athletic Director, Teacher, Printing Instructor, and Curriculum Coordinator.
PHOTO: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1993. Control, Inc.
PHOTO: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1993. Control, Inc.
C. Mark Openshaw Education Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
The new Education Center at Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind campus in Salt Lake City, Utah was dedicated on October 6, 2016. The grand opening and ribbon cutting celebration honored the late member of Utah State Board of Education, C. Mark Openshaw.
It contains offices for administrators and rooms for preschool classes for Listening and Spoken Language and blind students. This building is also located at located at 1655 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, UT 84106.
The eagle logo on the new gym floor inside the C. Mark Openshaw Education Center was designed by Brandon R. Hill, a deaf individual and Gallaudet graduate, ‘03 & ‘13. The key element was carried over from the USDB Eagle logo to create a new one to represent the school.
It contains offices for administrators and rooms for preschool classes for Listening and Spoken Language and blind students. This building is also located at located at 1655 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, UT 84106.
The eagle logo on the new gym floor inside the C. Mark Openshaw Education Center was designed by Brandon R. Hill, a deaf individual and Gallaudet graduate, ‘03 & ‘13. The key element was carried over from the USDB Eagle logo to create a new one to represent the school.
Upon approval from the Utah State Board of Education and USDB Advisory Council in October 2019, USDB announced a new Deaf School in Springville, Utah. It is known as the “Elizabeth DeLong School of the Deaf,” named in honor of Elizabeth DeLong. The school opened on January 6, 2020. What a great way of honoring the legacy of Elizabeth DeLong!
Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Springville, Utah