History
Formerly known as the University of Washington Graduate School of Public Affairs, the Evans School was founded in 1962 as the nation’s first school of public affairs at a public university. The Evans School was renamed in 2000 to honor one of Washington State’s most revered politicians, Daniel J. Evans, who served both as a U.S. Senator and Washington State Governor.
In 2003, the Evans School welcomed its sixth dean, Sandra O. Archibald, who is working to take the school’s strong legacy of public service and academic achievement created by her predeccessors – Brewster Denny, Jared Hazelton, Hubert Locke, Margo Gordon, and Marc Lindenberg – into the next era.
In 1987, the University of Washington gifted Parrington Hall to the Evans School. After two years of extensive exterior renovations and upgrades of the 85-year-old building, the administrative and faculty offices of the Evans School were transferred to it from the basement of Smith Hall.
Parrington Hall is the second oldest building on the university’s main campus in Seattle. It was built in 1902 and originally served as the university’s science building. It was renamed in 1929 after the university’s popular English Professor Vernon L. Parrington, who is best known for his Pulitzer-Prize winning book Main Currents in American Thought. It is possible that Parrington might not have felt honored by having the building posthumously named after him, as he is said to have once remarked that the building was the ugliest he had ever seen.
Find out more about the history of the University of Washington, and people of inspiration behind the Evans School, including:
