The design of the new Vian High School (VHS) reflects an architectural style known as “Cherokee Gothic,” modernized and adapted for the Vian campus and community.
This style of architecture is a uniquely Oklahoman version of classic Collegiate Gothic style–a traditional symbol of American and European education institutions. The term “Cherokee Gothic” was coined by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright used the term to describe the distinctive style of college and seminary buildings in Oklahoma and Indian Territory in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Wright, who is widely viewed as the greatest American architect of his time, toured Oklahoma in the 1940s and 1950s, and lectured at the University of Oklahoma’s school of architecture. Some of the same buildings that led Wright to coin the “Cherokee Gothic” term were also fitting inspirations for the Vian School’s architects as they designed a new high school for a proud community in the heart of Oklahoma’s Cherokee Nation.
A major local inspiration for the new VHS building’s appearance was the three-story VHS built in 1909 on Rodgers Street, just north of the location of the current Vian Elementary. That historic red brick building had blondbrick- trimmed columns, cast stone trim, and an arched entryway – features visibly repeated in the new school.
The architects also referenced images of historic Cherokee seminaries in Tahlequah and of Oklahoma University buildings in Norman. Multiple aspects of the resulting plan echo those designs. Jessika Poteet, the lead architect on the project, is a native of the Tahlequah area and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma.
The new VHS building includes numerous characteristics of classic Collegiate and Cherokee Gothic styles, all adapted for a 21st Century school with a small-town setting and a careful budget.
Most conspicuous is a portico tower entrance with cast-stone and brick arches on three sides. Two-colored red-andblond brick columns support the arches and anchor every corner of the building.
The brick facades have flat parapet tops, contrasting brick and cast stone stringcourses, arched windows, and a rough stone exterior wainscot – all distinctive aspects of the traditional styles.
The same type of twocolored brick columns is used for a pergola colonnade in front of the building and in the building’s oversized interior common area.
Though the new VHS building’s style is a noticeable departure from the simpler, understated and functional look of the Vian campus’ other buildings, the new school was designed to fit in.
Most of Vian’s existing campus is blonde brick with dark brown roofing and trim. The new building has extensive blond brick accents, brownstone wainscoting, and beige EIFS (stucco) on its west facades – all intended to blend well with the older buildings.
Iron fencing with similar brick columns will soon surround the stadium just south of the new building and will further tie together the look of the campus.
The glass-walled, highceiling common areas of the entrance, reception and media center blend the traditional architecture of the building’s exterior with the modern school inside it – combining brick columns like those outside with touches of Wolverine purple and gold to bring alive the spirit of VHS, past and future.
Traditional architecture and high-quality masonry construction give the building an appropriate sense of importance and permanence. The new VHS was built for the ages and should serve the community for at least half a century.
The first classes of VHS students to attend the new high school will likely someday send their grandchildren to these same classrooms. The building is, by far, the town’s most impressive structure, and its prominent location on Hwy. 82 makes it visible to most visitors to the Vian community. It should serve as a symbol of a proud, strong community that values education, prioritizes its youth, and expects a thriving future.
Prior high school buildings
The history of Vian’s schools predates both Oklahoma’s 1907 statehood and the town’s 1902 federal Indian Territory charter.
According to local history, Cherokee schools in the community date back to the early 19th Century, and a wooden schoolhouse known as the “Union School” was built about 1898 on land that is still today part of the Vian Public Schools (VPS) campus.
In 1909, Vian Schools built a stately three-story facility near the corner of Rodgers and Sanders (on the site of what is now the Elementary Media Center). Numerous features of the new 2024 high school were taken from the design of this impressive brick structure. The 1909 building was torn down in 1947.
A 1935 federal W.P.A. program brought VPS a new rock schoolhouse and gym on Hunter Street at the northwest corner of the current campus. The rock gym is still functioning and is the oldest building on Vian’s campus. The rock schoolhouse continued to serve as an elementary and middle school through the late 1970s.
Until 1957, the Douglas School in Vian served most of the county’s black students. The wooden schoolhouse stood a few hundred yards southeast of the current VPS campus. The Douglas School was closed when Vian Schools were desegregated and its students integrated into the VPS system. The Douglas School building no longer stands.
The VHS building near the intersection of Hunter Street and Cherokee Street was built in 1955. Construction of that $138,000 federally funded high school was followed quickly by a new auditorium, and then a new gymnasium, completed in 1962.
The gym still stands and functions as Vian’s fieldhouse. It bears the name of BJ Traw, the superintendent of schools who orchestrated the school, gym and auditorium projects.
The 1955 high school building served Vian students for nearly 70 years.
