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Published by caressadilthey on Wed, 06/27/2012 - 11:30

201 Gillam Road

School no longer in operation

It is unknown when this school was built. It last operated as Pike Elementary during the 1954-55 school year; in 1955 it became known as Granite Mountain Elementary. Its name was changed again to Martin Luther King Intermediate School in 1981. The school closed in 1982. This school is named for Albert Pike (1809-1891).


Albert Pike was an attorney, soldier, writer and Freemason. He was born in Boston and settled in Arkansas in 1833 where he taught school and wrote a series of articles for the Arkansas Advocate. He eventually bought the Advocate; under his administration, the paper promoted the viewpoint of the Whig party in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas. Pike was admitted to the bar in 1837 and sold the Advocate the same year. When the Mexican-American War started, he became a troop commander in the cavalry. Then, at the beginning of the Civil War, he was appointed Confederate envoy to the Native Americans, negotiating several treaties, one of the most important being with Cherokee chief John Ross. He fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge. After the war, Pike joined a Masonic lodge and became active in the affairs of the organization, being elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction in 1859. He devoted a large amount of his time to perfection of the rituals of the order, including publishing a book called Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1872. Pike died in Washington, D.C., and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.


LRSD archives.
Masonic Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon web site; Albert Pike biography page: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/pike_a/pike_a.html

Updated March 2005