NORTH SIDE/ELIOT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
6800 So. Cedar Lake Road

Some information presented here comes from a history of Eliot School written by Victor S. Formo and published in the Dispatch on April 24, 1952.  If you have any additions or clarifications, please contact us.

FIRST SCHOOL - NORTH SIDE

The first goes back to 1885, when the North Side School was built near the northern boundary of the township in the "Falvey District." (Louisiana Ave. was then called Falvey Street after the Falvey family.)  It was a wooden structure.  The first improvement was in 1890 when a well was dug.  The building was eventually sold for $150 and removed. (Another source says it was given to the neighborhood for use as a barn.)

SECOND SCHOOL - NORTH SIDE

A new North Side School was built for $6,700.  Classes began in the new structure in December 1913. Also a frame structure, this building was destroyed by fire on April 2, 1926. Legend has it that a janitor fell asleep and his newspaper caught fire.

THIRD SCHOOL - ELIOT

A bond issue for the new building in the amount of $20,000 was voted in on June 15, 1926.  Students attended Oak Hill School while it was being built. The new school was proposed to be renamed Highcroft, but on petition of residents, it was changed to Eliot. Her family lore has it that Lillian McBride Ryan was instrumental in helping build the new school and in creating its new name, but we do not know the origin of the name Eliot. Keith Meland speculates that it was named after Charles W. Eliot (1834-1926), who was President of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909.  There are many Eliot Schools in the US named after him, and our school was built in the year of his death. 

Eliot School, 1926


A new janitor, Joe Koelfgen, would serve the school from 1932 to 1954.

In the beginning, the school had only an auditorium in the basement, two classrooms on the first floor (the ones on the east side near the front door), and two unfinished classrooms upstairs.  Grades 1-3 shared one room, and grades 4-6 were in the other.  The picture below is from 1926.

A contract to finish the two upper rooms was let on June 3, 1941.

1952 ADDITION
 

Contracts for a remodeling of the old structure and construction of 20 more classrooms were let on November 30, 1950 to accommodate the swelling numbers of families moving to the north side. The architect of the project was John Belair, architect from Haxby, Bissell, and Belair.  The $825,000 addition was opened on March 4, 1952, with entertainment by the High School Glee Club under the direction of Gordon Griebenow. The principal was Mary Towey, who had been a teacher at Brookside. Kids moved to the expanded school from cramped quarters in the west wing of the Central building.  The school now contained 24 classrooms, a large gymnasium/auditorium, storage and office space, cafeteria and kitchen, and a small meeting room where the old auditorium had been.

Undated photo from school district

In the 1950s, the Eliot Mothers Singers were directed by Betty Meister.  They performed for the Oak Hill-Park Knoll PTA during the 1955-56 school year.

A PTA booklet from 1955-56 shows the distribution of the ages of students on the North Side:  Grades 1-3 had no less than six classes each, while Grades 5 and 6 had only two.  Here are floor plans from that booklet:





In 1974, a scandal exploded, with teachers charging the school, and particularly Principal Mary Towey, of wrongdoing over a 20-year period. The School Board seemed reluctant to act, but some parents were so incensed that they moved out of the neighborhood. 

By 1977 the boomers had passed through and the school was closed. 1,000 people attended a 50th anniversary party for the school in June.  Children were reassigned to Peter Hobart and Cedar Manor. In November it opened as a fine arts center.



 

In 1981, a suspiciously high incidence of breast cancer seemed to be present in women who worked, volunteered, or were students at the Eliot building. Chemicals in the water, left over from years of industrial pollution, were suspect. The State Department of Health investigated, but concluded that there was nothing in the building or in the water that could explain the trend. In 1982, superintendent Mike Hickey sent a memo to the concerned women that said that no more action on the part of the school district was warranted, stating that diseases tend to occur in clusters.

Ken Storm organized an Eliot School reunion in 1992 that was very successful.  The oldest teacher attending was Miss Agnes Aarseth, who taught from 1930 to 1974. 

Thanks to a generous donation, the Historical Society has in its collection Eliot Elementary School PTA Directories from 1954 to 1967. There are also several years of teacher rosters. We only have one student yearbook, from 1977.  If anyone has any more to donate, we'd appreciate it!

Eliot was shuttered and its programs were moved to other buildings.  Proposals to redevelop the site have fallen through - the cost of the land and demolition call for the development of multifamily housing, but the neighborhood protested.  See the article in the Sun-Sailor.  After a reversal, in December 2012 the City Council decided to go forward with a plan to built apartment buildings and single-family houses on the site.  Developer Dan Hunt plans to build the 138-unit Eliot Park Apartments in two buildings in addition to three single-family homes.


The building has been considerably vandalized and damaged, making it unsafe to tour one last time.   



 

NORTH SIDE MOTHERS' CLUB

In the years before the advent of the PTA, mothers banded together to raise funds and provide their children's schools with items the school board could not or would not provide. The Northside Mothers’ Club formed in about 1923, changing its name to Eliot as the new school was built. The stated purpose of the club was “to study the welfare of the pupils of North Side School and of the young people of this community who might be helped by the club.”

The Mothers’ Club concerned itself with a variety of needs, the most important of which was providing the students with a hot lunch. It appears that they made these lunches themselves, but were continually lobbying the school board to provide such lunches and were still doing so in 1930.

The group held events such as dances, bridge parties, and bunco parties to raise money for such items as:

Balls and bats for the boys
Long jump rope for the girls
Phonograph records for the school
Easter party
Oil cloth for art tables
Christmas trees in classrooms (a common contribution of PTAs)
Shades for windows
Furnishings for rest room – davenport/day bed
School picnics

They also went in with the Ladies Aid Society to purchase T.B. (tuberculosis) bonds. And they sent flowers to teachers, etc. who were ill – one of their goals was to “remember the sick in different localities.”

One interesting fundraiser was a “Hard Time Dance,” held in January 1931. A prize went to the best hard time dressed lady and man.

In 1932, a sand and gravel company provided free sand for the playground.

In 1933, they “financed and sponsored a boy scout movement” with the Ladies’ Aid.

In 1934 they celebrated Founder’s Day with a skit, songs, and a cake, but founder of what? That year they heard Mr. Roy Olson from the St. Cloud Reformatory speak on the present crime wave among our boys and girls.

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.