PRATT SCHOOL
Excelsior Blvd. and Wooddale

The Pratt or Prattville School was built in the fall of 1859, and was located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Excelsior Blvd. and Pleasant Ave. (also known as "the schoolhouse road," later to be known as Wooddale). (There was no Highway 100 at the time) This was later the site of Lilac Way, and now the location of Park Village. This one room school was built by Edwin E. Edgerly of Richfield. (Frank Edwin Edgerly was the husband of Anna Grimes in nearby Edina.)

The Village's School District was known as the Pratt District – the Pratt family was prominent along Excelsior Blvd. George Craft was the first schoolmaster. One early student said it was called the Prattville School "I suppose because there were so many Pratt Villains who attended it." The winter term was always taught by a man, since the bigger boys were in attendance – they worked on the farm the rest of the time. These delightful young men spent most of their time torturing their teacher.

In about February 1866 the school burned down and was immediately rebuilt in the summer and early fall of 1867, again by Edwin E. Edgerly. Plans for building the two-room school were to be taken from “Menden Hall’s house.”

At the September 6, 1879 annual meeting of the school board, it was voted to insure the school for $400. Ella Grimes Eustis says “There is no evidence of any previous insurance. If the building went uninsured for eleven years the Trustees must have had more confidence in its big boys pyrotenic (sic) proclivities than the Hoosier Schoolmaster.”

At this 1879 meeting, the board also voted to adopt certain textbooks for the first time. They were:

Educational Readers
Swinton’s Spelling Books
Robinson’s Higher Arithmetic
International Electric Geography
Swinton’s Grammar
Lossing’s Outline History of the U.S.

In February 1880, it was voted to have three months of summer vacation instead of four.

In 1890 the building was discontinued as a school when Lincoln School opened.

In 1892 the building was moved "across the marsh" to Pennsylvania and Walker/Lake and was variously called Oak Hill School and South School in this location.

In 1918 the original building was replaced by a brick building at Walker and Quebec that was named Oak Hill School.

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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.