PUBLIC SCHOOLS TIMELINE

There is much more that can be added to this timeline; please contact us if you have any additions or corrections.

Pratt School was opened in 1859.  It was located at Excelsior Blvd. and Wooddale, then called Pleasant Ave.

Manhattan Park School was built in 1885 and was located on Inglewood and 31st.

North Side School was built at 6800 Cedar Lake Road in 1885.

St. Louis Park's Independent School District was organized with two schools (Pratt and North) in 1888.

Lincoln School was built in 1889 at 5925 W. 37th Street.

Oak Hill I: The first Oak Hill School building was the old Pratt Schoolhouse, which was moved to Pennsylvania and Walker in 1892. It was also known as South School in this location.

In 1900, the first seniors (six girls and a boy) graduated from Lincoln High.

In 1902 there were two graduates from Lincoln, one being Alice Rixon.

A commencement program for the eighth grade, Lincoln School, was held on June 3, 1903. There were 19 graduates.

Fern Hill School I was built in 1905 at 4725 Minnetonka Blvd. (at Ottawa).

Manhattan Park School was discontinued in 1905.

A May Fete, "The Land of Sometime" was given by 300 grade school students of St. Louis Park schools on May 31, 1912.  "Groups of children appropriately costumed will represent different nations in costume, song, and folk dance." 

1912 Commencement exercises were held on June 3 at the Odd Fellows Hall.  High school teachers were Miss Foster, Miss Crouse, Miss Todd, and Miss Hill.  There were eight graduates, four boys and four girls, from "Lincoln High." 

The first, western portion of what would become Central Jr. High was built in 1914 at 6300 Walker Street.

In 1915, the 7th graders were moved to the Brick Block for lack of space.

The High School newspaper, The Echo, was started in 1916.

In 1918, Oak Hill I was replaced by a brick building (Oak Hill II) at Walker and Quebec, very near the Creosote plant. More classrooms were added in 1924.

Brookside Elementary School opened in 1921 at 4100 Vernon Ave. Additions were built in 1926 and 1949.

In 1924, students began banking at Farmers and Mechanics Bank through their schools.

Eliot Elementary School was built in 1926 at 6800 So. Cedar Lake Road when the North Side School burned down.

The High School yearbook, "The Echowan," started in 1929.

In 1931 the "School Police" was established, i.e., the student safety patrol program.
 

The 1934-35 directory brought greetings from the Superintendent of Schools, N.H. McKay, who described the system of tracking that has since been eliminated from American schools:

The high school courses consist of three, as follows: Academic, Commercial and General. The Academic source provides the required subjects for University or college entrance. The Commercial subjects offered are Business Organization, Bookkeeping, both beginning and advanced Shorthand and Typing and Commercial Geography. The General Course which leads to High School Graduation only permits the selection of subjects from any of the subject fields offered.

In March 1936, 150-200 high school students staged a two-day strike to protest the school board's acceptance of the resignation of Principal J.W. McNeal.

Lincoln School was sold to the Village in 1938.

In 1937-38, (Central) High School was built next to the 1914 structure.  Dedication ceremonies were held on October 26, 1938.  A tunnel was dug under Highway 7 but was quickly abandoned.  Major additions to the Central building were made in 1941.

In April, 1940, the St. Louis Park Recreational Planning Committee sponsored an "All School Revue," under the direction of Lola K. Gilmore, author and director.  Every school in the park presented musical numbers, separately and with other schools. 

Most Holy Trinity Catholic School, located at 3949 Wooddale Ave., opened in September 1945.

The Class of 1949 had 209 graduates, then the highest in history.

Fern Hill School I was closed in 1950, but reopened under the name Park Hill.

On March 8, 1950, a blizzard closed schools - a move that was seldom made in those days.

In 1950 there were 4,502 children in the school system.

Fern Hill School II was built at 2800 Joppa Ave. in 1950.

Holy Family Academy opened in the fall of 1951 at 5925 W. Lake St.

In 1952, the old 1914 Central building was demolished and replaced.

In 1952, John Louis and Dorothy Stewart ran John O. Louis and Associates Public Relations Consultants at 5047 Excelsior Blvd. (no such number?) They had a contract for $6,000 with the Park School Board, which became controversial as opinion spread that it was a waste of money. The company generated leaflets for school kids to take to their parents, and had something to do with a Citizens Advisory Committee on Public Education, but by August they were fired.

20 more classrooms were added to Eliot School in 1952.

Park Knoll School was built in 1952 at Texas Avenue and 36th Street.

In 1954, school enrollment was 7,383.  Conditions were so crowded that in the 1954-55 and 1955-56 school years, students attended school in double shifts. 1331 junior high students attending class in the morning and the 881 high school students attending class in the afternoon. During those years there were almost 2,500 students in the building.

Benilde High School for Catholic Boys, located at 2501 Highway 100 So., was built by the Christian Brothers in 1955.

Ethel Baston Elementary School was built in 1955.

St. Louis Park Senior High School was built in 1956 at 6425 W. 33rd Street. Things got off to a rough start, as the Minneapolis Star reported on a crisis at the new high school: “It all started…when an early-morning disk jockey plugging ‘Oscar Socks’ urged students to don knee-highs of one design left leg, contrasting design right leg. Girls responded in droves…But Principal Edward Foltmer…suppressed the fad promptly. ‘We’d be opposed to any distracting influence at school,’ he explained with a cautious smile. ‘We can’t allow bizarre clothing.’ A bag lunch protest last Friday, with many girls wearing black and spurning the school’s hot lunch, followed. Boys at St. Louis Park High came to the girls’ rescue. ‘The boys wore their shirt tails out in protest after we weren’t allowed to wear Oscar Socks,’ student Elaine Smedberg said. ‘But the administration made ‘em pull the shirt tails in. So the boys hiked up their pants, wore them around their ribs. Then a week ago, about 15 boys peroxided their hair.’ Next morning, ‘the kids hissed the principal and started singing “Chain Gang” in school,’ other girls reported.” The School’s student council came to the rescue and calmed the situation down. The PTA put a teenage dress code on its next agenda. [In other wardrobe-related news, students were no longer allowed to wear blue jeans to the new high school for fear the rivets would scratch the new desks, etc.]

Aquila Elementary School was built in 1957 at 8500 W. 31st. Street. An addition was built in 1967.

In 1957, students, teachers, and parents came together to create a Teen Age Code for Park’s 900 junior high school students. The code was based on a model Minnesota code, but the school got national publicity for being an innovator. Still to be found is a copy of the code.

9,600 kids were in the school system in 1957.  79 new teachers had to be hired due to an “epidemic of pregnancies.”

Cedar Manor Elementary School was built at 9400 Cedar Lake Road in 1957.

Timothy Lutheran Day School was convened in 1958 in the basement of Timothy Lutheran Church, 7814 Minnetonka Blvd.

Westwood Junior High was built at 2025 Texas Avenue So. in 1959. 2,000 people attended its dedication on November 1, 1959. Paul Schroeder was principal from day 1 until 1983. The school was built to supplement Central Jr. High and was designed to serve up to 1,200 students. That first year, enrollment was 757.

A 1960 Youth Conference was held at the high school on February 16. The topic was “Culture of American Youth – Decadence or Progress?” Two decidedly adult speakers were featured.

There were 63 sets of twins attending St. Louis Park schools in the 1962-63 school year.

The "circle" was added to the high school, opening in 1962.

Additions were made to the Central building in 1963 and 1967.

December 1965 saw the advent of the Granny Dress, which was basically kind of a long calico print nightgown. As with any fad, the school district promptly banned them – except for school dances. (“The [Central] School handbook definitely states that students must clear any new fads through our office.”) They were selling big in local stores such as Haugland’s for the Young in Miracle Mile, and Powers at Knollwood, which advertised “Mother and Daughter Granny Look A Likes” with matching head scarves. The buyer at Haugland’s pitched the dresses as dual purpose: “They can also be used for robes or nightgowns.” But even as the fad reached its zenith, most were reporting that it was already on its way out.

The old Lincoln School building was demolished in 1966.

Park Hill was decommissioned in 1967.

Peter Hobart Elementary School was built in 1967 at 6500 W. 26th Street.

Susan Lindgren Elementary School was opened in 1968 at 4801 W. 41st Street.

October 15, 1969, was Moratorium Day, when the Student Mobilization Committee demanded “Peace Now” and gathered at Northrop Auditorium for speeches. Numbers of St. Louis Park High School students walked out carrying candles. Those at Central Jr. High were told to get away from the windows.

Senatorial Candidate Hubert Humphrey participated in the 1970 St. Louis Park High School Homecoming parade in early October. Also in the parade was Faith Kipperstin, Maid Marian (Miss St. Louis Park). This year's slogan was "Beat the Hill out of Mound."

790 students graduated in 1970.  That year there were 11,600 students in the system and 900 employees.

In 1971, for the first time, teachers in the public schools were issued guidelines as to how to celebrate the holidays. With 30 to 40 percent of the school population Jewish, Christmas was beginning to tread the line between church and state. Teachers were told no cards, no gifts, no evergreens, no Christmas carols (in non-elective courses) – and parties were to be designated “before the winter holiday.”

Metropolitan Open School, located at 3390 Library Lane, was established in 1972.

The St. Louis Park Senior Center opened at the former Lenox Elementary School in 1972.

Oak Hill School was transformed into offices.

In 1974, Benilde merged with St. Margaret’s Academy, a Catholic girls’ school in Minneapolis.

Oak Hill School was decommissioned and sold in 1974.

After the demise of Excelsior Amusement Park, the 1974 school patrol picnic was held at the Southtown and Village North Shopping Centers.

Brookside was decommissioned as a St. Louis Park school in 1975.

Eliot was decommissoned as a school in 1977.

Park Knoll School was sold in 1978. 

Central was decommissioned as a junior high in 1980, and Westwood became St. Louis Park Junior High.

Ethel Baston School was sold to Groves Learning Center in 1982.

Fern Hill School II was sold to Torah Academy in 1982.

Maimonides High School was founded in 1982.

Minneapolis Jewish Day School, located at 4330 Cedar Lake Road, came to St. Louis Park in 1984.

Central became the home of the Park Spanish Immersion Program in 1996.

Bais Yaakov High School began in 1996.



 

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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.