Robbinsdale Schools on Regent

The first school built on Regent, then called College Avenue was the Luther Theological Seminary Seminary. The building was situated on a ten-acre tract donated by early movers and shakers George L. Brimball, Alfred Parker, and Andrew B. Robbins. The school stood near 4001 Regent. It was a Seminary of the Norwegian Lutheran Church and was dedicated on September 8, 1889, before an audience of 5,000 people, programs in those days demanded a rugged audience; there were addresses by Governor Merriam, Senator Knute Nelson, University President Cyrus Northrop, sermons by the Seminary faculty and others. German, Swedish, Norwegian, and English were used in the talks.

The buildings were planned to accommodate 700 students eventually, but 45 was the enrollment for most of its existence. The lodging and instruction were free—board was $1.50 to $2 a week. Mrs. Etta Gates described the school as a massive brick building, imposing with its towers, stone trimming, and curving drives, beautifully landscaped with trees and shrubs. The Ylvisaker home, later the Swift home, was nearby. The basement of the Seminary housed the eating and cooking facilities; the president of the Seminary had his apartments and library on one of the upper floors. The Luther Theological Seminary was destroyed by fire on the very cold morning of January 11, 1895—in less than one hour. It was later rebuilt on Como Avenue in St. Paul.

In 1890, three years before Robbinsdale became a village, a new grade school was built. The citizens of the area thought the new building would be large enough for all time. The School Board consisting of L. A. Taylor Chairman; H.R Stillman, Clerk; and Jarius Russ, Treasurer. authorized the raising of $10,000 in taxes “District 24 secured one of the finest school buildings in the state, known as the Parker School, in honor of long time resident, Alfred Parker.

A brick building, with stone basement and trim. elegant in design, convenient in arrangement, supplied with all modern equipment, consists of eight rooms—four large school rooms, besides cloak rooms, office, and so on—exquisitely finished in oak. The basement contains the gymnasium and furnace room. It is well graded and will probably become one of the State High Schools within the next year.” So ran the account in the 1895 report of Hennepin County. It was heated with steam. There was a pond behind the school, especially deep in the spring. Robert W. Girod, who later became a pastor in Polar, Wisconsin, recalls a boy drowning in the pond.

 

 

In his 1891 Township History of Hennepin County, Crystal Village, E.K. Jaques wrote; “Robbinsdale has today one of the finest school buildings of its kind in the State. This school is known as Parker School, in honor of Mr. Alfred Parker, an old settler, and a strong supporter of the school. It is a brick building, with stone basement and trimmings, elegant in design and convenient in arrangement, being supplied with all modern equipments. It contains four large rooms besides cloak rooms, office and recitation rooms. The halls are spacious and the basement contains gymnasium and furnace rooms. The entire building is exquisitely finished in oak. The school is well graded and it will, probably, become one of the State High Schools with the next year.”

 

 

In 1913 the old Parker School, was deemed too small for a growing student body numbering over 200 students. $14,000 in bonds were issued to pay for the construction of four additional classrooms on the front of the building. The name was changed to Robbinsdale Public School. Carrie Swift organized Robbinsdale’s first Parent Teacher Association the same year. Back in those days the P.T.A provided hot lunches, milk and clothing for kids that would have otherwise gone without. A few years later the schools was expanded with a second addition to the to the south. In the 1920’s a more classrooms, administrative offices and an auditorium were added on the north and west sides of the building. Additions to the old Parker School could not be built fast enough. A wooden building known as the Southtown Portable was used to handle the overflow.

 

It had long been the dream of many citizens to have a high school in the village, but conditions had never seemed right until 1935 when the Federal Government, under its PWA program, added $122,000 (increasing it finally to $135,000) to the $124,000 voted by the taxpayers. Ground was broken in March, 1936, and the building was completed so that classes started September 11. Three houses and a store building were moved a block away and the new high school was built 30 feet from Parker School. The building was dedicated with impressive ceremonies on May 19, 1937.

 

Comments during the years that followed proved the wisdom of the investment, called by many the “best investment Robbinsdale ever made.” The School Board which guided this project to completion included: Dr. Henry E. Hartig, Chairman; Mrs. Edith Robbins Daniel, Clerk; A. E. Prince, Treasurer; Dr. F. P. Hosterman, William Cavanagh, and Dr, R. C. Rawson, Board members.

 

 

The year the new high school was completed, E. J. Cooper, school superintendent, reported that so popular is the new building and its many modern facilities were so popular that he had to repeatedly turn down requests from Minneapolis students who would like to enter there. Among some of the newer devices in the brick and fireproof building  were recessed clothes lockers in sound-proofed corridors, specialty purpose rooms, completely equipped technical and machine shop rooms and a two-way radio and public address system that allowed the principal to hear from his office what going on in every one of the school classrooms and to -talk back and forth with the instructor.

 

The completed building relieved Minneapolis High Schools of about 350 pupils—250 from Robbinsdale and about 100 more from nearby communities. The grade school and the new high school could easily accommodate from 1.500 to 1.600 pupils, comprising a $500,000 combined school plant. Robbinsdale High School quickly became a sports power. In the 1940’s, one of the school’s first sports stars, Vern Gagne excelled in football, baseball, boxing and wrestling. Gagne won district, regional and state championships in high school wrestling, as well as being named to the All-State Football Team. Gagne went on to become a professional wrestler, promoter and 16-time American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Champion.

 

 

Lee Elementary School opened in the fall of 1948, with Mr 0. B. Aftreth as its first principal. Over the next 28 years the war babies and the post-war baby boom were to require 18 more elementary schools, plus junior and senior high schools to be built in the new School District 281. In addition to Lee and the opening of Adair Elementary in 1952 allowed the school on Regent Avenue to house only grades seven through twelve, until due to the pressures of an increasing number of students, required a new Robbinsdale Senior High School to be built at Toledo and 37th Avenues. Mr. Milo Mielke, Principal moved to the new high school and held that position until he retired in 1968. after 39 years with our schools. The school on Regent Avenue became Robbinsdale Junior High School. Mr. Mark T. Woodward became principal of the Robbinsdale Junior High School and served until his retirement in 1974.

 

 

In 1965 the residents of the seven communities in District 281 voted to spend $600 ,000 to add a new pool building to Sandberg and Robbinsdale Junior High In the spring of 1967, the pools at opened for school and community use. The new swimming pools featured underwater windows to allow observation of swimmers and a sound system designed to aid the instructors. The main tank measured 75 feet by 42 feet with the additional diving area 30 feet by 16 feet. Water depth ranged from feet to 5 feet in the main pool to 9 feet in the diving area. Each pool held 128,000 gallons of water. Bromine, less irritating to the eyes and easier on the pool maintenance, was used as a disinfectant in the water.

 

 

In 1971, the oldest school building in Robbinsdale was demolished to make way for a new 3.5 million dollar, thirty-five classroom addition to Robbinsdale Junior High. The Parker School, later known as the Robbinsdale Public School was built in 1890. The building was expanded several times and served the community as an elementary school, junior high school and Robbinsdale School District offices.

 

In November 1971, The Robbinsdale High School newspaper, sent out Julie Bensen to find out what was going on with the Regent Avenue facilities. Mr. Gene Green, ATA President of Bissel, Belair and Green, a highly recognized Minneapolis architecture firm and architect for District 281 schools since 1937, told the intrepid Robin reporter, “The school is experiencing a rejuvenation which will update its facilities, correct the poor circulation of students through the building and consolidate departments which were hitherto scattered throughout the building.”

 

 

Some of the changes in the sweeping remodel included leveling the old auditorium floor and installing two full-size gymnasiums. creating an inner student court and
mall area, enlarging and remodeling the cafeteria, establishing a new library, and creating departmental learning resource centers and special teaching labs.

 

In 1979, Eight years after all that remodeling, Robbinsdale Junior High School was closed. This saddened Robbinsdale residents because it was the “sentimental heart” of the district as it was the site of the original Parker School, built in 1890. The original front of the school as remodeled in 1913, had been preserved until the last remodelling. But declining enrollment necessitated the closing of one junior high in the district. Joy Johnson Robb, who had attended grades K-12 at this school, unsuccessfully led the fight against the closing. The School Board indicated that the high school would not be closed, so Robbinsdale was appeased for at least a couple years.

 

Part of the building got a second life as the Robbinsdale Community Center. In 1984, hallways that were empty and lonely for five years again filled with activity when the former Robbinsdale Junior High School reopened to house the school district’s experimental Technology Learning Campus (TLC) and programs from the Sunny Hollow building in New Hope and Fair Community Education Center in Crystal. 300 students were admitted to TLC to attend full time. Eventually, District 281 moved the Technology Learning Campus and the Community Center was closed. In 2005 the old school buildings were torn down make way for  Parker Village Townhouses.

 

Earl R. Johnston RHS Class of 1951

This is the pedestal and plaques that the Robbinsdale Historical Society designed, built and paid for in memory of the two schools that stood on Regent and 42nd for so many years. Parker, later Robbinsdale Elementary School and Robbinsdale High School. Parker (1890 to 1972) and the first RHS building (1936 to 2004) the pedestal in the picture was built with bricks from the original High School.

This post was cobbled together using passages from Helen Blodgett’s “Robbinsdale Then and Now”, Pete Richie’s Images of America Robbinsdale,  articles in the Minneapolis Tribune, previous posts on this site, the Robbinsdale High School Newspaper, RHS Robins on Facebook and stuff I found in the back of file cabinets at the historical society. Many thanks to Jim Zieba for taking pictures before it was all gone.