There’s a ten-acre tract along Regent Avenue near 42nd Avenue North that was, for more than a century, the educational heart of Robbinsdale. The story begins in 1889, when Andrew Bonney Robbins, George L. Brimhall, and Alfred Parker donated the land for the Luther Theological Seminary. The impressive brick seminary attracted thousands to its 1889 dedication but lasted only a few years before a devastating fire destroyed it in 1895.
Meanwhile the acreage found a new purpose beyond training seminarians. In 1890, three years before Robbinsdale became a village, the people undertook to educate children from kindergarten through eighth grade. Built with $10,000 in local taxes and named after early settler Alfred Parker, it was considered one of Hennepin County’s finest school buildings. It soon became the center of community life for area families.
As Robbinsdale’s population exploded, the old Parker School was expanded. By 1913 attendance grew to more than 200 students. Bonds were issued for $14,000 to fund the construction of four additional classrooms on the front of the building, and the name was changed to Robbinsdale Public School. A second addition to the south was constructed a few years later. In the 1920s more classrooms, administrative offices, and an auditorium were added on the north and west sides of the building. The student body continued to grow, so a wooden building known as the “Southtown Portable” was added to handle the overflow.
It had long been the dream of many citizens to have a high school in the village. The dream finally came true in 1935 when the Federal Public Works Administration provided $135,000 to supplement the $124,000 approved by the taxpayers. After three houses and a store building were moved a block away, ground was broken in March, 1936. The new high school was built 30 feet from the Parker School. It was completed in time for classes to start on September 11.
The postwar baby boom brought another transformation as the district added new schools, including the modern Robbinsdale Senior High School, opened in 1956, six blocks south on Toledo Avenue. The Regent Avenue campus became Robbinsdale Junior High, serving students in grades 7, 8, and 9 from 1956 to 1979.
The building once again became a gathering place when the gym, swimming pool, and meeting rooms opened as the Robbinsdale Community Center. In 1984, a fresh crop of students returned to classrooms to attend the innovative Technology Learning Center for grades 6-8. When those programs ended or moved elsewhere, the last of the Robbinsdale Schools on Regent met their demise. The buildings were demolished in 2005 to make way for Parker Village Townhouses, so named in respect for the old Parker School where it all began.
Today, a monument plaque stands at Regent and 42nd, built in part with salvaged bricks from the 1936 high school to commemorate the many lives of the Parker School, the Robbinsdale Public School, the Robbinsdale High School, and the Robbinsdale Junior High School.
The marker attests to the buildings that came and went, but also to the stories of people whose education, friendships, accomplishments, and memories rose from these ten acres over the course of a century.
Listen to the rest of the story!
My mother went there. My brothers. I went here. Great school. Such great memories.
My mom was the guidance secretary there in the 60s. My daughter went to the TLC for a year as well. And I also was a supervisor there for Adventure Club for a year. Good memories!