Robbinsdale Schools on Regent

There’s a the ten-acre tract along Regent Avenue near 42nd Avenue 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. The property soon found a new purpose when the Parker School opened in 1890. Built with $10,000 in local taxes, it was considered one of Hennepin County’s finest school buildings and became the center of community life as Robbinsdale grew.

The episode brings the early school years to life through stories written by Parker School students for the Minneapolis Journal’s “Journal Junior” supplement. Their accounts provide charming and sometimes hilarious glimpses of childhood more than a century ago, including Irene Bullis becoming stranded in Minneapolis while waiting for a streetcar, Lawrence Nasset’s anxiety after being caught reading a storybook in class, Flossie Patch’s disastrous encounter with a hornet and the school pond, Ruth Burdick’s friendship with a burro named Dicksie, and Florence Moser’s efforts to welcome a new neighbor with a May basket. As Robbinsdale’s population exploded, the school expanded repeatedly. In 1936, the community finally built its own modern Robbinsdale High School on the property. The school became known for its advanced facilities and especially its athletics, producing such stars as wrestling legend Vern Gagne.

The postwar baby boom brought another transformation. As District 281 built new elementary and secondary schools, the Regent Avenue campus eventually became Robbinsdale Junior High. A new swimming pool opened there in 1967, and the school remained an important part of community life until declining enrollment led to its closure in 1979. After five years of vacancy, the building found a second life as the Technology Learning Campus and Robbinsdale Community Center, but those uses eventually ended as well. The remaining school buildings were demolished in 2005 to make way for Parker Village Townhouses. Today, a memorial at Regent and 42nd, built in part with salvaged bricks from the old high school, commemorates the Parker School and Robbinsdale High School. The episode ultimately tells the story not simply of buildings that came and went, but of the generations of Robbinsdale residents whose education, friendships, accomplishments, and memories made this particular piece of land the sentimental heart of the community.

Listen to the rest of the story!