St. Louis Park Public Schools 125th Anniversary Banners

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High Schools

ST. LOUI S

ST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 1890-2015

Celebrating 125 Years 1890-2015

Lincoln School Assembly Hall, 1915

• Lincoln School (37th and Alabama), St. Louis Park’s first high school. Built in 1899 and demolished in 1966.

First class graduated in 1900.

• St. Louis Park Junior/Senior High School (Walker Street) was built in 1914 and housed Grades 7-12.

Torn down in 1962, and replaced with the western wing of Central – now Park Spanish Immersion School.

• St. Louis Park High School (Walker Street) was built in 1938 (east of the 1914 building). WPA project built during the Great Depression. It became Central Junior High School when the current High School was built.

• St. Louis Park High School (33rd Street) was built in 1956. This school was built in the face of extreme urgency caused by the postwar baby boom. The three-floor “circle” or “silo” was added in 1962.

High School “Circle” Construction, 1962

St. Louis Park Junior/Senior High, 1914

Historical highlights presented in partnership with St. Louis Park Historical Society (slphistory.org).

Robert E. Scott

Norreys Hume McKay

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Notable Leaders

ST. LOUI S

ST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 1890-2015

Celebrating 125 Years 1890-2015

Harold Enestvedt

• Erwin S. Hatch – Superintendent from 1904 to 1920.

It was under his leadership that the 1914 school on Walker Street was built. He also instituted the Junior High/Senior High concept.

• Robert E. Scott – Superintendent from 1920 to 1932.

It was during his time that most of Park’s prewar schools were built: Brookside, Lenox, Eliot and Oak Hill.

• Norreys Hume McKay – Superintendent from 1932 to June 1943. He resigned to accept an appointment overseas with the Red Cross. He died in 1944 after his Army transport plane disappeared.

• Harold Enestvedt – Superintendent from 1948 to 1972. His term spanned the postwar baby boom years; on his watch, seven elementary schools, one junior high school, and the current high school were built.

School Board Meeting, 1948

Historical highlights presented in partnership with St. Louis Park Historical Society (slphistory.org).

Elementary Schools

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Pre-World War II

ST. LOUI S

ST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 1890-2015

Celebrating 125 Years 1890-2015

Oak Hill School, 1914

• Brookside School was built in 1921, and served children south of Excelsior Boulevard, including the Brookside, Browndale, and Minikahada Vista neighborhoods.

• Eliot School goes back to 1885, when as North Side School it served the entire area north of Minnetonka Boulevard. North Side School burned down in 1926 and was rebuilt as Eliot.

• Oak Hill School was originally a frame building located in the South Oak Hill neighborhood. In 1918 it was rebuilt as a brick building at Walker Street and Quebec Avenue.

• Fern Hill School, on Minnetonka Boulevard and Ottawa Avenue, was built in 1905 and served the eastern end of St. Louis Park. It was preceded by the Manhattan Park School, located just inside the Village boundary.

• Lincoln School, built in 1899, served the neighborhood known as “Center,” now known as Elmwood.

• Lenox School was built in 1925 on Minnetonka Boulevard at Hampshire Avenue. Its location, at nearly the geographical center of the Village, served many children.

Brookside School

Eliot School, 1926

Historical highlights presented in partnership with St. Louis Park Historical Society (slphistory.org).

Elementary Schools

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Post-World War II

ST. LOUI S

ST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 1890-2015

Celebrating 125 Years 1890-2015

Aquila Elementary School

• Fern Hill II was built in 1950 on 28th Street to replace the obsolete original Fern Hill on Minnetonka Boulevard. Both schools had to stay open, so the old school was renamed Park Hill.

• Park Knoll was built in 1952 on Texas Avenue, serving the Oak Hill Neighborhood.

• Ethel Baston School was built in 1955 on Highway 100. This school primarily served children in new housing between Excelsior Boulevard and Highway 7.

• Aquila Elementary School was built in 1957, the year that the peak of the baby boom was born.

• Cedar Manor School was also built in 1957, serving northwestern St. Louis Park.

• Peter Hobart Elementary School was built in 1967, taking pressure off of the overcrowded Lenox.

• Susan Lindgren Elementary School was built in 1968, just as the largest cohort of the boom was moving to Junior High School.

Fern Hill II

Ethel Baston

Park Knoll

Peter Hobart Elementary School

Historical highlights presented in partnership with St. Louis Park Historical Society (slphistory.org).

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Sports at Park

ST. LOUI S

ST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 1890-2015

Celebrating 125 Years 1890-2015

Boys Basketball Championship Team, 1962

• In 1911, Bert Baston signed up for high school football at the age of 14, and made history as the first All-American from St. Louis Park.

• St. Louis Park was a charter member of the Lake Conference in 1932.

• St. Louis Park High School won the Boys’ State Basketball championship in 1962. The event was marked with a parade and victory celebrations.

• In addition to serving as Park High School’s dance line, the Parkettes were also the official cheerleaders for the Minneapolis Lakers Basketball Team and the Minnesota Vikings Football Team.

• WCCO sportscaster Mark Rosen is a St. Louis Park grad, as is Jeff Passolt, who moved from sportscasting to the news anchor desk at KMSP.

Parkettes

St. Louis Park Football, 1924

Historical highlights presented in partnership with St. Louis Park Historical Society (slphistory.org).

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Notable Students

ST. LOUI S

ST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS | 1890-2015

Celebrating 125 Years 1890-2015

Al Franken

Ethan Coen

Sharon Isbin

• St. Louis Park High School graduates and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are successful movie producers, writers and directors responsible for such iconic films such as Fargo and The Big Lebowsky.

• Sharon Isbin, a 1974 Park graduate, is a world-renowned classical guitarist and has performed all over the world.

She attended Yale University, and since 1989 she has been the first and only chair of the Juilliard guitar department in New York City.

• U.S. Senator Al Franken is one of St. Louis Park’s most visible and accomplished former students. He attended St. Louis Park schools from Kindergarten to tenth grade. Franken is wellknown as a comedian, author and political commentator.

• Journalist Thomas Friedman graduated from St. Louis Park High School in 1971. He has written for the New York Times since 1981, earning three Pulitzer Prizes. His foreign affairs column is syndicated to 700 newspapers world-wide.

Joel Coen

Thomas Friedman

Historical highlights presented in partnership with St. Louis Park Historical Society (slphistory.org).