ST. LOUIS Celebrating PARK125PUBLIC SCHOOLS Years • 1890-2015 1885: Manhattan Park School opens.
1859: Pratt School opens at Excelsior Blvd. and Wooddale Ave. (then called Pleasant Ave.).
1850
1885: North Side School is built.
1860
1870
1880 1888: The first meeting to organize a St. Louis Park Independent School District is held.
1889: Lincoln School opens.
1890: St. Louis Park Independent School District is established.
1890
1900: The first seniors (six girls and one boy) graduate from Lincoln High School.
1900 1892: The first Oak Hill School opens in the South Oak Hill neighborhood.
1905: Fern Hill School opens at Minnetonka Blvd. and Ottawa.
1918: Oak Hill School is replaced by a brick building at Walker Street and Quebec Ave.
1914: The western portion of what would become the Central building opens.
1910
1920
1916: The Junior High/ Senior High model is introduced by Superintendent Hatch.
1921: Brookside Elementary School opens.
1925: Lenox Elementary School opens.
1929: The first high school yearbook, The Echowan, is published. 1930: The high school Glee Club is started.
1930 1926: Eliot Elementary School opens after the North Side School burns down.
1930s: St. Louis Park sports teams become the Orioles.
1940 1931: The “School Police” (student safety patrol) is created.
1938: Lincoln School is sold to Village of St. Louis Park to be used as the Village Hall. 1938: A new High School opens next to the old structure (which becomes the Junior High).
Oak Hill School, 1914
Assembly Hall, 1915
Football team, 1924
Girls Glee Club, 1924
1950: Fern Hill School closes but re-opens as Park Hill. A new Fern Hill opens at 28th and 1941: Major Joppa. additions to the High 1950: A School blizzard (Central) closes building are schools on made. March 8.
1952: 171 seniors and 1,018 Kindergarteners make school expansion urgent. 1952: 20 more classrooms are added to Eliot School. 1952: Park Knoll School opens.
1954-1956: Conditions are so crowded that students attend school in two shifts. 1955: Construction of the new High School begins. 1955: Ethel Baston Elementary School opens.
1957: Aquila Elementary School opens. 1957: Cedar Manor Elementary School opens. 1957: Park’s Alma Mater was born.
1950 1944: The Letterman’s Club is formed. 1944: Former Superintendent N.H. McKay is declared dead after his Red Cross transport plane disappears.
1959: Class of ’59 puts together an LP called “The Echowane,” a collection of recordings from the school year. 1959: Westwood Jr. High opens and the other Jr. High is named Central. 1959: IBM computers are used for the first time in the district.
1968: Susan Lindgren Elementary School opens.
1964-1965: Fencing and Folk Music Clubs form. 1965: A $2.9 million bond issue is passed to build Susan Lindgren and Peter Hobart Elementary Schools.
1966: The old Lincoln School, owned by Minnesota Rubber, is demolished.
1968: High School students can leave the building at lunch. 1968: Park’s Quiz Bowl team wins three contests.
1960 1951: Dramatic Arts is added to the high school curriculum.
1945: A bond election yields funds to expand the schools.
School Board meeting, 1948
1953: There are roughly 1,100 more children in St. Louis Park than a year earlier. 1953: The Village overwhelmingly votes to approve $4.2 million school bond issue for a new High School.
1956: St. Louis Park Senior High opens and the old High School becomes the Jr. High.
Lenox Chorus, 1959
1970: The School Board votes to change “Christmas Vacation” to “Winter Vacation.” 1970: Westwood Jr. High goes to Modular schedule. 1970: Senatorial Candidate Hubert Humphrey participates in High School Homecoming parade.
1972: A new grading system is instituted with A, B, C, D, E, I, and NC; F is eliminated. 1972: Girls’ interscholastic sports start in the fall. 1972-1973: The school day is divided into “Mods.”
1974: Religion in Human Culture is taught for the first time and receives much local and national attention. 1974: Oak Hill School is decommissioned and sold. 1974-1975: The high school experiments with boys cheerleading.
1970
1958: Youth Interested in Politics is organized.
1962: Boys’ basketball wins state championship.
1967: Peter Hobart Elementary School opens.
1958: The Rooters Club, a boys’ pep club, is formed.
1962: The “circle” or “silo” wing is added to the high school.
1967: The “McDonald’s Wing” of the high school is added.
1962-1964: Russian is added to the curriculum during the Cold War years.
1967: Swimming pools are built at the Junior Highs.
1963-64: Open Lunch is outlawed.
1967: High School math classes expand the use of computers.
1969: School administrators approve a relaxed dress code; boys could wear blue jeans and girls could wear pants (but not jeans). 1969: Senior Steve Saliterman builds a computer that adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, and plays tic-tac-toe. 1969: Alternative student newspaper The Current appears.
Cedar Manor Principal Reception, 1961
1977: The School Board votes to close Eliot and Park Knoll schools 1978: Park Knoll School is sold and becomes a parking lot at Knollwood. 1978: The school day’s 16 periods are reduced to 11.
1971-1972: Religious guidelines are drawn up by a citizens committee and approved by the school board. 1971: School Board votes down Open Lunch. 1971: Voting age changes to 18.
1973: Girls could win sports letters for the first time. 1973: A plan is put into place to keep schools open during energy crisis. 1973: Schools start mainstreaming disabled students into the general population.
1975: Declining enrollments lead to the closing of Brookside and Lenox Elementary Schools. 1975: Oak Hill School is demolished.
1973: High School radio station KDXL is created.
“Silo” or “circle” construction, 1962
2010: St. Louis Park High School is named 2nd best public high school in the state by Newsweek.
1982: Ethel Baston School is sold to Groves Learning Center. 1982: Fern Hill School II is sold to Torah Academy.
2010: Cedar Manor closes at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
1990: An All-School Class Reunion is held.
1980 1971: Mini-School is formed as an alternative high school program.
For an expansive history of St. Louis Park Public Schools, visit slphistoricalsociety.org.
1990
1980: Central is decommissioned as a junior high. Westwood becomes St. Louis Park Junior High. The High School serves grades 9-12.
2000 1996: Central becomes the home of the Park Spanish Immersion School.
Mid 1980s: Enrollment declines dramatically.
2010 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012: St. Louis Park is named one of “100 Best Communities for Young People” by America’s Promise. The only Minnesota community recognized for six years.
2012: An All-School Class Reunion is held on August 25th. On the same day, the High School’s new artificial turf athletic field is dedicated. 2012: St. Louis Park High School is named 4th best public high school in the state by U.S. News and World Report. 2012: St. Louis Park High School is named best in the state by The Washington Post.
1980: NC grade (no credit) is changed back to F; students still have the option of taking courses Pass/NC.
Boys’ Basketball wins state championship, 1962
2020
2012: St. Louis Park High School is named 3rd best public high school in the state by Newsweek. 2012-2013: St. Louis Park Jr. High becomes St. Louis Park Middle School.
Parkettes, 1965
Park Hill Christmas, 1954
Girls Basketball, 1926
St. Louis Park Junior High, 1983