As a retired educator, February will always be “I Love to Read Month” so it often gets me thinking about books and authors. Most folks think about schools as being named for presidents, statesmen, local notable people or the location they are in, but did you realize that over the years there were a number of Minneapolis schools that were named for authors and poets? Some of these writers are more well known that others, and in a few cases you may not recognize the author’s name but you will maybe know one of their works. A few of those schools were here in North Minneapolis. There are also four different schools that were named to honor a well known poet.
Northside schools that were named after authors are:
Bremer School – the building still stands on Lowry between Emerson and Fremont and is now home to condos. Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865) was a Finnish-born Swedish writer and feminist reformer. She often wrote about everyday life and her books were wildly popular in Britain and the United States during the 1840s and 1850s. Her books include The Neighbors (Grannarna) and The Home (Hemmet).
Hawthorne School stood at 2414 N. 6th St. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focused on things like history, religion and morality. Two of his most well-known books are The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables, both of which have been turned into movies.
John Hay School stood at Penn and Oak Park Aves. on what is now the playground for the Lincoln School building. John Milton Hay (1838-1905) was not only an author, but also an American statesman and official who worked under Presidents Lincoln, McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. His literary works include The Bread-Winners, and co-authoring Abraham Lincoln: A History and Lincoln’s Complete Works.
Lowell School was at 1900 Willow Ave. N. James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor and diplomat. He was among a group of the first American poets that rivaled the popularity of British poets. His works included Biglow Papers and A Fable for Critics.
Many schools in other parts of the city were also named for authors and poets. One notable poet with a Minnesota connection, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), had four different schools named in his honor. Longfellow, Minnehaha, Hiawatha and Miles Standish schools. They were all in the vicinity of Minnehaha Falls and were all named in his honor because his poems made these names famous for all time. Another well-known author with a Minnesota connection who had a school named for her is Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote a series of books that included Little House on the Prairie, which later became a TV series.
Here are other authors and poets who had Minneapolis Public Schools named for them:
Louisa May Alcott, 1832-1888
Hans Christian Andersen, 1805-1875
William Cullen Bryant, 1794-1878
James Fenimore Cooper, 1789-1851
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
Eugene Field 1850-1895
Margret Fuller, 1810-1850
Horace Greeley, 1811-1872
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., 1809-1894
Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910
Washington Irving, 1783-1859
John Lothrop Motley, 1814-1877
James Whitcomb Riley, 1849-1916
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892
Maybe you’ll be inclined to read the works of one or more of these authors who at one time were well known enough to have had schools for them.