When most people think of schools, they think of large brick, stone or concrete buildings. However many Minneapolis schools, including some on the Northside, started out as small wooden temporary buildings. There were even a few of these wooden buildings that never became permanent structures. Sometimes the permanent building was built on the same site that the temporary building had been on, and sometimes the permanent building was built blocks away.
Loring, Cleveland and Lind were all schools that started out as temporary wooden buildings. Loring School, named after Charles Loring Minneapolis’ first park board president and the driving force behind the Victory Memorial Drive, was first built as a four-room wooden building on farm land near the newly created Victory Memorial Drive in 1924. Additions in 1925 and 1926 expanded it to eight rooms. It wasn’t until four years later, in 1928, that the current brick building was built. The original wooden Cleveland School, named after president Grover Cleveland, was built in 1916. The permanent brick building was built on the same spot in 1927. In 1982 it was closed, torn down and replaced by the Lowry Post Office. A few remnants of the brick school building still exist at the post office. The first Lind School, named after famous Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, was built in 1920 and was a 10-room wooden building at 52nd and Camden Aves. The brick school wasn’t built until 1937 and was built blocks away at 50th and Bryant. In 1982 that building was closed and torn down. In 1995 a third Lind building was built at 51st and Bryant.
Sanford Elementary, named after University of Minnesota professor Maria Sanford, opened in 1916 at the NW corner of 29th Ave and 3rd St. as a wooden portable building. It closed in 1922. The school was later relocated to 31st Ave N. and 3rd St. The name was changed in 1927 to Betsy Ross, as a new junior high in south Minneapolis was built in 1926 and was also named after Maria Sanford. Ross School closed in 1941 and the site was sold May 1, 1954.
Reed School was named after Walter Reed a U.S. Army physician who, in 1901, confirmed the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species, rather than by direct contact. The school was built as a two-room portable at 5052 Penn in 1933. It was only open for one school year and closed in 1934. It would be 24 years before Shingle Creek School was built a block over on Oliver Ave in 1958.
Revere School, named for patriot Paul Revere, was built in January 1925 as a four-room portable. It was only there for one semester and closed its doors forever in the fall of 1925.
While a couple of the schools that started out as small wooden, temporary portable buildings still exist, the others have been lost to history.