In this second part of Northside schools that have been torn down, I will highlight these three buildings.
Laurel/Lafayette Schools: Laurel School opened in a rented property on the NW corner of Lyndale Ave N and Laurel Ave in 1897. In 1906 the school board bought the property and built a new schoolhouse on the other end of the property at the NE corner of Laurel and Aldrich Ave N. This new school was named Lafayette after the Marquis de Lafayette (b.1757-d.1834), hero of the American Revolution and the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830.
Lafayette was a small eight classroom brick building with wood joisted floors and roof, and open wood stairways. The school closed in 1958 but was opened again in 1959 and then closed for good in 1960. The school district sold the site in 1966 and the building was torn down in 1967.
Blaine School was a masonry and wood structure, with wood floors and roof, built in 1893 at 277 12th Ave N on a small 1.13-acre site. It was named for James G. Blaine (b.1830-d.1893) an American politician who, among other things, served as U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents James Garfield, Chester Arthur and Benjamin Harrison.
In the 1950s and ‘60s the school, which had a maximum capacity of 400, had an enrollment that ranged from 334 to 429. The building needed rehabbing to fix fire hazards, needed modernization, had a very small site size, and there was also the impending construction of I-94 which would essentially cut off the school from residential community areas. Given the age of the building, along with all of these other considerations, the district decided to close the school in 1967 and it was torn down in 1968.
Cleveland School originally opened in 1916 as a portable building on Russell Ave N between 32nd Ave (Lowry) and 33rd Ave. In 1927 a brick building with masonry and wood interior was built around the corner at 2310 Lowry Ave N on a 3.64-acre site. It was exactly the same as the Loring School building which would be built a year later. The school was named for President Grover Cleveland (b.1837-d.1908).
Cleveland School, along with a number of other Northside schools, closed in 1982. The building was torn down and the site was sold to the United States Postal Service. The Lowry Post Office was built on the site in 1985 and dedicated in 1986. A few items from the old school were saved and incorporated into the new post office. Two architectural detail squares from the school are embedded into the brick on the front of the post office. Most importantly, one of the entrance archways from Cleveland School was built into the post office.
Student enrollment on the Northside wasn’t as low as the district predicted when schools were closed in 1982. Eventually buildings still standing were reopened and other sites were rented to accommodate students. One of those rented sites held what was known as Lucy Craft Laney. When the school district decided it needed to stop renting sites and build new schools, one of the areas it chose was the Cleveland Neighborhood. While everyone welcomed having the new school building, there were some very contentious and bitter meetings about what the school would be named. Most of the community members wanted it named Cleveland School again. The principal and many parents whose kids went to school in the rental site, but didn’t necessarily live near the new building, wanted it to be called Lucy Craft Laney School. Eventually, the school board decided to name it Lucy Craft Laney School at Cleveland Park. The new school was built in 2000 and sits at 3333 Penn Ave N.
I know some of you are thinking ‘but what about …’ I will be writing about other “lost” Northside schools in some future articles.