The dream to build a high school building becomes a reality
School opening day will be Sept. 10, 1917. The Dedicatory Exercises will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 3. Date and time is set for inspecting and accepting the new building: 3:30 p.m., Sept. 3.
September 1917
Building is accepted by the board, with the note that the contractor will make finishing touches as the board pointed out on their tour of inspection. Electric bells will be installed in the second and third floor halls. The flag staff at the Saga Hill School is to be placed on the new school grounds.
School vacations are set at a week at Christmas and Easter, and Friday will be included in the Thanksgiving vacation. Board approves hiring a teacher of music for one month 'on trial.'
Pupils will be required to pay for all chemistry and cookbooks, and the manual training pupils will pay for lumber used (plus 10% for waste) in making things which they will take home.
Dedication of the new school building
At 7:30 p.m., on Monday, Sept. 3, 1917, over 1,000 people assembled for the dedication of the new school building. (A like number watched it burn 46 years later to the day).
It was designed for students 1-12, with six classrooms for grades 1-6, and six classrooms for grades 7-12. The old 1908 Mound School building was closed and its teachers and students in grades 1-8 moved to the new building, along with those from Jackson School in Minnetrista and Saga Hills School in Orono.
Mound Elementary, in 1908 building, 1912
According to Mel Gimmestad, in Historical Backgrounds of Mound, this new school was one of the earliest to be based on “a new, progressive step forward in education, called school consolidation.”
Superintendent of Schools, Arnold Gloor, presided at the ceremonies. Mr. Fred B. Snyder of Minneapolis delivered the address. Fred Beal Snyder was a lawyer, and city councilman for Minneapolis, a Minnesota State representative and senator, and a member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. In 1885, Snyder married Susan Mary Pillsbury, daughter of Minnesota governor, John S. Pillsbury. He was a practicing lawyer throughout his life, becoming senior member of the law firm Snyder, Gale and Richards.
The building was built to house about 100 grade school students, and 100 high school students. Ten teachers were employed at this time, for grades 1-11, since there wasn’t yet a class of seniors.
At the close of the program the visitors were conducted on a tour through this modern building which measured 47’ x 122’ and stood three stories tall. It was a wood-frame building with a brick veneer. There was a wooden, second floor balcony overlooking the center room on the first floor, wood floors and wood beams.
Rex Alwin (Class of 1949): We noticed after the 1963 fire when the building burned down that the floor had a crawl space under it, which revealed supports and jacks and timbers to keep it straight.
In front of the school, the driveway gave access for buses bringing students to school. The building had two front doors, each opening onto a three-story wooden staircase. Between the two front doors was a large center room. Its floor was two-inch thick, tongue-and-groove birdseye maple from Ironwood, Michigan.
Generations of students from as far north as Medina, as far east as Stubbs Bay, as far west as Victoria, and as far south as Highway 7 attended grades K-12 in this building, and its 1926 and 1938 additions, until the opening of Shirley Hills Elementary School in 1952.
