Manitowoc County WI Archives History - Schools .....Roosevelt School - Two Rivers ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 15, 2008, 6:43 pm ROOSEVELT SCHOOL — TWO RIVERS By History Committee The Roosevelt school, located at the triangle formed by Roosevelt and School streets, was the first public school built on the south side of the West Twin river. It was named the - Roosevelt school because the building is located on Roosevelt avenue and also so named in honor of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. Before it was officially designated by that name, it was commonly called the southside school of Two Rivers. According to the records on file in the register of deeds office, the site, Lot 51, in assessment Plat 3, of Two Rivers, was purchased from Augusta Baerwald, widow of Fred Baerwald. The description of the school site was as follows: Commencing 15 feet due west from the center of 3rd street where the same intersects the east side of the street running north and south, thence due west 15 feet to the center of the Manitowoc Plank road, so called, where the same intersects the west side of said street running north and south, thence southwesterly in' the center of said Plank road 152 feet to a point directly in line with the north of and opposite the partition fence on the east line of Herman Luebke's land, thence run due south 185 feet to a stake and an old board fence running east and west, thence due east along the line of said fence to the center of said north and south street 121 feet, thence run north in center of said street to starting point 291 feet. The deed was filed on May 19, 1891, and it shows that the sum of $800 was paid for this property by school district number 1, Two Rivers city. The south wing of the old Roosevelt school was built during the fall and winter of 1891-92 at a total cost of $6,800. That is the cost as reported to the county superintendent by H. G. Wehausen who was city clerk at that time." The yellow brick, two-story structure was built by several local contractors after the school board had rejected the first bids because the cost would have been more than had been set aside for the building. The new school had only one classroom on each floor. The entrance faced the north and led into a hallway and cloakrooms for the first floor children. Stairways to the second floor were built in the first floor hallway. The second floor landing had roomy cloakrooms and a small rectangular hall. The two classrooms were used by the southside public school children attending the kindergarten and the primary grades. Those from south of the river who were attending the public school in the intermediate and grammar grades had to continue to go to one of the three school buildings on the present H. P. Hamilton school site. The school board members at the time that the first wing of the Roosevelt school was built were B. H. Wilkens, Ernest Hammel, Peter Gagnon, and Wm. Baerwald. With the development and settlement of Two Rivers continuing, the public grade school enrollment had risen to about the 700 mark by 1909. The expansion of the high school department in the new H. P. Hamilton school erected in 1903 to 1905 resulted in a demand for an. addition to the Roosevelt school to relieve the overcrowded grade school rooms and to accommodate the southsiders. Accordingly, in 1909, the north wing of the old Roosevelt school was added at an approximate cost of $12,000. The addition was a two story brick building conforming with pattern of the south wing. It had one classroom on each floor. The halls and entries were remodeled during building operations. Two entrances were provided — one from the east and one from the west. Stairways to the second floor brought one to another combination hallway-cloakroom which separated the two upper schoolrooms. The enlarged four-room Roosevelt school cared for southside pupils enrolled in the kindergarten, primary, and intermediate grades. World War I brought an influx of workers and their families to Two Rivers. The southside area experienced a boom in the erection of homes. This increase in population was reflected in public school enrollment. In 1920, the city school board was forced to erect a two-room barrack on the Roosevelt school grounds to provide classrooms for grades 5 and 6. This addition did not provide all of the school space necessary for the growing school population because it is recorded that an added room for another first grade class was rented in the basement of the Evangelical church from 1929 to 1931. The barrack building was in use until 1931 when it was moved to the foot of the Washington street bridge where the B. W. Schwartz Co. is using it for a cotton goods manufacturing plant. The building is still owned by the city though. The old Roosevelt school continued to serve the public school children living on the Two Rivers southside until 1931 when the new Jos. Koenig elementary school was built. The growing school population necessitated some action to further enlarge the Roosevelt school on its limited school site or to seek a new site more centrally located for the future needs of this section of the city. The decision was to build a new school at a new location. Forty years after the original Roosevelt school building was erected, it was abandoned. During the next ten years the structure remained the property of the city. On June 26, 1941, the site and property were sold to the Crescent Woolen Mills for the sum of $3,750. The names of teachers who taught in the old Roosevelt school are on record in the "Minutes Books" of the district and written up by the school clerks who acted as secretary of the schoolboard. The first record book begins with the organization meeting of the Two Rivers city school district No. 1 schoolboard in 1877. The "Minutes Book" list the names of schoolboard members since 1877; the names, salaries, and duties of the janitors; the early salary schedules; the statistics and official actions taken to carry out the various building programs; and much other information of historical value to the community. These record books are on file in the city superintendent of schools office. The four-room school building and the two-room barrack on the Roosevelt site housed about 275 pupils when it was abandoned. C. C. Case who was the last principal of this school remembers that he and another teacher taught the sixth grade of about 70 pupils in one of the barrack rooms. Such over-crowded conditions brought on a demand by the teachers and parents for a new school. Other known principals of the old Roosevelt school were Arthur Eckley and Harvey Gesell. Additional Comments: Extracted from: 1848 - 1948 CENTENNIAL HISTORY of the Manitowoc County School Districts and Public School System EDITED BY JOS. J. RAPPEL, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 1948 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/manitowoc/history/schools/roosevel254gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/ File size: 7.3 Kb