Central School, District No. 9, Stillwater

The school was built with stonewalls, measured 53 X 85 feet, three stories tall with a belfry and was “substantial and commodious building with eight rooms.” The building was to cost only $28,000, but with the addition of steam heat, schoolroom furniture and other items, the final cost of the school was $45,000.

At the school, kindergarten was an “on-again off-again operation” according to Harold Foster who wrote his memories about attending the school in the April 1980 issued of the Historical Whisperings. “My first day at the Central School in the first grade, I’m sure, was the fulfillment of a dream.” Foster said, “First graders had their own private entrance toward Pine Street with the primary room just inside the door.”

Depending upon the enrollment at the school, some teachers would teach two grades in the same room. Foster had this happen to him in second and third grade, both taught by Lavina Lofgren, and in fourth and fifth grade he had Anita Robertson for both years.