Northside School History

Did you know the original North Side School, a four room brick building which sat in the center of the current block, was built in 1866? An addition was added to this building in 1871, but all was destroyed by a fire in January 1893. Three years later a new North School (as seen in the photo) was erected. This building was a large stone two-story building with four classrooms complete with cloakrooms on the main floor, four classrooms with cloakrooms on the second floor, an office located between the two floors, and bathrooms and an art room in the basement. In 1960, an additional school building was constructed, at a cost of $260,000 on the same block at the southeast corner and became known as East North Grade School. This building contained eight classrooms and originally housed only 5th and 6th grades. Then in 1968, old North School was demolished and East North Grade School, with classroom additions later added onto both ends of the school, became the current Northside Elementary School. Thanks go to Mrs. Dwyer, teacher and former Northside student, for contributing to this article.