Pratt School and Community Center
Minnesota | Posted: 11/30/2001Prospect Park lies at the geographic center of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, on the eastern edge of Minneapolis. It is a neighborhood of hills, trees, and irregular meandering streets on the east bank of the Mississippi River. It includes Tower Hill Park, across the street from the school, with a historic water tower, on the highest hill in the city of Minneapolis. It is surrounded by middle class homes, some of which preceded the 1898 construction of Pratt School, but the majority of which were built primarily in the early part of the twentieth century. The neighborhood is flanked on the north and east by areas of heavy industry, which is gradually changing to light industry and commercial/residential use. To the south is the river and to the west lies the University of Minnesota, whose large urban campus has engulfed whole neighborhoods on both sides of the river, stopping just short of Prospect Park.
This brief history of 100 years needs context. European white settlement of the Twin Cities area only began in the 1820`s at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. Prospect Park, which was platted in 1884 and saw its first house built shortly thereafter. It was then thought of as a "suburb" of the bustling predecessor of Minneapolis, St. Anthony. As houses were built in the neighborhood, local residents agitated for a school so that their children would not have to travel nearly a mile along University Avenue among horse-drawn streetcars, across railroad tracks to Motley School.
The school was built in 1898, and expanded adding six rooms in 1906. A 1926 addition added a three-story structure on the north side of the building, shifting the main entrance from the north to the south side of the building. The school was named Sidney Pratt, after a soldier who died in the Spanish American war. This soldier also happened to be the son of Robert Pratt, the president of the Minneapolis Board of Education and Mayor of Minneapolis. The school served the neighborhood until 1982, when it was closed as part of a broad and painful restructuring of the city`s schools.
At its closing, Pratt was the oldest building in the school system, a candidate for demolition and sale of the land. A cadre of local activists, who named themselves Pratt Council and formed a nonprofit corporation, generated community support to convince the school district that Pratt should stay within the district`s orbit as an adult education and resource center.
By the mid 1990`s the building exterior was deteriorating, but through a happy combination of events, the launch of a Neighborhood Revitalization Program funded by the City of Minneapolis, and through private fundraising a rehabilitation effort was launched. The building was made accessible with an elevator, given a new roof and windows, a refurbished exterior, and a newly paved parking lot. The building`s east side was transformed from a concrete and asphalt parking lot into a Village Green, with a playground and performance venues. Many of the school`s interior architectural features have been lovingly preserved, such as its art deco tiled drinking fountain.
After numerous meetings with the school district over several years, in fall 2000 a long held dream, born in the school closings of 1982, came true: Prospect Park regained its public school. One class of all-day kindergarten and of first grade were integrated into the community center, joining the English as a Second Language classes and other Adult Basic Education Classes. In the coming years, a grade level will be added until the school becomes a K-5 elementary school.
The building serves a diverse neighborhood which now is home to some of the city`s newest immigrants in a public housing project built in the 1950`s, as well as the more affluent residents of the neighborhood many of whom are faculty and staff members of the University of Minnesota.
The residents of this community have a reverence for the past. The Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association is in the process of seeking national designation as an historic neighborhood. The late nineteenth century, early twentieth century homes are under constant repair, and some of them are being restored to their original states. The preservation of Sidney Pratt School has been a labor of love by a community with a profound respect for its roots.
For more information contact:
Mary Alice Kopf
Pratt Council
66 Malcolm Avenue, SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
612/379-7436
mollisk@earthlink.com
