Baldwin and Surrounding Country School Districts

• BALDWIN DISTRICT NO. 10

The school was located north of the Baldwin Cemetery and about ½ mile to the northwest.

• BALDWIN DISTRICT NO. 31

The school is fully intact and on County Road 19 on the Jenson property.  More recently a 4-H club has used it.

• BALDWIN DISTRICT NO. 50

This school was located on County Road 9 and County Road 4.  It was made out of yellow Brickton blocks.  Fire unfortunately ruined the structure.

• BALDWIN DISTRICT NO. 7

This school was located on County Road 42.  It was just east of County Road 2.  It was later used for the Battle Brook Club.

• BLUE HILL DISTRICT NO. 36

This school was located by the present Blue Hill Town Hall.

• BLUE HILL DISTRICT NO. 27

This school was located north of the Wildlife Refuge on County Road 5.

• BLUE HILL DISTRICT NO. 53

This school was located east of Rice Lake.

• LIVONIA DISTRICT NO. 41

This school is located east of County Road 39.

• LIVONIA DISTRICT NO. 14

This school is located on the corner of County Road 4 and County Road 19 on the northwest quadrant.

• LIVONIA DISTRICT NO. 11

This school is located south of County Road 9 in Zimmerman.

• ORROCK DISTRICT NO. 33

This school is located one mile northeast of the Village of Orrock.

• ORROCK DISTRICT NO. 8

This school is located 2 ½ miles east of the Village of Orrock.

• PRINCETON CITY SCHOOLS  by Lucille Oliver

The first schoolhouse in Mille Lacs county was built at Princeton in 1856. Money for its erection was secured by subscription.  It was a frame building, 18 x 22 feet.

The building still stands and has been remodeled somewhat for a dwelling house.  It is on Sixth Avenue North between Fifth and Sixth streets, and is the residence of Leslie Byers.

It is a far cry from this modest frame structure to the present school system in Princeton, in which 1,200 pupils and growing are enrolled and which includes the new elementary schools, which are modern in design and absolutely ritzy.

Whittier School Built in 1867 

The Whittier school was built on Seventh Avenue North and Second Street, on the lots occupied by the residences of Mrs. R.J. Herdliska and Clifford Sandberg.

Howard M. Atkins, county superintendent of schools in 1870, gives this description of the Whittier school:   “It is a frame building in the form of a cross, two stories in height, with a bell tower.  There are two schoolrooms, each intended to seat 60 pupils, and furnished with the best of furniture throughout --- patent adjustable hinge-eat desks.  The rooms are 23 x 35 feet, and one eleven feet, the other twelve feet height, and both provided with ventilating flues with registers.  There are two distinct halls and stairways, one on each side of the rooms, and also large closets and recitation rooms.”

Many residents of Princeton, according to the old reports, announced the school as a piece of useless extravagance, altogether larger than would be needed for years to come.  Mr. Atkins’ report stated:  “The intention is to so conduct the schools as to make Princeton an educational center for the country around it.”

In June 1897 there were 10 graduates from the high school.  The exercises were held in Brands’ opera house.  Mrs. Oscar Stark (Blanche Byers) was a member of the class.

In 1917 an active campaign was started for a bond issue of $50,000 to build an addition to the school.  It was carried by a vote of 394 to 295.

The new school building was started just south of the old high school building and the work pushed rapidly along in 1918.  On August 28 of that year, lightening struck in the cupola of the old building and it became a roaring furnace.  Records and all went up in flames, leaving the brick walls standing.  No harm was done to the unfinished new high school.

The year 1918 – 19 was a difficult one not only for teachers but for pupils, who often had to sit in straight backed dining room chairs around a square table with no place but the floor for books and pencils.  Grades were attending school in all the available church basements, halls, etc.  The high school pupils attended classes in the armory.

The new grade school was built in 1919 just north of the high school and connected by a large hall and classrooms on the west side.  The high school pupils entered the new building in 1919 while the grades entered their new building in 1920.  School enrollment in 1920 was approximately 700.

In 1950 and 1951 Princeton commenced to be faced with a serious school problem.  Residents of several rural districts were desirous of having their children enter the village school and were finding the cost of operating the rural schools excessively high for the number of pupils involved.

The board of education of Independent District No. 1 in Princeton realized that the school would either have to refuse to take these pupils from the rural districts or would have to enter upon a building program so that more classrooms would be available.  The district did not have s sufficiently high valuation to finance an adequate building program, and it was decided to attempt to operate under the Reorganization act passed by the 1948 legislature.  This reorganization plan was defeated in the Princeton high school area.

Safer Plans Consolidation

John Albert Safer in the late spring of 1953 was hired as superintendent of the Princeton schools.  He undoubtedly was chosen partly because he understood how to direct a consolidation program.  The consolidation program was carried through successfully where the reorganization had failed, and District No. 1 then had a sufficiently high valuation to embark upon its building program.  In January 1954 the new Joint Independent Consolidated School District No. 62 Mille Lacs, 70 Isanti, and 59 Sherburne county approved a bond issue of $650,000 for the building program.  In July 1954 another bond issue of $50,000 was authorized.  This money made it possible for the school to carry through its building project, which included a new gymnasium-auditorium which would seat 1,296 persons. This is the second largest gymnasium in the Sixteenth high school district, and is exceptionally well constructed.  It is attached to the high school building.

In the south section of the village on a 19-acre tract which the school district had acquired, a one-story elementary school of modern construction and design was erected.  This accommodates the 400 children in the first four grades, and provides facilities for many community gatherings.

The Princeton district now includes District No. 1 in Princeton village, seven other districts in Mille Lacs county, eight in Sherburne county, and ten in Isanti county.  The school has a faculty of 53 members and a total enrollment of 1,200.  Seventeen busses bring in 725 rural pupils.

Superintendents of the Princeton school during the past years have been as follows.