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Back when Cedar Avenue was just a dirt road and airplanes didn't make much noise, an elementary school was built among the
open fields and farmland of east Richfield.
For more than 40 years, East Elementary School, 1917 E. 66th St., was home to thousands of Richfield students and their
families in the Rich Acres/New Ford Town areas.
HEART OF A COMMUNITY
The front entrance of the school was just off the 17th hole of the current Rich Acres golf course. When it closed in 1973
due to declining enrolment, the community lost its hear and soul, former teachers, parents and neighbors said.
"Ford Town lost part of its heart when it lost the school," said Jim Murphy, who taught at East for three years
prior to its closing. "It was a close-knit neighborhood. It lost its identity when the school closed."
"The Richfield Elementary School" was carved into the stone in front of the building.
When it opened in 1930, it was the only Richfield elementary school. Woodlake Elementary was in a separate district. Richfield
students went to Minneapolis high schools.
The school quickly became the center of the two neighborhoods. With local entertainment spots 'few and far between,' according
to Walter Nielson, a student in the 1930s, the school was the east side's gathering place.
"There was no store or commercial business in the area," said Ivan Ludeman, the school's principal from 1959
to 1973. "The only thing that brought people together was the school."
Gladys Dale, who started fifth grade at East in 1934, remembers dances for grownups at the school. "We could go stand
along the wall and watch," she said.
In the 1960s and '70s, the school had mother-daughter teas and spring fashion shows.
One of Elaine Vogel's daughters was a model one year. "I remember she wanted to get her hair fixed so we looked like
twins," the Richfield resident said.
The men had father-son sports dinners in the winter. With the East Richfield Little League nearby, softball and baseball
were popular activities.
Fall carnivals drew most of the neighbors to the school in its later years. The haunted house, with its dark and spooky
twists and turns below the stage area, was famous.
The building was constructed during the WPA era and had concrete supports. The pillars formed honeycomb patterns underground,
which were the perfect setting for a haunted house.
THE SCHOOL
When East was built in 1930, much of Rich Acres/New Ford Town area was farmland.
Richfield school district records show the district purchased property from Jacob Haeg for $2,000 in 1922. In 1930, the
district paid George and Hannah Jorgenson $2,500 for their land.
When the school was sold in 1974 to the Metropolitan Airports Commission, the building and 4.75 acres of land fetched
$140,000.
By that time, all of the property to the south of Cedar Avenue and east of 66th Street had been acquired by MAC and held
for future development of the airport.
East School in the 1930s had only four classrooms and a small gymnasium. In 1936, a second floor with four more classrooms
was added.
The school had yellow walls and wooden floors. Vogel's daughter remembered the floors creaked. Lee Jackson, who taught
sixth grade at the school for five years, recalled the floors looked like ocean waves because of the heat.
The building didn't have a library at first. A temporary one was erected later on school property. It was air-conditioned,
so teachers would take their students outside the school and walk to the library to escape the heat, Jackson recalled.
THE COMMUNITY
School alumni over the years all reported a closeness among faculty, students and parents.
Part of that was due to the small enrollment at the school. It reached a high of 500 students in grades K-6 in the early
1960s before declining to 341 in 1972-73.
About half of the students came from the New Ford Town/Rich Acres area. In comparison, Woodlake Elementary School had
1,200 students.
In the early years, mothers used to come to the school to cook lunch for the children. Nielson's mother was one of them.
Meals included a cup of soup or hash.
Parents were actively involved in the school, said Ludeman, who remembers parents bringing babies to monthly PTA meetings.
Ludeman said he knew all the parents by name and received invitations to weddings, funerals and award ceremonies.
One parent called Ludeman to report a death in the family before he called anyone else.
Kay Alley, who taught kindergarten at East for three years, said people in the community would go to Ludeman with their
personal problems. "He was not only the principal, he was a friend to everyone," she said.
If a child needed clothing or anything else, Ludeman would buy it out of a school fund, Jackson said. The school had
newspaper drives and collected money for the fund.
THE CLOSING
The decision to close East at the end of the 1973 school year was difficult. It was the first school in the district to
be closed.
"When the announcement of the closing came, it broke a lot of hearts," Alley said.
Said Murphy: "The closing was about right next to seeing your house burn. You can’t do anything about
it."
The school did have one last get-together before the doors shut for good. Former students and principals were invited
to bid farewell to the stone structure. [Gladys] Dale and Leeth were there.
Ludeman was there when the building was torn down. "It was a lot of sentiment knowing relationships would not continue."
Most of the teachers at East went to other elementary schools in the district.
After selling the site to MAC in 1974, the city signed a lease agreement to build a golf course on the property in 1979.
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