EDUCATION

None of the buildings built in the nineteenth century as public schools by the Village and later by the City of Port Washington now survive. The first public school that served Port Washington was a small brick building (non-extant) built in 1845 and located on the southwest corner of W. Jackson and N. Wisconsin streets. This school later also served as the City's first high school, starting in 1881, but it was razed in 1892 when the new Wisconsin Street School (non-extant) was built on the site as a combined elementary and secondary school.(1) This $20,000 Richardsonian Romanesque Revival Style-influenced school (315 N. Wisconsin St.), however, was eventually itself superseded when the new Port Washington High School (427 W. Jackson St.) was designed in the Tudor Revival style by the Green Bay architectural firm of Foeller, Schober, and Berners, whose original portion was built in 1930-1931.(2) A second Tudor Revival style school, the Port Washington Elementary School, which was also designed by Foeller, Schober & Berners, was later built adjacent to the high school in 1951 at ca.419 Holden St. The old Wisconsin Street High School building, meanwhile, was destroyed in a fire in 1982.

The second oldest public school built in Port Washington was a log building built at what is now the northeast corner of N. Spring Street and W. Grand Ave. in 1850. This was soon replaced by a frame building on the same site that continued in use until 1893, when it was replaced by the $3000 brick Hill School (762 W. Grand Ave.), a vernacular example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style that was expanded in 1896, expanded again in 1904, and finally destroyed by fire 1972.(3)

Parochial schools have played almost as large a role in Port Washington's educational history as publicly funded schools have. However, none of the buildings built as schools by Port Washington churches in the nineteenth century have survived either.(4) The sole surveyed parochial school in Port Washington is the present Craftsman Style St. Mary's R. C. Church School, built in 1916 on the site of the original 1870 school and expanded in 1952.

NOTES ON SOURCES

The best source of information on the history of education in Port Washington is the Ozaukee Press Sesquicentennial Issue, September 5, 1985. The best sources for the St. Mary's Church school and the Friedens Church school are: St. Mary's Church: 1853-1978. Port Washington, 1978; and Friedens United Church of Christ Church: Port Washington, Wisconsin, 1854-1979. Port Washington: 1979. Excellent photos of the later nineteenth century public schools and of the St. Mary's R. C. School built in 1870 can be found in Port Washington: The Little City of Seven Hills. Port Washington: 1908, pp. 55-56.

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EXTANT RESOURCES SURVEYED

Footnotes:

1. Ozaukee Press, September 5, 1985, Part 7, pp. 1-2 (photos). (Sesquicentennial Issue)

2. The 1930 building that was not surveyed because of the extensive additions that have been added to it since it was first built and the alterations that have occurred since.

3. Ozaukee Press, September 5, 1985, Part 7, pp. 1-2 (photos). (Sesquicentennial Issue).

4. Both St. Mary's R. C. Church and the German Evangelical Lutheran Friedens Church built schools for the children of their parishioners between 1870 and 1901, St. Mary's in 1870, at a cost of $7000, and the Friedens Church in 1901. Both of these schools have since been razed and superseded by newer schools on the same sites. See also: Ozaukee Press, September 5, 1985, Part 7, pp. 3-4 for the St. Mary's school history.

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