Hewitt Public School is a former school building in

Hewitt, Minnesota Hewitt is a city in Todd County, Minnesota, United States, along the Wing River. The population was 266 at the 2010 census. History Hewitt was platted in 1891, and named for Henry Hewitt, an early settler. A post office has been in operation ...

, United States, active 1911 to 1979. It was Hewitt's only educational institution up to 1952, hosting first grade through high school at its peak. It was also a key venue for community events, public health services, and extracurricular agricultural instruction. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2006 for having local significance in the theme of education. It was nominated for its central role in educating and socializing not only Hewitt's children but its adult population as well. Beginning in 1981 the Hewitt Historical Society has developed the former school into the Hewitt Museum & Library. It interprets the history and culture of Hewitt and the surrounding Stowe Prairie Township.

Description

Hewitt Public School is a cruciform building rising two and a half stories. Its dominant visual feature is a cross-

gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, w ...

roof, which rises to on the shorter ridgeline and on the longer. The walls are poured

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

covered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

, on a foundation of granite

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

s. The main façade is symmetrical and complexly fenestrated. Narrow arched windows flank the main entrance and a

Palladian window Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

is centered on the attic level. The rectangular windows feature elaborate

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

s while the arched and round windows feature elongated keystone moulds. The central section projecting toward the street has corner

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s topped by elaborate

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s. The front entrance leads into a foyer, which has a staircase on either side leading up to the second floor. There are three classrooms on the first floor. The second floor consists of two classrooms on the left, an auditorium in the middle, and three small rooms on the right that served as a superintendent's office, library, and supply room. The basement level contained classrooms for art and chemistry, the cafeteria, restrooms, and a boiler room. A one-story addition is attached to the southeast corner of the school. It contains a gymnasium, a kitchen, a meeting room, and restrooms. The gymnasium was built in 1952 and the rest added in 1980.

Background and construction

The town of Hewitt was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted in 1891 and opened its first school the following year. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century the original building was getting cramped, due more to state initiatives that improved attendance by farm children than any major population growth. At this time state and national education officials were also pushing for consolidation of schools, doing away with the

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

houses that peppered the countryside. In 1911 a new state law offered grants for construction and operation of larger schools centrally located in towns. Officials from Hewitt's school district convinced the surrounding rural districts to consolidate with them. The school board hired architect C. Howard Parsons of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, who had designed schools in nearby Long Prairie, Wadena, Sauk Centre, and Little Falls. Parsons and the local building committee decided to construct the new school entirely out of concrete. This was a fairly novel building material at the time, garnering widespread praise as durable, fireproof, and modern. Construction began in May 1911 with local laborers under the supervision of Minneapolis-based contractor Medson Brothers. They used a pulley and a horse to raise buckets of cement to cast the two-story walls.

Use

Education

The consolidated Hewitt Public School opened in the fall of 1911, originally housing grades one through eight plus one year of high school. Upgrades to the heating, plumbing, ventilation, and electrical systems in the 1920s allowed the district to offer two more years of high school. Government funds for these improvements also mandated better library facilities, lighting, science equipment, administration, and record keeping. With these reforms in place, intended to increase student performance on state exams, Hewitt Public School was promoted to a full four-year high school in 1931.

Public health

Hewitt Public School served as the base of operations in Hewitt and the surrounding Stowe Prairie Township for

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

efforts, a growing national focus after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. A

public health nurse Public health nursing, also known as community health nursing is a nursing specialty focused on public health. The term was coined by Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement, or, Public health nurses (PHNs) or community health nurses "integrat ...

Agricultural instruction

The

Smith–Lever Act of 1914 The Smith–Lever Act of 1914 is a United States federal law that established a system of cooperative extension services, connected to land-grant universities, intended to inform citizens about current developments in agriculture, home economics, p ...

provided government funding for

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

and

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

instruction, and once again Hewitt Public School was the main local venue for these programs. Offered by the state's

cooperative extension service The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) was an extension agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), part of the executive branch of the federal government. The 1994 Department Reorganization Act, ...

, they helped introduce agricultural communities to the latest and most effective methods of raising crops and livestock. One popular program was the school garden, which students helped plan, plant, tend, harvest, and preserve (the canned produce then being used in school lunches throughout the year). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, agricultural extension services were a key tool for the national and state government to try to boost farm production and address wartime shortages. These programs helped recruit additional farm labor, collect scrap metal, share fertilizer and machinery, and encourage children to buy

war savings stamps A savings stamp is a stamp issued by a government or other body to enable small amounts of money to be saved over time to accumulate a larger capital sum. The funds accumulated may then be used to make a larger purchase such as taking out a savi ...

. They held classes on cooking with local produce and substituting for unavailable foods. Meanwhile, the school's faculty took charge of local sugar

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

Community venue

Like all public schools at the time, the Hewitt building was also intended to serve as a community center. The auditorium hosted plays, concerts, and lectures. Community groups, many led by the school's own teachers, met in the classrooms after hours. Demand for space was high enough that the school board instituted a rental fee in 1922, though organizations open to the public (such as the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...

) were exempted.

Closure and reuse

Graduating classes from the high school were never large, hitting a maximum of 16 in 1943. In 1946 only four students graduated. The declining enrollment led the school board to approve closing the high school in 1948, but community members successfully lobbied to keep it open. Despite the local support and the addition of a gymnasium in 1952, the school's superintendent stated that "there will soon be too few pupils left to operate even a grade school in Hewitt." The Minnesota State Board of Education, pushing for consolidation with nearby

Bertha Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German ''berhta'' meaning "bright one". It was usually a short form of Anglo Saxon names ''Beorhtgifu'' meaning "bright gift" or ''Beorhtwynn'' meaning "bright joy". The name occurs as a theonym, s ...

, finally broke through the opposition by promising that the grade school would remain in Hewitt. Beginning in 1953 the older students began attending classes in Bertha, while grades one through six continued meeting at Hewitt Public School. In 1964, however, that was dropped to just fifth and sixth grades, and the school closed permanently in December 1979. The building and its grounds were sold to the city of Hewitt for one dollar. The Hewitt

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , ...

was granted a 99-year lease on the gymnasium for use as a community center, adding a meeting room and kitchen to that wing in 1980. The following year the Hewitt Historical Society organized and began using the main section as a museum. Outside, half of the former schoolyard has been developed as a public park. In 2010 the building's roof and windows were restored with a grant from the

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

funded by the 2008 Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment. With books donated by the school library of Eagle Bend, the historical society opened a lending library in one of the former classrooms in 2011. The society aims to offer internet access as well to help make up for the lack of a public library in Hewitt.

References

External links

Hewitt Historical Society
{{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 1911 establishments in Minnesota 1979 disestablishments in Minnesota Buildings and structures in Todd County, Minnesota Colonial Revival architecture in Minnesota Defunct schools in Minnesota Education in Todd County, Minnesota Former school buildings in the United States History museums in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Todd County, Minnesota School buildings completed in 1911 School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Tourist attractions in Todd County, Minnesota