100 years of CH High School

This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the Columbia Heights High School.

The school district applied to the state to have a high school in 1925, and the new high school was dedicated in December of 1926. A statement in the dedication said the new school would be:

“A workshop for better citizenship as well as a place of inspiration and advancement for all that is best and highest in life.”

The new building had 29 rooms and served about 500 students. It cost $75,000 to build.

It changed the community forever.

Early history

But the history of schools in Columbia Heights goes much further back.

The first settlers to move into the area were nearly all farmers. People began living in what would become Columbia Heights as far back as when Minnesota became a state in 1958, and the settlement increased dramatically when a pair of Minneapolis business tycoons, Thomas Lowry and John Pillsbury, bought much of the land in the area.

An electric streetcar brought mass transportation to the area in the 1890s, and the future city was platted in 1893. Lowry promised anyone who built a home in the future city a free foundation from a nearby rock quarry. It was a strong enticement since much of the future village was swampy and a dry basement was important.

The Village of Columbia Heights was incorporated in 1898, occupying what had formerly been Fridley Township.

Lowry also purchased and brought to 40th and Central the authentic Lincoln funeral train car as an attraction to draw people to the end of the streetcar line.

The population in the early 1890s was about 400, and students were served by a one-room schoolhouse since 1873. A second room was added to the school house along the way.

In 1894, the Columbia School was built at 41st and Central. A south addition was added in 1911. It was an imposing brick building.

By 1910, with the population surging and the existing school buildings bursting at the seams, a movement in the community was begun to oust the current school board members and elect three new members who would be more active in the future of the schools. Two of the new board members were women — somewhat surprisingly, given women didn’t get the right to vote in the United States until 1920.

The result of the “radical changes” promised by the new school board included the addition to the Columbia School. A bond levy was passed in 1915, by a 63-47 margin, approving $17,000 for a new school. The Oakwood School at 4140 4th Street was dedicated that year. A parent-teacher organization was founded for the school district in 1916.

In 1918, as World War I ended, another bond was approved and a four-room addition to Oakwood was built. The school stayed in business for nearly 70 years before it was sold to the Oakhill Baptist Church.

Columbia Heights became a city in 1921 when a charter was adopted.

The Silver Lake Elementary School, at 41st and Hayes St., was completed in 1922, and another addition was added to Oakwood in 1924 as the city continued to grow.

In 1925, the school district applied to become a high school district and the first classes were held at Oakwood. In 1926, the Columbia Heights Senior High School was dedicated on 41st Avenue between Jackson and Van Buren Streets. It cost $75,000.

The first class to graduate from the new building got their diplomas in 1931. By 1933, although residents still complained about the muddy roads near the high school, it had 1,900 students.   

In 1939, Immaculate Conception School was founded as the area’s first parochial school. A new elementary, Nelson School, was built in 1954, and as the baby boomers raised the school’s enrollment, Valley View Elementary opened in 1960.

In the 1960s, the teacher’s union was formed. It was one of the first in the state.

The High School was the latest addition, opening in 1961 on 49th Avenue. It was quickly followed by nearby Highland Elementary the same year, and North Park Elementary in 1966. The high school had several additions built in the 1960s.

With the Baby Boom over, the district began to downsize: Columbia School was demolished in 1967, and Oakwood School was closed in 1974. In one fell swoop, Silver Lake, Columbia Junior High and Nelson were closed in 1981.

The high school continued to grow with the Hylander Center and other structures added to the campus.

Craig Larson, 65 years

Craig Larson can just as easily give a dissertation on the American economy in the 1980s or explain to you the inner workings of the school’s 250 Simplex clocks. Maybe it’s that Columbia Heights education.

Larson attended kindergarten in Columbia Heights schools in 1961, and is still working as the district’s service technician. So for the 100 years since Columbia Heights High School has been around, Larson, 70, has been involved for 65 percent of that time.

One of his jobs is to keep the district’s 440 clocks running and on time. The clocks themselves are an indicator of change during his time in the schools.

“Most of the kids coming into the schools can’t tell time from a wall clock,” Larson said. “Every clock in their home, whether it’s on the stove or wherever, is digital. They have no idea what that round clock with the 12 numbers on the wall means.”

In the end, Larson said, the students do learn how to tell time from a traditional clock.

After Larson graduated in 1974 from Columbia Heights High School, and after he returned to work at the school some eight years later, he had a friendly relationship with many of the teachers. “Now everyone is gone.”

Over that span he helped the district absorb the first wave of computers. “Technology has changed so much in our lifetimes.”

He says he has a great loyalty to the schools, and they have been loyal to him. “They treat people well here. It’s a nurturing environment. It’s a great environment for learning.”

Larson said other districts have a problem with teachers leaving, but Columbia Heights has a high retention rate for its instructors. “They are treated well here. It helps create a stable environment.”

Larson is a historical collector and has garages full of memorabilia from Columbia Heights schools. One of the things he was able to preserve was the original dedication plaque from Columbia Heights High School when it was built in 1926. It now resides in his office.

He graduated when the district was in its Baby Boomer peak in the mid-70s, and he was there when the district hit its low point of 2,700 students in about 2006. It has now rebounded to about 3,300 students despite taking a hit from the Metro Surge this year.

“The city had a lot of older people, and they eventually sold their houses and younger families moved in. There were more kids.”

The district, he said, needs about 3,000 students to have enough state funding to do a good job. “Things are getting better every year. The public has passed all the levy votes. People are very supportive of the schools,” Larson said.

“I like working at a place that’s looking to the future, and is always trying to improve. I continue to learn new things every week. It’s contagious.”

Barbara Rue, historian

Barbara Smith Rue is a super volunteer. Her latest effort was to walk miles of streets in Columbia Heights handing out posters for the Sept. 12 high school centennial gathering.

She is also a declared historian and the walls of her home where she has lived for 62 years are filled with historic photos of family, the schools and much more.

And, at 82, she is one of the few Columbia Heights natives to say she attended the district’s first school, a two-room building at 43rd and Main Street that was razed in the late 1950s. In district lore, it is called the “one-room schoolhouse” and it was the district’s only school for 20 years after it was built in 1874.

She remembers that when she went to kindergarten Oakwood School had an indoor, elevated sand box. “If the teacher thought you did well, she let you play in the sandbox as a reward.”

Rue attended high school at the old CHHS on 41st Avenue when the district was busting at the seams with over 7,000 students. “The school board shut too many schools down and there just wasn’t room. So we had split shifts. We started at 6:30 in the morning and went until noon. The second shift came in at 12:20 and stayed until 6:30.”

Was it hard getting up that early? “Oh, you’d better believe it was. The students who had jobs would go to an hour of school and then work for eight hours.”

Rue started at the Oakwood School, built in 1915 and closed in 1974, and then returned to the one-room school house for 4th grade.

Rue quit school in her junior year “because I was in love, and because I was not happy with high school,” but she came back and took night school courses to earn her degree. She is officially in the Class of 1962.

What’s her impression of the school system over the years? “I find that school is best if you get involved. I was involved all the time.”

As a volunteer in later years she was the first volunteer tutor to be in the classroom at Oakwood. “Before that, no parents were allowed in the classrooms.”

Rue was one of 11 children, and had a career as a chiropractic assistant and an x-ray technician. She and her late husband, Kent, had four children.

Rue recalled that when she rode the bus to school there was a bus driver named Burt who was especially kind and friendly to the students. When the Rues bought their first house, Burt was their next door neighbor.

She had a lot of favorite teachers but one high school mentor stands out. “I had Ed Rapp for just a few months, but I never had another teacher like him. He made an atmosphere at school that made you want to be there. I just loved him.”

Her life has been many things. “But one thing I can tell you. I’m proud to be a Hylander. And I live on the hill.”

Athletics Through the Years

In 1929, the new high school was fielding football, track, basketball and golf teams with Coach Peter Deanovic manning the sidelines.

In 1930, Columbia Heights reached the state tournament in basketball. The night before the big game, the team’s star, Walter “Red” Sochacki turned 21 and was not allowed to play. The other team won.

Columbia Heights won the Minneapolis City Conference hockey championship in 1942.

Sometime during World War II, Columbia Heights High School changed its colors from yellow and green to blue and gold.

In 1979, the school won the Class AA football title with a young John Alt anchoring the line. Alt went on to play professional football for 12 years, winning numerous all-pro awards.

The girls’ volleyball team was a powerhouse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, winning the state championship in 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990.

The 1983 hockey team made history by knocking off perennial power Edina in the state AA tournament. The Hylanders were later eliminated.

Boys basketball reached the state tournament in 1930, 2011 and 2017. The Hylanders were the 2018 runner-up.

Over the years, Columbia Heights has won five state tournaments, one in football in four in girls volleyball.

And, as other after-school activities continued to gain popularity, in 2025 Taymoi Epps was the state Speech/Poetry champion.

Celebration

As this edition of the Northeasterr went to press, Columbia Heights High School marked its 100th anniversary with a Centennial Celebration at the high school. The event included a community breakfast, tours and a museum of school memorabilia including large collections of yearbooks and homecoming buttons.