Thanks to Jameson’s Irish Bar for their support.
An open field to the west of Heritage E-STEM Middle School in West St. Paul was once the home of Grass Junior High School. It served the community for nearly half a century before being torn down in 1998.
We’ll explore the history of West St. Paul schools in a 7-part series as part of our member drive, so stay tuned for more.
The Schools
Preceded by Sibley Junior High School in 1936 Sibley Senior High School in 1952, Frances M. Grass Junior High School was built to the west of the high school gym and opened in 1960. By 1997, the school district opened two middle schools to replace Grass, Heritage to the east of Grass and Friendly Hills in Mendota Heights.
Grass Junior High School
(Photo credit: Dakota County Historical Society).
ISD 197 buildings were crowded in the late 1950s with the post-war baby boom, and by 1959 the school district built Grass Junior High School on Butler Avenue, an addition to the sprawling Sibley High School complex.
- Opened in the fall of 1960, Grass Junior High School was designed to house 1,200 students. The building included 43 classrooms, a partitioned gym, multipurpose room (cafeteria and a stage for assemblies), and other rooms.
- According to John Ramsay, furniture had not shown up in time for the opening of Grass, so the district asked parents to bring chairs and card tables the school could borrow until the ordered furniture arrived.
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Namesake:
Frances M. Grass (1898-1980) came to West St. Paul in 1942 to be the principal of Sibley Junior High. Nearly 20 years later she would be the first principal of the school named for her, in “recognition of exemplary and devoted work.”
- Her reaction: “It is wonderful to have enough room,” said Grass in a 1960 West St. Paul Booster article when the school opened. The article described Grass as amused at the fact that the school would bear her name: “It is an unusual situation,” she said.
- Bio: Born in Wisconsin in 1898, Grass graduated from Mankato State Teachers College. Her first teaching assignment was at a one-room school in Redwood County, Minnesota. Then she taught in various southern Minnesota schools before coming to West St. Paul.
- Tribute: “Frances M. Grass was a kind, unassuming, friendly person. She administered with a firm, fair hand. She knew every child by name. She gave helpful counsel and encouragement to her staff. The community appreciated her concern and respect for parents as well. The school became her life. She was never too busy to do whatever was needed to make school a better place for kids. She served in the ticket booth to sell tickets for games, chaperoned trips and activities; arrived at school very early and stayed late. She came even on ‘snow’ days just in case someone had come. She was there to get them warmed before a trip home in the cold. She herself had never missed a day of school for illness since she was eight years old.” -Pearl Vitelli, local resident and former ISD 197 teacher in an article about the district’s history
- Remembered: “She always wore this big ring of keys on her belt and was strong on academics,” said Jane DeLambert in a 1997 Dakota County Tribune article. DeLambert served as PTA president and was among the first students to attend Grass Junior High. She also remembers a favorite quote of Grass: “Proper dress invites proper conduct.” “I think it worked,” DeLambert said, “but, of course, that was years ago when we always had to wear dresses to school.”
- Later years: She retired in 1965 and moved to be near family in Owatonna. She passed away in 1980. Grass Junior High closed on the day of her funeral as a tribute to its namesake and to give staff an opportunity to attend the funeral in Owatonna.
Frances M. Grass at Frances M. Grass Junior High (Photo credit: Dakota County Historical Society).
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Video
Here’s video footage that shows Grass Junior High and the former Sibley High School in 1988. (Thanks to Helen Ballinger for sharing the video, shot by her late brother, Mark Fischer.)
More to Come
Stay tuned for the next part in our seven-part series on the history of Sibley schools:
- Part 1: Overview
- Part 2: Sibley Junior High
- Part 3: Sibley High School
- Part 4: Grass Junior High School
- Part 5: Henry Sibley High School
- Part 6: Heritage Middle School
- Part 7: Demolition and What Remains
Researching West St. Paul history happens thanks to the generous support of our members. Join them and support local news.
I was a school exchange student from England, who attended Grass Junior High in the spring of 1982. I was there for around a month, along with around a dozen others from our UK school. I have many good memories, including buying donuts in the hall prior to the school day starting; something that would certainly not have been allowed in England!
Hello! Did you get a timetable with the school name being F.M Grass? I’m doing some research for my Dad who did the exact same thing as you but in 1981. I’m trying to locate the two schools he went to visit and I believe this is one of them but over 40 years later, the school’s either have shut down or changed names, making this task harder!