Listen to Archive Dive: A tour of Superior's retooled schools

Sep. 11—For this month's episode of the Archive Dive, we search for retooled school buildings in Superior.

Many former schools have found a new life after the final bell. Some are apartments. Others are a church, a business center or something else. We dive into ages, dates and histories. When were they built? How long did they last? What are they now?

Telegram reporter Maria Lockwood is joined by local historian and retired librarian Teddie Meronek as they take us on a verbal tour neighborhood by neighborhood, discussing such schools as Itasca, St. Anthony and Margaret, Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln, East, St. Francis, St. Adalbert, St. Louis, Carpenter, MaCaskill and more.

Meronek, who grew up in the East End neighborhood, recalls there were four schools within about five blocks of her childhood home.

"We had East High School St. Adalbert, St. Francis and Nelson Dewey. And there are no schools in East End anymore," said Meronek. "Nelson Dewey and Saint Francis, the buildings are still standing and Saint Francis had the distinction of being the oldest Catholic school in Superior. It was organized in 1883."

At one time. St. Francis taught students kindegarten through 12th grade.

"It was a huge school because there was no place else if you were Catholic in Superior that you were going to be able to send your kids because a lot of the other schools hadn't been built yet," Meronek added.

While recently checking a 1959 city directory, Meronek found that between public and parochial, there were more than 20 schools in Superior. But that eventually changed.

"That was the big time in the 1960s when a lot of the Catholic schools were closing because the population was declining in Superior itself," said Meronek. "It was also when a lot of the public schools closed because they were consolidating and they were building new schools like Blaine, which was built in the 1950s, and then Superior High School."

While some of these schools from yesteryear may no longer exist, reminders of their legacies still do.

"I'm glad they saved what they did," Meronek said.

New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune digital producers Wyatt Buckner and Dan Williamson. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to see covered, email Maria Lockwood at [email protected].