The Origin of Spring Park City Hall

Article by Nathan Hofer & published in Tonka Living Magazine, September, 2025

As a new school year begins in our community, it’s worth reflecting on how far we’ve come.

In the late 1800s, the lake’s educational landscape was dotted with dozens of schools, each serving its immediate neighborhood. Going from one-room log schoolhouses to today’s districts with thousands of students, the contrast is stark! One such example is the Spring Park School, formerly District #116, incorporated on July 3, 1876. By 1906, the community sought a new building: a modest, two-room, wood-frame schoolhouse with a retractable wall that allowed the space to be combined into one. It served grades 1–4 before students were transferred to Mound School for the upper grades.

The school stood where the Cavalry Memorial Church is today, just off Highway 15 at the base of Casco Point. In September 1915, District #116 merged with the larger Mound district (#85). The Spring Park building remained in use until the Baby Boom, when enrollment outgrew the space.

It closed in 1963, just before the opening of 20-room Hilltop Elementary. Rather than demolish the old school, the district sold it to the Spring Park Community Improvement Association for $1. It was later donated to the city and repurposed as the village hall. Soon after, it was relocated across town, where it still stands at 4349 Warren Avenue.

For families today, the little building offers more than nostalgia— it’s a living symbol of the care and commitment once poured into even the humblest classrooms. It reminds us that great communities are built one child, and one schoolroom, at a time.