Kenosha News

History Mystery: Dublin Schools stood on three corners in Pleasant Prairie

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BY DIANE GILES

dgiles@kenoshanews.com

The last History Mystery question:

On which corner of the intersection of 39th Avenue and 116th Street did the Dublin School stand?

The answer:

Odds are you’ll get this one right even if you’ve never been to the area. That’s because at some point in time, Dublin School sat on three of the four corners.

The first Dublin School was built on the northwest corner back when the roads were named Kenosha Road and Tobin Road.

It was the first school house of District No. 7, Pleasant Prairie Township, which was organized Oct. 28, 1848, the same year Wisconsin became a state. Records show that the district was on shaky legs the first couple months and confusion reigned until Dec. 22, 1848, when new board members were chosen and the school paid for.

It was named Dublin because many of the old settlers of that part of the community came from or near Dublin, Ireland.

The building was just 16 feet by 24 feet and 10 feet high, but it had four windows, two on each side. It was heated with a box stove that took wood 2 feet long, and desks and benches that were made of rough or hewn lumber.

An early teacher was F.A. Bacon, who received $20.83 for the three months school was in session.

The second school building was built on the southwest corner and opened Oct. 1, 1883. The cost of the building was $600, and it was in constant use until 1927.

Eva Riley Thomey wrote an essay about her remembrances of the old Dublin school, which included the following:

“It is told that the school desks and seats of this school were fastened to boards forming skids that would pass through the front entrance door. This was to make it possible to clear the school room and convert it into a dance hall in a very short time.”

Residents of the district discussed remodeling the second school at a meeting on March 2, 1927, but instead voted to build a new school by a vote of 58-20.

The third and final Dublin School was built soon after the meeting on the southeast corner, and the building still stands there today.

It was originally a two-room structure and cost $15,000 to build. By then the state code had been initiated, and this school had indoor plumbing, which was a welcome addition.

The first day of school in the new building was Oct. 12, 1927.

Decades later, Prairie Lane School was built to take on the overflow of students from five schools in southeastern Kenosha County: Dublin, Lamb, Sheridan Road, Springbrook and Hannan schools. Expansions made to Prairie Lane in 1957 and 1961 made it possible to absorb these other smaller schools.

Prairie Lane then joined the Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 in 1965.

This week’s mystery:

Where was the first church in Kenosha located?

History Mystery

appears weekly in the Kenosha News. The answer to today’s question will run next Tuesday.

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