An Early Northbrook School Site

You've probably driven right by this spot thousands of times in your life, but did you know this is one of the earliest school sites in all of Cook County?  

The first school in the Northern Northfield Township (Northbrook) area was a timber (log) building, built in 1845 by Joel Sherman on 0.33 acres of land he donated, on the east side of Waukegan Road (located 500 feet north of Shermer Road, according to an early map of the area).  First known as the “Sherman School”, later the “East Northfield School”, even some children from Deerfield attended this early school.  In the 1860’s, when a new school building was built with a wood frame instead of logs, the old log school was incorporated as the kitchen of a house built on Waukegan Road about 300 feet south of Shermer Road.  The old school house was uncovered in 1961 when the house at 1111 Waukegan Road was demolished to make room for the George Garner Cyclery building.  An earlier version of the Northbrook Historical Society was formed at that time expressly for the purpose of preserving that old school building.  This society raised sufficient funds to move the log building to Meadowhill Park.  On Sept. 10, 1965 vandals set fire to the building and it was approximately 30 percent destroyed.  Funds to restore the log building were eventually collected from those responsible for the fire, but suitable logs, artisans to hew the logs and do the restoration work could not be found.  The remains of the building were dismantled. Many of the good logs were donated to the Highland Park Historical Society for use in the restoration of the “Stupey Log Cabin” in Highland Park, while some of the other logs were used to construct a bench along the creek just east of the Northbrook Historical Society building

The second school house, East Northfield School, (District 4) was a one story frame building, built in the 1860’s.  In the 1880’s, it was moved to the northwest corner of Waukegan and Dundee Roads where it served as a home for the Henry Tagmeier family and later the Christian Pantle family.

In the 1880s, a third, larger school building was built on the same site as the second school.  This was a two-story building with four and one teacher on each floor. In later years, the first floor was divided into two rooms and a third teacher was hired. School was held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Pupils usually attended from age 6 until they reached 12. The Shermerville School was supervised by a single trustee.  In April, 1896, the first Board of Directors was elected.  George Noble served as the first President. In 1902, the district was changed from District 4 to District 28. The graduation class of 1905 consisted of Pearl Bach, Clarence Bartelme, Lloyd Kiest, Florence Kiest, Orville Kiest, Raymond Gloss, Milton Hans and Robert Landwehr. 

Much of the area's social life centered around the school, featuring picnics and parties for special events.  The last day of school was always an all-day celebration in “Bartelme’s Woods”, south of the school. The families brought picnic lunches and there were recitations of what they had learned that year, along with games for all.

This history was documented by Village Historian Lee Schinleber.