Emerson elementary was the very first school I attended. I only went there a few days before we moved to West Duluth where I attended Irving Elentary. i found the following information about Emerson somewhere on the internet.
Emerson School, at 11th Avenue West and Third Street, was built in 1891, the same time three other schools -- Longfellow, Central and Park Point -- were under construction. Built for $47,963, the school was designed by architect A. Rudolph.
The school closed in 1982 and is now being used as apartments.
According to a News Tribune story from September 1994, the Emerson Tenants Cooperative bought the building for $10,900 after 11 months of negotiations. The 103-year-old converted apartment building still needed work to bring it up to code, including new firewalls and new kitchens. In 1993, the city had set a date for condemning the building and evicting the tenants because of fire code violations.
The building had been forfeited for taxes in 1993 after the former owner failed to pay back taxes and penalties totaling $67,000. The school district had sold the building in 1982 for $2,500.
St. Louis County then took control of the building and eventually sold it to the tenants.
