Sheboygan's Longfellow Elementary School, still in use today, first opened in 1994. Here's its story.

SHEBOYGAN — Longfellow school started out as the Fourth Ward School. A modest building, it was built for $23,000 around 1890 and featured a handsome Romanesque style.

That original building was two stories of brick and a high basement of stone. It featured eight large rooms with large central halls, according to information from the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center.

In 1918, an addition was built on the north side of the school. Around the same time, the American Red Cross was sponsoring a school milk program. Milk was provided for free for those who could not afford the cost. Students who could afford it would spend 2 cents for their milk.

In 1934, Orthopedic Classes were transferred to Longfellow from the building. The School for the Deaf moved from Lincoln Elementary to Longfellow in 1941.

Longfellow School, in 1973, received $300,000 for a remodeling project that helped create flexible open spaces for the Orthopedic School needs.

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The building was known at the time to be the oldest building still to be in use by the Sheboygan Area School District and had many roofing issues. After several bonding referendums failed, the SASD board decided to borrow $5.8 million to build a new school. The old Longfellow would meet the wrecking ball and be torn down while the new school was being built.

After the board approved the construction of the new school, the Sheboygan Press featured an advertisement for bids for the project. The specifications spelled out that the new structure would be about 90,500 square feet with exterior masonry, grade beams and pilings, steel joists, metal deck, shingles and modified bitumen roofing.

Hunzinger Construction, from Brookfield, was selected as the overseer for the project.

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In October 1993, Quasius Bros. Inc., the mason contractor for the $6.8 million school, was having trouble finding enough masons because of a lack of people in the trade. However, Hunzinger Construction, the firm overseeing the entire project, arranged that masons from other projects could be released from them so the school could be enclosed before the winter months. The school was finished on time, just short of a year later.

During the construction, the board was criticized for building a school that had not been approved by the electorate. After it was built, many claimed it was too fancy.

The new, modern Longfellow Elementary School was dedicated Sept. 25, 1994, and has since served students who go there to this day.

Gary C. Klein can be reached at 920-453-5149 or gklein@gannett.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @leicaman99.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan's Longfellow Elementary School opened in 1994