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Edina, Minnesota

Cahill School

Rule

The historic Cahill School, 4924 Eden Ave. in Tupa Park, was previously included in the City’s heritage preservation overlay district when it and the historic Minnehaha Grange Hall were designated as a historic district in 1977. The Heritage Preservation Board (HPB) recommended re-designation of the schoolhouse as an Edina Heritage Landmark pursuant to the 2002 amendments to the City’s historic preservation code.

The historic property recommended for designation as an Edina Heritage Landmark is described in detail in a Minnesota Historical Society historic site survey form prepared by Foster W. Dunwiddie in 1970, which forms the basis of the National Register of Historic Places nomination form approved on Oct. 9, 1970. The Cahill School is also featured in William W. Scott and Jeffrey A. Hess' History and Architecture of Edina, Minnesota (City of Edina, 1981) and Deborah Morse-Kahn's Chapters in the City History: Edina (City of Edina, 1998).

DESCRIPTION
The Cahill School building is a one-story, frame, vernacular one-room schoolhouse with a rectangular plan, a gable roof, and limestone foundation walls. The exterior walls are finished with horizontal lap siding and the original wood shingle roof has been covered over with asphalt shingles. The interior walls and ceiling are lath and plaster, with a beaded wood wainscot, maple flooring, and slate chalkboards. The schoolhouse was moved to its present location in 1970 and shares Frank Tupa Park (formerly known as Edina Historical Park) with the historic Minnehaha Grange Hall. The building, which functions as a museum, has been slightly altered from its historic appearance but is in a good state of preservation.

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The historic District 16 schoolhouse, commonly known as the Cahill School, was built in 1864 at what is now the southeast corner of 70th Street and Cahill Road. It is a notable example of a vernacular one-room schoolhouse and physically documents the history of rural education in Edina’s Cahill neighborhood between 1864 and 1953. After the rural school district was dissolved, the property was sold to a developer and the schoolhouse was subsequently acquired by the Village of Edina, which moved it onto the historical park near the village hall for restoration as a museum.

EVALUATION OF LANDMARK ELIGIBILITY
On Sept. 24, 2002, the Edina HPB determined that the Cahill School met the Edina Heritage Landmark eligibility criteria set forth in City Code §850.20 subd.2, on the basis of its association with important events that reflect significant broad patterns in local history and its embodiment of distinctive architectural characteristics. The HPB evaluated the significance of the historic property within the local historic contexts “The Agricultural Landscape (1851 to 1959)” and “The Cahill Settlement: Edina’s Irish Heritage (1850’s to 1930’s),” outlined in the Edina Historic Contexts Study adopted in 1999, and found that it retained historic integrity of those features necessary to convey its historical and architectural preservation values.

PLAN OF TREATMENT
1. The recommended treatment concept for the Cahill School is preservation in place, applying measures to sustain the existing form, integrity and material of the historic schoolhouse. The most important architectural features to be preserved are its one-room rectangular plan, one-story wall height, gable roof, wood lap siding, limestone foundation, symmetrical fenestration, floor plan, and interior finishes.

2. The property should be maintained in a state of utility through repairs or minor alterations which make possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those features which are significant to its historical and architectural values. Deteriorated architectural features should be repaired rather than replaced, and if replacement of missing features is necessary, the new work should be based on accurate duplications of original features, substantiated by historical or pictorial evidence.

3. As the property owner, the City should provide a compatible use for the schoolhouse that requires minimal alteration of the building and its site. Future uses may be accomplished through partnerships with other public agencies or private organizations, and in such cases the City should take all steps necessary to insure that the distinguishing historical qualities of the building will not be destroyed, removed, or altered.

4. Changes that have taken place in the course of time are evidence of the building’s historical development and have acquired historical significance in their own right. These include pre-1953 modifications and the building’s relocation to Frank Tupa Park.

5. As a matter of policy, the City of Edina will consider the effects of its projects on city-owned properties designated as Edina Heritage Landmarks. The Edina Park Board shall also give the Heritage Preservation Board (HPB) a reasonable opportunity to review for appropriateness all plans for routine maintenance, repairs, and improvements at Frank Tupa Park. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties are the required basis for the HPB’s recommendations.