Old Cahill School

The Cahill Settlement was one of the early communities in the western half of Richfield Township, established in the 1850s by Irish immigrants fleeing famine in Ireland after the potato crop failed during 1846, 1847, and 1848 and an estimated 1.5 million people died of starvation; its pioneer families were among the 750,000 Irish emigrants who came to the United States during that period. The community centered at Cahill Road and West 70th Street in southwest Edina, where the Cahill School, St. Patrick's Catholic Church, and the Cameron Store and post office were built, and it was named for Father Thomas Cahill, an early missionary priest in Minnesota. On June 27, 1864, Hugh Darcy deeded two acres on the southeast corner of Cahill Road and West 70th Street to the Directors of School District No. 16 for five dollars, and a wood-frame schoolhouse was built there that year. Typical of the classic one-room schoolhouse of 19th-century rural America, the building reflected the Greek Revival style then in vogue in Minnesota, followed a plan similar to one recommended by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and strictly segregated boys and girls with separate entrances. Originally at the center of the Cahill Settlement, the school was an important part of daily life in early Edina, with about 30 students in first through eighth grades attending classes and the building also serving after school as a social center for weddings, dances, theatricals, village elections, and other community events. Until 1884 it was used as a chapel by St. Patrick's Catholic Church after the congregation outgrew its first log church built in 1857, and from 1933 to 1938 Calvary Lutheran Church also held services there. Built in 1864, the Cahill School remained in continuous classroom use until 1958, was acquired by the City of Edina in 1969 and moved to its present site, and was then restored through historical and architectural research to its early 1900s appearance, with period furnishings inside. Today it is a living history museum listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is the oldest building in Edina.

Edina, Minnesota · United States