CAHILL SCHOOL & GRANGE HALL

On a small wedge of land across from Edina City Hall sit two of the community’s historic treasures: Historic Cahill School (1864) and Minnehaha Grange No. 398 (1879). These two significant buildings in Edina’s history were moved in 1969-70 from their original locations to Tupa Park (Eden Avenue and Highway 100 across from Perkins) and carefully restored. Cahill School and the Grange, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now are visited by thousands of visitors each year who learn about our pioneer past by living a day in history.

Cahill School

Built in 1864, Cahill School is the oldest standing building in Edina and served School District No. 16 in southwest Edina. The original site of Cahill School was on the southeast corner of Cahill Road and West 70th Street. The one-room schoolhouse served as a community center for the Cahill District. In addition to daily classes the school was used for church services, village elections, dances, theatricals, and other events.

Even after the residential neighborhoods of Morningside and the Country Club got modern schools (Wooddale School and Morningside School) in the 1920s, Edina farm kids continued to attend the one-room schoolhouse with its outhouse for a bathroom and old wood stove for heat.

Things changed, however, when John McCauley brought his young wife from Chicago to the family’s old homestead in southwest Edina in the 1950s. Accustomed to city schools and indoor plumbing, John was astonished to find that his daughter attended the same one-room school as his father had in the 19th century. It was, he says, “like going back in time.” The McCauleys set out to bring things up to date, starting with indoor plumbing. In continuous classroom use for more than 94 years, Cahill School closed in 1958. It was restored in 1969 and moved to its current site at Frank Tupa Park, where it is open for school field trips and related programs during most of the year.

Grange Hall

The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, more commonly known as the Grange, was a national organization for the “social fraternity of the farmers” dedicated to the principles of “progressive agriculture.” The group was founded by Oliver Hudson Kelley, a farmer from Sherburne County, Minn., in the late 1860s, and many Grange chapters sprouted up like cornstalks throughout the country. Edina’s Minnehaha Grange No. 398 was organized on Dec. 12, 1873 – even before Edina incorporated as a village.

In 1879, the Grange built a meeting hall on the southeast corner of Wooddale Avenue and West 50th Street. In addition to its fraternal uses, this building served as Edina Village Hall from its incorporation in 1888 to 1942. Many historic events took place here, including the decision to name Edina and the secession of the neighborhood of Morningside.

In 1935, the Grange Hall was moved for the construction of St. Stephen the Martyr Episcopal Church. Relocated to the vicinity of Normandale Road and Eden Avenue, the building was moved again in 1970 to its present site in Tupa Park, where it is used in conjunction with Cahill School for school field trips and related functions.