May 2012 Gem Lake Newsletter - Laserfiche WebLink

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Gem Lake News Page 3 of 6 By 1950, the school was still in operation. On Memorial Day weekend, neighborhood families would gather at the school for a picnic and the annual doll parade. One year, Dick Arcand and his friend Art Birkeland, who ran White Bear Floral with his wife Lorraine, dressed up as dolls and participated in the parade. (See photo below. Dick is riding, Art is pushing.) The doll parade tradition had not yet started when Millie was attending school there, but her daughter participated in the parade at some point. Another fun event was a game day that schools in the county participated in. Schools competed against each other in sports such as dodge ball. "The kids all had a lot of fun," said Millie. No one knows exactly when the school was shut down, probably sometime during the mid 1950's. The School District #624 was formed in 1952 for the White Bear area and a period of consolidation began for small district schools in the vicinity. Central High School in White Bear was opened in 1918, but the much larger North Campus school was built in 1964. This school is still in use today. In 1972, the South Campus, then called Mariner School was added. School 19-B was eventually torn down and the land sold to Henry Hoffman, who eventually sold it to the car dealership. By 1969 when the Roth Tavern was moved to another location, the little brick school next door was a distant memory. Above: the inside of School 19-B showing teacher Miss Frances Merry standing in the back, about 1936. Below: Millie Scheuneman LaBathe, about 1936. Bottom left, the annual doll parade, about 1950. The two "dolls" are Dick Arcand and Art Birkeland. Bottom right is Shirley Hoffman Arcand, about 1950.