District #3 (Salem Hills), 1861-1952

A photograph of the Salem Hills one-room schoolhouse (District #3), built in 1861 and used through 1953, when the new Salem Hills Elementary School was built.

Source: Lois Glewwe, History of Inver Grove Heights

The bell used at the Salem Hills (District #3) one-room schoolhouse. When the new Salem Hills Elementary was built and the old schoolhouse sold and renovated into a family home, the bell was removed and donated to the new school.

John Henry Blase donated land along the Old German Road (present-day Babcock Trail) and Salem Church Road (present-day Upper 55th Street) on December 1, 1860, for the construction of a new school. Designated as School District #3 in 1889, the Salem Hills school operated from 1861 to 1953, when a new elementary school was built down the road.

The school was sold to Kenneth and Margaret Waldhauser, who turned it into a single-family home. The school's foundation, sixteen inches of concrete and stones, remains as of 2024. With the help of a neighbor, the Waldhausers removed the school bell (pictured at left) and donated it to Salem Hills Elementary School.

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