Event Details
Nearly a century ago, Cyrus B. Northrop Jr., the beloved president emeritus of the University of Minnesota, died at the age of 87. The Ridgefield native and graduate of the West Lane District/Peter Parley School, had served as the university’s president from 1884 to 1911, overseeing tremendous growth at the school. There were 289 students when he arrived and 5,000 when he retired, on a Minneapolis campus that went from two buildings to 23.
We’ll celebrate this renowned education leader, youngest son of a Ridgefield farming family, at Sunday’s Open House at the West Lane/Peter Parley Schoolhouse, Sept. 27, 1 to 4 p.m.
Please join us to learn about the first school that Cyrus Northrop attended and how education was organized in Ridgefield during his school days here. We’ll have refreshments and Town Historian Jack Sanders will be available to answer questions, with hosts Sally Sanders, Nancy Rowe, and Georgia Loomis. The Ridgefield Historical Society maintains the school as a small museum.