The Merrille Instutute for Young Ladies - Fond du Lac, WI - Former Schools on Waymarking.com

Matilda S. Merrille was born in Bethel, Maine, in 1829 and was educated at Syracuse University. After first teaching in the Sheboygan County schools, she came to Fond du Lac in 1855. She and Edwin Johnson are identified as the first teaches in Fond du Lac's first high school, which opened in 1859. She left Fond du Lac for a short time and is noted as the second female to serve on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1866, however, she rturned to Fond du Lac and opened her privately run high school-level facility in her own home on Division Street. Tution was cited as $10 per 13-week term, with a school year planned to consist of three such terms. Merrile's school was at capacity by the end of the first term.

On 26 february 1868, Miss Merrille purchased the subject lot $1,500 and built the subject. The new facility had a capacity of 90 pupils and offered the same curriculum as the public school, along with french and music. By 1880, the school's success seems to have dwindled thereafter, for in 1884, the graduating class numbered just three. In 1887, it was announced in the local paper that the fourth and last classroom of the school was being cleared and refitted for residential purposes and the school was discontinued.

This building although exhibiting the basic elements of the Italianate style of architecture through its rectangular form and its hipped roof, the subject structure does not display the typical eave brackets and/or window hoods. Although its Period of Significance is somewhat brief (1868 to 1887), the structure stands as a testament to the establishment of nineteenth century private schools.

Address: 29 S. Military Road Fond du Lac, WI USA 54935 Web Site: [Web Link]

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