Update: I revisited Gundlach School in March of 2017 and again in April of 2022.
Tucked away on a quiet street in Wells-Goodfellow, Gundlach School is one of the less known of the prominent building campaign of public schools built in the early Twentieth Century.
Interestingly, according to Built St. Louis, it was not designed by Ittner/Milligan, but by a follower named George Sanger. It is abandoned.
The windows are intact! Granted that those on the first floor are protected by mesh, many on the easily-reachable second floor are not.
Is it privately owned? Even the adjacent field and the rear playground do not look trashed or overgrown (at least on Google driveby).
For sale by SLPS at $347,895, reduced from the price in the brochure.
http://c0ha23tv4oq306vil2dfale146q.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/gundlach-sheet.pdf
Swoooon, oh, the diapering and that superb English bond on the entrance! Oh, my god, Flemish bond on the body of the school!
These buildings are just stunning examples of scholastic vernacular. There is one school (just off of Union, I think) that has a massive stone fireplace in a large front room near the entrance.
My elementary school in the 1960s… So sad….
Hi Vicki Mabrey. I was a student at Gundlach with you. 3rd grade, I think!
Greetings, Vicki and Jackie……
I was a classmate in the 60s…
Leonard Wilbert
Hey Vicki. M I went there in the 60s & 70s go to GUNDLACH page and find what’s going on there’s a dance coming up
I attended Gundlach h from 1959 (Kindergarden to 1968 (graduated 8th grade) . I loved Gundlach. Mr. Cokerham was th principal the whole time I was there. Mrs Obrien was my Kindergarden teacher. II cant even recall all the fun i (and my brothers had ) all the years I was there. I didnt go to Beaumont High. We moved and I went to Northwest High which was wonderful as well. thank you for the past memories.
Gundlach was my elementary school in the early to mid 1950’s. John W. Edie was our principal. Gloria O’Brien was the kindergarten teacher. I could name so many more. I remember the school picnics at the Forest Park Highlands and the school picnic parades. We walked to school and home for lunch and back. I have a picture of the Mother’s Club from when I was about 4. I was in the very last row with my mother and grandmother. I had two older brothers who graduated from Gundlach. I have their high school graduation pictures. I have a friend who was principal in the summer one year a Gundlach many years later. Some people don’t remember their elementary schools or teachers. Gundlach and it’s faculty are unforgettable.
Help us take back our neighborhoods and revitalize our historic buildings. What can this property be used for? This part of the neighborhood is a ghost town until night fall. Don’t allow Gundlach to become another Central High School, destroyed building.
I think the best reuse of schools in this area are for senior housing. I have to admit that Gundlach is surrounded by mostly vacant houses. I do not know the solution.
I attended Gundlach School during 1943-49. Then went on to Beaumont High. I remember the school teachers were all spinster-types. I don’t think they could be married back then. And they were quick to give kids a whack or slap, pull hair, shove, whatever might be needed to maintain proper authority and order. And it WAS needed.
Miss Lanigan, Miss Tenschert, Miss Landauer, Miss Hayes….all great teachers who knew their craft to perfection. And do NOT ever mess with them.
John Edie was the principal. A large, imposing man. I remember that he said “using profanity is the sign of a limited vocabulary.” However, by then I already had a well-developed vocabulary of profanity. Too late.
Classroom teachers were all single spinster females. The principal was always a male, brought in from one of the St. Louis high schools. We had one male teacher who taught manual training, back in those days when schoolkids were actually allowed to use sharp tools.
Great school. Small classes of depression-baby size.
Heartbreaking to see that magnificent building sit empty and unused.
Thank you for all the memories! I agree it is sad to see it sit empty.
I also went to Gundloch in the 1950s, along with my sister Jackie who was 3 years older than me. I don’t remember who the Principal was but Mrs O’Brien was the Kindergarten teacher. I believe she played the piano.
Hey James go to GUNDLACH page and find what’s going on there’s a dance coming up for all classes
I went to Laclede, on Kennerly at Goodfellow, but for manual training (for boys) and home ec (for girls) we walked to Gundloch once a week, Amazing to think of it now because it was a long walk to and from, up Kennerly past Clara to Belt, then east on Belt. It would never be allowed now. Laclede was a William B. Ittner masterpiece; Gundloch looked like an Ittner masterpiece, but another architect designed it although it seems who has been lost to history. Gundlach impressed with its wide hallways, linoleum floors and something Laclede did not offer, a lunchroom! WIth really delicious dining! This was the early 1950s and at that juncture the St. Louis public schools ranked among the best in the nation and the most creative.
That would be quite the walk! Thanks for sharing. What was the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood like back then?
Hi, Gundlach would have been my designated school except I attend one of the Catholic Schools in the area. We lived on Burd Avenue for the time I was in elementary school and high school relocating in 1959. Certainly miss the old neighborhood.
Thanks for sharing! Do you remember the houses around the school?
old memories
red the white and blue
dress flag colors looks 51 adopted 1
star KG
STL News says where’s my Kindergarden Diploma sending you this news private message please view pa privacy law for the kg diploma stl news Missouri 2 ny
Attended Gundlach. Graduated in1967. Is there anyone out there with that class graduation picture? The “All White Dance will be on Oct.8, 2022. At the Omega Center, on Goodfellow. Tickets $15.00 @ door $20.00 We are asking anyone that graduated, or attended to represent!