It’s Winter Break! But Friends of Wausau Historic Landmarks is headed to school. This week’s WHAT! is Longfellow School, or you can call it by its historic name, First Ward School at 415 Seymour Street.
Built in 1894, it was designed by Milwaukee architect Henry J. Van Ryn, and includes a 1990 addition done by Sauter Seaborne Architects. Van Ryn only designed two schools, the other being Irving School on Wausau’s westside at 833 Third Avenue. Both are Queen Anne designs, and are two of the oldest schools in Wausau. Longfellow also shows design elements of Chicago Commercial and Jacobethean styles.
The roofline is complicated as it features both gabled and hipped elements, while also having a cupola in the middle and asymmetrical dormers. This design shows it was built with Queen Anne in mind.
The Chicago Commercial style can be seen in the large number of windows. The advanced frame design of the Chicago Commercial Style was an important design element because it allowed more natural light into the building, which is especially important in a school setting.
Jacobethean, a popular school design at the time, is seen in the trim (such as the lintels above and the sills beneath the windows) and brickwork.
The school had additions to both the north and south sides of the original building.
Longfellow School served as an elementary school until it was turned into an alternative school, it closed in 1986 when it was replaced by Hawthorn Hills (which itself closed in 2025). By 1994 Longfellow School was turned into what it is today, the Wausau School Districts district administrative building.
The school was named after the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The bell that sits out front is originally from Humboldt School and used to signal the start of the school day. That school was built in 1874 and sat on the corner of 6th and Jefferson Streets. It was Wausau’s first brick school. Today the bell is used as a logo for the Wausau School District, representing all of Wausau’s schools.
