First Kindergarten
First Kindergarten | |
Location | 919 Charles St. Watertown, Wisconsin |
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Coordinates | 43°11′04″N 88°42′26″W / 43.18444°N 88.70722°W |
NRHP reference No. | 72000055 |
Added to NRHP | February 23, 1972 |
The First Kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin, is the building that housed the first kindergarten in the United States, opened in 1856.[1] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972[2][3] for its significance to the history of education.[4]
History
Margarethe's family was prosperous and socially progressive, favoring the unification of the many small German states into one democratic nation. After losing in the
By this time Margarethe had a three-year-old daughter Agathe, and she started a kindergarten in her home for her daughter and four cousins,
After the Schurzes left, the Watertown kindergarten operated sporadically until the
The Schurz home, in which Margarethe began her kindergarten, burned and no longer exists, so this schoolhouse is the best representative of that first kindergarten. Because this building was moved from its original location and substantially changed, the National Register doesn't consider it of great architectural significance. It does consider it significant to the history of education at a national level, because Schurz's school in Watertown was the first kindergarten in the U.S.[4]
Mention has been made of two attempts to found kindergartens, perhaps as early as 1849-1850, in Belleville, Illinois. There is no record of whether the attempts succeeded. One of the entrepreneurs, J. Fraus, married Marie Boelte who had a reputation as a kindergarten pioneer.[10]
References
- ^ "First Kindergarten". Historical Marker Database.org. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
- ^ "First Kindergarten". Landmark Hunter.com. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
- ^ a b c "First Kindergarten". National or State Register. Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
- ^ a b c "First Kindergarten". Architecture and History Inventory. Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
- ^ Passe, Angele Sancho. Kindergarten in the Twenty-first Century (PDF). St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press. p. 42. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
- ^ a b c d Fleming, Susan. "Margarethe Meyer Schurz". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
- ^ a b Barnett, Todd. "Carl Schurz (1829-1906)". Historic Missourians. The State Historical Society of Missouri. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
- ^ a b "America's First Kindergarten". History of Watertown, Wisconsin. Watertown Historical Society. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
- ^ a b Donald N. Anderson (1971-10-15). "NRHP Inventory/Nomination: First Kindergarten". National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-10-23. With one photo.
- ^ Alvin Louis Nebelsick, The History of Belleville, pp. 140-141.