Archives West Finding Aid

Emma Dickinson Elementary School, named after Missoula’s first official schoolteacher, opened its doors to public school students living in Missoula Montana’s Orchard Homes Neighborhood in the fall of 1961. Located at 310 Curtis Street, the school originally served first through eighth graders. During its first twenty years, the school hosted a number of extra-curricular activities ranging from football to orchestra, and students, faculty and the neighborhood residents proudly supported their very own “Dickenson Darts”. The school served as a meeting place for both school-related and outside community events, and quickly developed into a vital part of the surrounding neighborhood.

In the early 1980s, Missoula County Public Schools switched to a middle school system for sixth, seventh and eighth graders, and began to offer public kindergarten in the city’s elementary schools. Emma Dickinson followed this trend, and by the fall of 1984 the school taught only kindergarten through fifth grade. While many school activities continued after these changes took place, others, including school-sponsored sports, were lost. During this period Emma Dickinson strove to meet the needs of its lower income students, their families and the community at large by offering special programs such as the Family Resource Center and adult education classes. The Emma Dickinson School also developed a program to successfully integrate students from Missoula’s significant Hmong population into the school system.

The 1980s and 1990s saw a decline in the enrollment of elementary age students in Missoula’s schools, which in turn led to a drop in federal and state funding. The threat of school closures as a means of rectifying the school district’s budgetary troubles was an ongoing concern for Missoulians during the 1990s. While several smaller schools were closed with little fanfare, the 1999 school board decision to close two elementary schools and turn one into a middle school was mired by controversy and public outcry. While the school board initially intended to close Roosevelt, Powell and Franklin Elementary Schools, their final decision called for the closure of Roosevelt, Powell and Emma Dickinson.

Emma Dickinson Elementary School closed its doors on July 11, 1999 after nearly four decades as a vital part of Missoula’s Orchard Homes Neighborhood. As of 2005, the building serves as an adult education center administered by Missoula County Public Schools.