In January 2025, declining enrollment at Columbus Elementary School led the Appleton Area School District Board of Education to approve repurposing the building for a different educational use beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.
This decision included reassigning Kindergarten through Grade 5 students in the Columbus attendance area to Edison Elementary School.
In May 2025, we celebrated over 130 years of memories, milestones, and meaning at Columbus Elementary School, Appleton’s oldest school, established in 1892. As the school transitions to new educational purposes for the 2025-26 school year, we paused to honor its rich legacy and lasting impact.
The evening began with a presentation on the grounds, featuring remarks, student performances, and a moving message from Principal Cannon. As he shared, “The story of Columbus doesn’t end here this evening. It lives on in us—in the students, the families, the staff, and the community that will forever carry its legacy forward. Let us move forward tonight not with sadness, but with gratitude—for all the years we have had together in this remarkable place. Thank you, everyone, for being part of the Columbus family.”
Guests wandered the halls for self-guided tours—some retracing their childhood steps for the first time in decades. We witnessed joyful reunions of classmates, former staff revisiting their classrooms, and touching stories exchanged among generations.
We welcomed the school’s former secretary from the 1940s. We were humbled and amazed to see alumni representing nearly every decade from the past 70(!) years.
Sweet memories were shared, including one couple who met as kindergarteners at Columbus and have now been married for 55 years—a true testament to the relationships formed within these walls.
As the District transitions Columbus into a new chapter — repurposing it for educational programming beginning with the 2025–2026 school year — we recognize the building’s profound place in Appleton’s educational and cultural heritage.
History of Columbus Elementary
Columbus Elementary opened its doors in 1892, the year in which America celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in this hemisphere. Many buildings and institutions were given Columbus' name in that year. The original building was constructed by The Hoffman Corporation of Appleton in the Queen Anne architectural style, featuring steeply peaked roofs, irregularly placed windows, ornamental tinwork, and elegant finials. The school’s striking bell tower, with massive stonework and Romanesque arches enclosed in delicate wrought iron, is a defining feature of the property. The bell within the tower carries its own remarkable history — originally donated by the local fire station in 1892, it called children to school for seventy years before being returned to the fire department and featured in a memorial. It was later gifted back to the school for its 100th anniversary.
Columbus School replaced the smaller Amicus (Latin for "friendly") which stood on our present-day playground. (When the playground was being resurfaced a few years ago, they uncovered parts of the Amicus School's foundation.) The neighborhood at that time was predominantly German, with many small German meat markets scattered every few blocks. Evidence of this Germanic presence can be seen in the windows and walls of Zion Lutheran Church and on the cornerstone of the former Methodist Church at the intersection of Hancock and Superior Streets.
Throughout the years, Columbus Elementary has adapted while remaining a vital part of the community. A significant addition in 1987 brought a gym, kitchen, library, and offices to the building, along with expanded restrooms, a music/art room, and an elevator. That same year, the pink-painted bricks were sandblasted to reveal their original Milwaukee Cream color, and new windows refreshed the building’s classic charm.
In 2025, Columbus was the last 19th-century school building in Appleton still in active use as a school, a remarkable testament to its enduring importance.
Principals of Columbus
2015-2025 - Joel Cannon
2013-2015 - RJ Chesterton
2005-2013 - Jennifer Dordel
1998-2004 - Nancy Scheuerman
1989-1998 - Gary Lemery
1984-1989 - Gordon A. Foster
1967-1984 - William Schein
1966-1967 - Thomas J. O'Hearn
1963-1966 - Theresa Novokofski
1962-1963 - Richard Goree
1958-1962 - Raymond J. Parkinson
1956-1958 - Robert Sauter
1953-1956 - Robert Knapp
1935-1950 - Blanche Moser
1913-1935 - Margaret Comerford
1912-1913 - Eva Vansistine
1901-1912 - Margaret Comerford
1894-1901 - Delia E. Grimes
1891-1893 - Jennie Carey
