Robbinsdale was founded in 1893 as the first suburb for Minneapolis. I was going to suggest this was long before people had an idea of what to call the villages and neighborhoods attached to large cities, but then Wiki told me that English scholar John Wycliffe used the term "suburbis" in 1380.
Robbinsdale continues to be a first-tier suburb with a distinct downtown of several appealing blocks. The bride and I actually had dinner there on Wednesday night, at the Italian restaurant Nona Rosa's, after seeing the usual overflow crowd at Pig Ate My Pizza.
There are a couple of other restaurants in downtown Robbinsdale. The space has cleared to start construction on the new Travail, the small-plate phenomenon that used to be in the building occupied by The Pig. There's a meat market, a bakery, a hardware store and a few other businesses on the main drag.
Robbinsdale High School opened in 1936. The school district covered a large area, including all of Golden Valley north of Highway 55. That's me. I've been paying taxes for the benefit of the Robbinsdale school district since 1988.
The enrollment in the Robbinsdale schools grew so large that a second high school opened in New Hope in 1964. It was called Cooper, in honor of E.J. Cooper, the superintendent of the Robbinsdale school district.
The growth continued and a third high school opened in 1970 in Plymouth. The name chosen was the non-provincial Armstrong, in honor of Neil, the gentleman who had been first to step on the moon 13 months before the school opened.
As I recall, Neil showed up for a ceremony, which caused quite a stir in what existed as local media.
As happens everywhere in "suburbis," the neighborhoods fill with young families and broods of urchins, and then the kids grow up, and many of parents stay put, and the enrollment wanes. That was happening with the Robbinsdale schools in the late '70s and it was a time to drop a high school.