Ramsey County History – Spring 2002: “‘The Best School in the City,’ 1896–1916 Mechanic Arts High School: Its First Twenty Years”

‘The Best School in the City,’ 1896–1916 Mechanic Arts High School: Its First Twenty Years
Author: John W. Larson

Mechanic Arts High School was an unusual institution that provided students with vocational training as well as an academic education. It started as a manual training program at Central High School. When the school moved out into a place of its own, it became the first manual training school in the Midwest. George Weitbrecht, a chemistry teacher, added academic classes and named the institution Mechanic Arts School. Weitbrecht believed that even those learning a craft needed to be broadly educated.

One of the early students at MAHS was Paul Manship, who became a world famous sculptor, even though he left school early. As the school grew in the number of students it served, a new five-story red brick building was constructed on Robert and Constitution streets. When MAHS’s talented principal died in 1916, the school was named the George Weitbrecht Mechanic Arts High School.
PDF of Larson article