When Asa Clark and his wife Naomi came from Vermont in 1836 to what is now the Village of Pewaukee, he built a dam to harness the lake’s power for his saw mill. His home was built on the corner of what is now Main Street and Prospect Avenue. That property is presently the location of the Joy Christian Fellowship Church. Naomi opened her parlor to students for the first school, in the winter of 1840-41.

The original school building was built in 1844 on the site of the present day Pewaukee Library. The first teacher was pail $12.00 per month, and got his room and board by living one week with each of his pupil’s families. I wonder if that would work today.

The year 1858 saw a larger building constructed of limestone from the quarries located at the northeast edge of the village. A brick school was next in 1884, and 1891 saw the first four year high school graduating class. In l898, after renovations and additions, the village took pride in having eight grades and the high school in one building.

In 1916 the Department of Public Instruction suggested that state aid would be denied if something was not done about the overcrowded school. The citizens promptly raised $25,000 for a new school. The old cream brick school was torn down and replaced with a new brick school in 1917.

By 1946, after WWII, the school district bought fifteen acres on William Steele’s hill at the end of Lake Street for $550.00 per acre, and constructed a ten room elementary school, which was at capacity almost as soon as it was finished. A new wing was necessary in 1955.

A fire with no traceable cause occurred at the high school building on Main and Prospect in the summer of 1953, forcing classes to be held in different locations in the village. With much cooperation from the community, students and faculty were able to return to the renovated school after Christmas.

Another remodeled and enlarged high school welcomed the growing school population in 1959-60. William Steele sold the school district sixty-three more acres adjacent to the elementary school in 1964 and on October 27, 1968 a two story high school was dedicated.

The school on Main and Prospect was closed in 1985, with the sixth grade moving to the elementary school, and the seventh and eighth grades going to the previously unfinished area of the high school. Fire was again responsible for the destruction of the school on Main and Prospect when it burned on November 11, 1992.

New subdivisions being built in the area warranted the construction of the Asa Clark Middle School in 1991. At this writing, the last building update was new wings at the high school in 2002-03. Currently about 2,200 students in K4 through 12 attend Pewaukee Schools on this one campus.

Information for this article was taken from the Joseph Ryan pamphlets, “Echo’s from Pioneer Trails” and “Asa Clark’s Return” and from “A History of the Settlement and Progress of Pewaukee, Wisconsin,” compiled and edited by Lorraine C. Redfield.