Property Record
909 SEQUOIA
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Lincoln Elementary School |
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| Other Name: | Lincoln Middle School |
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| Reference Number: | 108165 |
| Location (Address): | 909 SEQUOIA |
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| County: | Dane |
| City: | Madison |
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| Year Built: | 1965 |
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| Survey Date: | 19732019 |
| Historic Use: | school – elem/middle/jr high/high |
| Architectural Style: | Contemporary |
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| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | Octagonal center. City of Madison, Wisconsin Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report: Muriel Simms’s parents moved to Madison from Missouri in 1934, and she was born in 1944. As a child, Muriel Simms’s parents purchased a non-extant home at the corner of Lake Street and West Dayton Street, outside of the traditionally Black neighborhoods in the city. Neighbors began a petition to stop them, but after a successful legal battle, the Simms family moved in. Muriel was the only African American in her graduating class at Madison East High School. She enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated with a degree in English in 1968 and continued to earn a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. In 1970, she interned with the Madison Metropolitan School District. Simms taught sixth grade from 1971 to 1980 at Lincoln Elementary School in the Burr Oaks neighborhood in South Madison. In 1980, Simms moved to Franklin Elementary School in the Bay Creek neighborhood and taught fifth grade until 1985 and then went on to Cherokee Heights Middle School in the Nakoma neighborhood to work as a learning coordinator from 1983 to 1988. In 1988, Muriel Simms was hired as the principal of Lincoln Elementary in the Burr Oaks neighborhood of South Madison, a position she held for six years. Lincoln was diverse when Simms took over with 41 percent of students being African American and 51 percent of students coming from low-income families. She stressed multicultural teaching and project-based learning methods, hired more staff of color, more than doubled parental involvement at parent-teacher conferences, raised achievement scores, and generally changed the culture at the school. Simms was awarded the Wisconsin Elementary Principal of the Year in 1992. Her work at Lincoln Elementary School was so instrumental that she left the position to work as equity coordinator for the Madison Metropolitan School District in 1994. She was appointed interim principal at Mendota Elementary on the north side of Madison in 1997 to effect change in that school’s culture as well. She then became the assistant principal at Black Hawk Elementary for three years before retiring in 2000. In 1988, Muriel Simms was hired as the principal of Lincoln Elementary in the Burr Oaks neighborhood of South Madison, a position she held for six years. Lincoln was diverse when Simms took over with 41 percent of students being African American and 51 percent of students coming from low-income families. She stressed multicultural teaching and project-based learning methods, hired more staff of color, more than doubled parental involvement at parent-teacher conferences, raised achievement scores, and generally changed the culture at the school. Simms was awarded the Wisconsin Elementary Principal of the Year in 1992. Her work at Lincoln Elementary School was so instrumental that she left the position to work as equity coordinator for the Madison Metropolitan School District in 1994. Simms then enrolled at the university again and graduated with a Ph.D. in educational administration in 2002 and proceeded to teach curriculum and research at Edgewood College in Madison. Simms has recently authored Settlin,’ a book detailing the stories of descendants of early African American settlers, and their community in Madison. |
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| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |