Robert Mitchell Elementary School, Sparks, NV: The school pictured was built to replace the condemned original three-story Robert Mitchell School which housed grades K-12 in Sparks. The new school was built in 1938 at the same location as the original on Prater Way as a grade school. The new school was built with a slate roof and an auditorium with a slated floor. During construction, students where housed in different sites around the city. The school is still used today and houses kindergarten through sixth grade. It is the only grade school in Sparks that has an actual auditorium.
The Original Robert Mitchell School
Sparks Grammar and High School, Sparks, NVThe three-story school pictured was built in 1904. In 1906, Robert H. Mitchell was hired as principal. The Sparks School Board of Trustees presented him with a small pistol saying, “It goes with the job.” On January 15, 1925, the school was dedicated to Robert H. Mitchell and renamed Robert Mitchell Elementary School in his honor. The building was deemed unsafe and demolished in 1937.
The picture below was taken in 1936 of students who attended Robert Mitchell. The photograph was shared with the school by an individual who is related to Louis Milabar, deceased (front row, 2nd to the left).
Additional pictures? If anyone has more pictures for us to add to our web site, please drop them off at the school. We can scan them and return them to you in the same condition as you brought them to us.
Mitchell’s Birthday Song by Mrs. Stelle
To the tune of Home Means Nevada
Way out in Sparks toward the water park
where there’s fun for you and me
there’s a lovely school with a red brick front
that’s held classes for so many.
If you follow Prater Way past Rock
On toward the red building
Oh you’ll gaze upon Robert Mitchell School
It’s a place where the bells still ring.
chorus
It’s Mitchell’s birthday
December ninth
She’s seventy years old today.
How many teachers, how many kids
Through the years have come this way?
Here is the school which I love best
Math, reading, spelling bees
We sing for the birthday, we’re still passing tests,
At Mitchell Elementary.
Most students began when they were quite small
Spending years building memories,
Starting out as young individuals
We become a community.
Mitchell’s meant so much to so many
It’s a place where we all pitch in
We walk on to the stage and through classroom doors
Where we let the learning begin.
chorus
To the tune of Home Means Nevada
Way out in Sparks toward the water park
where there’s fun for you and me
there’s a lovely school with a red brick front
that’s held classes for so many.
If you follow Prater Way past Rock
On toward the red building
Oh you’ll gaze upon Robert Mitchell School
It’s a place where the bells still ring.
chorus
It’s Mitchell’s birthday
December ninth
She’s seventy years old today.
How many teachers, how many kids
Through the years have come this way?
Here is the school which I love best
Math, reading, spelling bees
We sing for the birthday, we’re still passing tests,
At Mitchell Elementary.
Most students began when they were quite small
Spending years building memories,
Starting out as young individuals
We become a community.
Mitchell’s meant so much to so many
It’s a place where we all pitch in
We walk on to the stage and through classroom doors
Where we let the learning begin.
chorus
