An 80-year-old Needs Multi-Million-Dollar Facelift

Its paint is peeling, the parking lot has cracks and potholes and even the “for sale” sign needs to be fixed. At 80 years old, the building at the corner of Rott Rd. and West Watson needs a buyer and a facelift.

But to its former students, memories of Rott School, which was built long before the founding of Sunset Hills or the Lindbergh School District, are still fresh. 

“I loved Rott School,” said Christine Jaeger-Steinmann, who runs a Facebook page for former students and friends of the school. “No big classes and only one class per grade, unlike schools now that have so many kids.” 

There has been a Rott School in south county since 1864, when Jacob Rott built a one-room log schoolhouse on an acre of donated land. The third and final Rott School opened in 1931. Although it was the depths of the depression, voters approved bond issue by a vote of 50-0 that appropriated $32,000 to build the school. The original building was enlarged in 1948. In 1949, Rott and four other elementary schools combined to form the R-8 School District. 

Jaeger-Steinmann recalled watching movies in the building’s basement library and participating in science fairs. “I remember our third grade was in the back of the building, and the deer would come out of the woods and we could watch them,” she said. But the school closed before she could graduate, and Jaeger-Steinmann finished her elementary school years at Watson Elementary. 

After the school closed, the building was used for several years by the Judevine Center for Autism (now Touchpoint Autism Services.) St. Louis County records show the property was bought by a developer in 2004, for $400,000. The next year, the school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, In 2007, Sunset Hills considered using the building for a community center before ultimately deciding to build an all-new, larger facility on its municipal campus. Now, Rott School is listed for sale with an asking price of $275,000. 

Options for saving the building are limited, even though its landmark status makes it elegible for tax credits. “Typically, these schools are rehabbed as apartments or condominiums,” noted Esley Hamilton, a preservation historian for the St. Louis County Parks Department. However, the school’s land is zoned for single-family homes only, so any developer would need to have the land rezoned by Sunset Hills before starting a renovation. 

While Rott School’s future may be cloudy, its students remember its past fondly. “I looked forward to going to school there,” Jaeger Steinmann said. “Life was simple and we knew we were loved there. I wish my kids could have the same experience.”