The easternmost school building in Iowa is on a collision course with the wrecking ball. The Easton Valley school district earlier this month in May approved demolition of the school in Sabula, reports the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald.
After demolition in Sabula, the easternmost existing school building in Iowa will be in Clinton. It’s the old Lyons High School on Main Avenue (Lincoln Highway/Old US 30A before the present Lyons-Fulton Bridge was built), which has been abandoned for decades.
But what about active buildings? Time to go exploring, and by exploring I mean spend an hour on Google Maps and use up my entire allotment of Clinton Herald articles…
Both Buell Elementary and Horace Mann Elementary on Clinton’s north side closed in 2007. The St. Irenaeus parochial school (if the school part is still there) is to the east of the latter two but isn’t active either.
Until six months ago, Lyons Middle School was the easternmost active one, but it closed over Thanksgiving break when Clinton merged its two middle schools into one new building. After that we move south into the main part of Clinton, but the Kirkwood building now hosts the Head Start program.
The easternmost active school building in Iowa overall is Trinity Elementary, on US 67 near the Clinton County Courthouse, and Prince of Peace High School is the second-easternmost. (SEE UPDATE.) The latter (Prince of Peace) is on Fourth Street two blocks north of the 1888 Roosevelt school, which was used as the Clinton school district’s administration building for a few years.
The easternmost active public school building in Iowa is Eagle Heights Elementary, back on the north side of Clinton, which opened in 2007 as the replacement for the two schools mentioned three paragraphs ago.
(TL;DR Clinton has lots of old school buildings as the result of an aggressive construction campaign and declining enrollment.)
(EDIT: Fixed date element.)
UPDATE 9/18/17: A reader told me Trinity is no longer open. That makes Clinton Prince of Peace the easternmost active school building in Iowa. It’s also the easternmost active private school and K-12 site in Iowa. Clinton’s Eagle Heights Elementary remains the easternmost active public school building in Iowa.