WAIT WHAT
July 7, 2021: North Tama’s 1917 school building, as seen from 7th Street in Traer. The concrete steps to the door are relatively new and used to have tannish-orange edges like you see lining the bottom of the bricks. The windows were replaced in 2010, and the entire complex got air conditioning of some sort in 2015.
It started as an innocuous forward-looking press release in March. “North Tama School officials recently announced that the district will engage in a formal process to ensure the district’s facilities are equipped to meet the needs of students in the coming decades.”
Then, three weeks ago, things really ramped up.
Closing Walnut St, razing 1917 building among the options considered at North Tama special board work session
WHOA. This was definitely not on my radar. As usual, never assume I’m in the loop; in fact, assume I am unaware of the existence of the loop.
The North Tama Telegraph says the options have been narrowed to three. Two would involve the permanent closure of Walnut Street, which I don’t particularly like, for new elementary construction to the west. Two would result in the demolition of the core 1917 building — the three-story structure plus the present cafeteria and expansive Family and Consumer Sciences area. (Ironically, none appear to include acquiring the property at 606 Main St. that blocks filling the block.) A video recording of the meeting is available here: Plans 2, 4, and 6 are the ones advancing.
None of the three plans currently include an auditorium or a new competition gymnasium to augment the 65(!)-year-old one, which would become the oldest part of the complex. A true auditorium has been a dream of some in the community for decades, perhaps ever since the one integrated into the 1917 building was chopped up into classrooms.
Imagine baking multiple cakes in pieces of various shapes and heights, sealing them together with frosting, and then trying to cut the tallest portion plus another chunk of the center out without disturbing the rest of the cake. That’s what we’re talking about when it comes to the 1917 building in Traer. The closest parallel I can think of is Newell-Fonda announcing earlier this year it’s considering demolition of its original core building. When Hudson did it two decades ago, the oldest structure was basically a corner piece.
Construction of the 1917 building, which opened in the fall of 1918 and was dedicated January 31, 1919, had a larger than expected cost: $105,000. “The prices of everything these days are abnormally high,” the Traer Star-Clipper said July 6, 1917. After all, there’s a war on.
The gym addition with stage, band room, and locker room cost $227,000 ($185,000 bond plus cash on hand, opened winter 1955-56); the elementary plus stuff east of the gym cost $500,000 in 1963 (opened 1964). Another $500,000 bond issue in 1979 formed the FCS area (then “home ec”) over the original gym-turned-cafeteria and added an industrial arts area — after a $1 million version including an auditorium was shot down twice. A $380,000 bond issue in 1996 cleared the way for the multipurpose room and kindergarten on the north side in 1997. There are also minor additions to the south (1940) and north (1957) sides of the original gym/cafeteria before the large 2010 expansion on the north side.
The two more extensive options in the 2020s, which would take down the 1917 building and replace it with a single-story addition, are currently estimated to cost between $30 million and $35.5 million. I would miss it very, very much; after all, it’s what kindled my love and respect for that style of building. I’m in the group of rural Iowans that has not known either consolidation or building loss in my home district since graduation. Removal of the oldest part of the school, one generations have known inside and out, would be a gigantic change for everyone. Will I need to hug it goodbye?
(Sources: Cedar Rapids Gazette, 10/10/54, 12/18/55, 3/12/57, 1/7/63, 9/10/78, 3/4/92, 6/26/96; Waterloo Courier, 2/15/78, 5/20/79; Traer Star-Clipper, 6/15/17, 7/6/17, 1/31/19, 8/16/40)