Category Archives: Schools

Three years after the last students left the Plainfield school building, the site is now open land. KCHA Radio says the building was demolished last month. The Nashua-Plainfield School District is trying to decide what to do next. The land … Continue reading →

For forward-moving history, it’s “and then the Sixties happened.” For this timeline, it’s “but first, the Sixties happened.” These notes mostly, but not exclusively, relate to the middle of the 1960s as Iowa’s era of one-room schools ended and consolidated … Continue reading →

November 15, 2013: “Hayesville Independent School, West Lancaster #9, Est. 1897, Closed 1966, Added to National Register of Historic Places 1990; Memorialized 2011.” The modern school district era in Iowa began on July 1, 1966. Starting with the 1966-67 school … Continue reading →

August 16, 2016: “There will be an informal opening of the new gymnasium at the Sharpsburg school on Saturday evening, October 10, at 8:00 o’clock [sic]. A snappy program is planned, followed by a lunch consisting of sandwiches, pie, pickles … Continue reading →

The timeline is now going so far back I’ve found buildings I didn’t know existed, in map dots that either aren’t on the state map now or were never there. Allerton’s school got condemned by the state fire marshal (Centerville … Continue reading →

July 17, 2020: “The $125,000 new school building at Lake Center is complete and will be opened next Monday to serve the oldest consolidated school district in Iowa. The new school house is two stories and basement, entirely fireproof and … Continue reading →

Plus some auxiliary before-and-afters. Oakville’s school closed in 1980 (Wapello Republican, 4/20/95, via IAGenWeb) Rodman’s school closed in 1980 (West Bend Gazette, 12/13/79) Bedford Elementary, which I think was the original high school, had a bat infestation in 1980 (Clarinda … Continue reading →

I am breaking things up into five-year spans, which tells you how much information I’ve found, and how many schools were closing in the 1980s. Doon’s school closed in 1985 (Lyon County Reporter, 6/26/85) The closure was a two-year-long issue … Continue reading →

June 22, 2014: The Wayne school district’s midyear closure of the school in unincorporated Cambria in December 1995 is a crucial link in a discovery I explained weeks ago: It contributed to a streak of closures that predated the modern … Continue reading →