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 in every way a model of its kind. It has its own waterworks and electric light and gas plant, and is lighted, heated and ventilated according to the most modern ideas.” — Spencer Reporter, January 25, 1922
- Dana’s school closed in 1975, based on its sudden absence (The Globe-Free Press and Paton Portrait and Rippey News, 6/20/74, 11/7/74, 8/21/75)
- Speaking of consolidations, that newspaper title. Whoa.
- Northeast Hamilton closed both Kamrar and Williams in 1975 (Webster City Daily Freeman-Journal, 1/14/75)
- Pymosa Township, north of Atlantic on N16, closed in 1975 (Atlantic News-Telegraph, 5/24/75). It was built in 1955, became part of Atlantic in 1960, and is one of a handful of Baby Boom-era outlying buildings in the state.
- South Hamilton closed both Ellsworth and Stanhope in 1976 (DFJ, 8/23/76) but not without a prolonged struggle with those towns’ residents (DFJ, 5/3/77).
- Casey’s school closed before the end of the 1975-76 school year when a new elementary in Adair opened (Guthrie Center Times, 3/31/76). Adair immediately tore down its old school (Guthrian, 10/18/76).
- Mitchell’s school closed in 1976 (Mitchell County Press-News, 6/17/76). The community knew of the possibility, but got blindsided “in a special unannounced meeting May 24” when the Osage school district told teachers to start packing up their desks.
- Moneta’s school closed in 1976 (Hartley Sentinel, 8/6/81)
- Wiota’s school was torn down in 1976 (Atlantic News-Telegraph, 8/30/77). The gym was used for a few more years, but I believe the school itself closed in 1963 upon reorganization with Anita.
- Aurora’s school probably closed in 1977 (Waterloo Courier, 1/26/77; Manchester Press, 2/2/77)
- Buck Creek, a not-even-map-dot at the west intersection of D47 and X31 west of Hopkinton, closed in 1977 (Manchester Press, 5/4/77). Buck Creek was one of the districts involved in forming Maquoketa Valley in 1959 (Manchester Democrat-Radio, 3/11/58, 1/12/60; Manchester Press, 10/9/58)
- Carpenter’s school probably closed in 1977 (Mitchell County Press-News, 5/18/77)
- Lone Rock’s school closed in 1977 (Kossuth County Advance, 1/17/77)
- Lake Center, in northeast Clay County, has been reported as closed in 1978 (Flickr; Sioux City Journal, 3/29/03). However, contemporary news stories indicate it closed a year earlier (Spirit Lake Beacon, 7/21/77; Milford Mail and Terril Record, 11/3/77).
- Lake Center is northwest Iowa’s equivalent to Geneseo in the “large abandoned school with gymnasium in the middle of nowhere” category. It has been reported as merging with Terril in 1962 (Estherville Daily News, 6/1/85), but technically they did one year of what today we’d call whole-grade sharing before consolidation in 1963 (MMTR, 5/16/63).
- In 2017, the wood-frame grade school behind it was lost. The following year, what was left of the sidewalk and lawn in front were plowed up and it’s now literally surrounded by cropland.
- Looking at the lines for Lake Township and its roads, did Lost Island Lake confuse the surveyors or was alcohol involved?
- La Porte City’s original school was demolished in the second half of 1977 (La Porte City Progress-Review, 6/29/77)
- The Progress-Review itself shut down 11 months ago (Waterloo Courier, 11/26/20), leaving a town of more than 2200 without a weekly newspaper.
- Bristow’s school closed in 1978 (IDOE archives)
- Wyman’s school closed in 1978 (Wapello Republican, 4/6/95, via IAGenWeb)
- Charlotte’s school closed in 1979 (De Witt Observer, 12/18/78)
- Hartwick’s school closed in 1979 (Belle Plaine Union, 3/21/79)
- Maurice’s school closed in 1979 (Alton Democrat, 1/10/79)
- Patterson’s school closed in 1979 (Winterset Madisonian, 3/14/79)
UPDATE 9/1/21: Added Buck Creek to 1977 closures with background on Maquoketa Valley.