Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

September 23, 2011: The 1920 Geneseo Township school building was featured in a Des Moines Register article on Barb and Dave Else’s book, For All The Small Schools, cataloging Iowa’s abandoned schools. It’s in the small percentage built alone on the plains; others still extant include Lake Center (Clay County) and Milford Township (Story County).

Tama County community enthused over school
TRAER, Jan. 7. — One of the most enthusiastic communities for consolidation of schools in Iowa is Geneseo township, Tama county, It voted in 1919 by a majority of more than four to one for a township consolidated school building and teachers’ dormitory, to cost more than $100,000. On account of the high cost of materials and labor the amount of bonds voted did not cover the cost of construction. This week the Geneseo people voted again on two propositions, the first to issue $28,000 worth of bonds for the completion and equipment of the new building, and second, to levy a ten mill tax for future needs. On the first proposition the vote was unanimous in favor. On the second, all but one voter was in favor of it.
— Cedar Rapids Gazette, January 7, 1921

5 motor busses bought by school directors
TRAER, June 11. — The Geneseo township consolidated school directors closed a deal for the purchase of five Ford busses [sic] with which to transport pupils to and from school. They cost the school a little less than $1,000 each. The board has also decided to use two horse drawn vehicles on other routes.
— Cedar Rapids Gazette, June 11, 1921
[According to Tama County History (1987), the five drivers were the school mechanic, three high school boys, and one high school girl.]

The Geneseo school was dedicated on September 21, 1921, a week after Dinsdale’s.

Traer, Clutier, and Geneseo all opened gymnasium additions in 1955, although Traer’s needed some finishing work in early 1956. The “badly crowded” Geneseo school’s elementary addition, a long one-story extension to the east, was part of the same $190,000 project that built the complex’s second gymnasium (Gazette, 10/10/54).

Geneseo merged with Dysart in 1966. The Waterloo Courier covered the “changes on horizon” January 9 of that year with large photos of the trophy case and students at recess outside the building. Years earlier, a multi-merger among Traer, Clutier, Dysart, Buckingham, and Geneseo was in the official county committee plan.

The last students left Geneseo in spring 1982.

The Dinsdale Consolidated School District was approved by voters in January 1920, and construction on a new school began shortly thereafter.

The above is a picture of the new consolidated school building at Dinsdale. The building is modern in every respect and the school is a delight to students, parents and teachers.
On Friday, October 14, over 400 people turned out to the dedication of the newly consolidated school. The annual community rally was held in connection with the dedication, and over 7200 was given away in prizes for corn, garden products, baking and needle work. The exhibit was an excellent one and the people could justly look upon it with pride. A fine dinner was served at noon, just such a dinner as the people of the community always serve on such occasions.
George A. Brown, state inspector of consolidated schools, formally dedicated the building. He showed that consolidated schools give just as good training as do those of the city, and the cost to the taxpayer is less in the consolidated district. Prof. C.C. Swaim, who followed him, stated that a consolidated school is not a luxury, but simply what the times demand; that this kind of school is no more wonderful than is the automobile, the silo and the modern farm house.
The people of the Dinsdale consolidated district have worked very hard for the present results, and are very proud of their new building and the operation of the new school.
— Toledo Chronicle, October 27, 1921

The Dinsdale gymnasium addition opened in 1953. It would only be used by students for two decades. Dinsdale Consolidated was carved up in 1964. The building was used by North Tama until 1974.

July 4, 2015: There’s a two-story building in there somewhere.

By the time I saw it from the bus windows every day after school — not quite as reclaimed by nature as above — the gym had been abandoned longer than it had been in use. The main building will reach that striking marker in 2028. Judging by aerial photos, the southeast quadrant of the main building’s roof, the chimney corner, disintegrated in 2016.