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Council Bluffs Community Schools: A history
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photo - Founded in 1926, Walnut Grove School, 2920 Ave. J. was named because it originally stood amid a grove of walnut trees. |
By Dennis Friend, Staff Writer
dennis.friend@nonpareilonline.com
Dozens
of schools have been built for the sole purpose of educating Council
Bluffs students over the school district’s 150-year history. Some
buildings were abandoned, some were sold, at least two burned but many
are still in use.
“The people who compiled the records did a great job of documenting the existence of at least 50 schools,” Diane Ostrowski, district spokeswoman said. “However, in some cases we don’t know where the school was or when it was built. For example, the 1893-94 annual superintendent’s report refers to schools the other records do not mention.”
“Two new school houses have opened in West Council Bluffs, known as Courtland Place and Windsor Park schools,” the superintendent’s report stated. The report also mentioned Avenue F and Fifth Avenue schools.
While Courtland Place became the Carter Lake school, only the names of the three others seem to have survived. Ostrowski hopes “we can piece some of that information together over the anniversary year.”
Originally, the town of Kanesville was divided into four wards in 1847, each of which maintained a Mormon-operated private school. Kanesville became Council Bluffs in 1853, and its voters created the Council Bluffs public school system in 1859. The first classes were conducted in rented rooms, but in 1864, the district built its first school building.
The First Ward School, later known as Stutsman, was a two-story brick building at 120 E. Pierce St., designed by architect William Ward, and built at a cost of $6,500. It was sold for $2,000 in 1886 and became a private residence.
The Fourth Ward School at Willow and Seventh was completed in 1866 and was replaced in 1880 by the first Bloomer School, which in turn was replaced in 1923 by the current Bloomer School. The first Bloomer School cost $8,000 to build in 1880. The price tag for its replacement came in at $225,000 and included a clock facing Seventh Street. The clock remains in place.
The district built the first version of Washington School in 1866 on Washington Avenue at North Main Street. Some called it Mill School because it was near Dagger’s Mill. The first Washington was replaced in 1954 by the current building at 207 Scott St. The concrete steps that used to lead to the original school can still be seen on Kanesville Boulevard and now lead to the school’s playground.
In 1867, the district built Court Street School at Court Street and Cherry (now 15th Street and First Avenue.) According to one written account, the school also was known as the 15th Street School and as the Pig Tail Street school because it was near a slaughterhouse. The 1893-94 school report stated the school was abandoned in 1894 because the lot sat so low, the building itself was “damp and unsafe.”
Franklin Pierce School, built in 1867 at Frank and Thomas streets, functioned for a short time as both a grade school and high school. Superintendent Allen Armstrong had reorganized the school system, divided classes into grades and set up a high school on the Pierce building’s second floor. Later, the high school moved to the Washington/Mill school building, which might explain the reference in the 1889 city directory to “the high school” on Washington Avenue and North Main Street. The building was abandoned in 1894 and sold in 1901. A new Pierce School, built in 1884 at the corner of Pierce and Franklin, closed in 1950. In the 1889-90 city directory, the two Pierce schools are identified as East Pierce School on “East Pierce and Little Frank,” and Pierce School at “East Pierce and Franklin.”
In 1869, the district built Center School on the northeast corner of South Sixth and 13th Street. It was sold in 1883.
The first official high school, christened Council Bluffs High School, was built on Fifth Avenue just west of Glen Avenue. This three-story, 11-room school also was known as “The High School on High School Avenue” and as “The High School on the Hill” in the 1889-90 city directory, and the school district president’s annual report of 1893-94 boasted “119 scholars” at the school that year. The first commencement ceremony took place in 1870, an 1890 program shows nine graduates. The school was replaced in 1900 by a new Council Bluffs High School at Fifth Avenue and Bluff and the old building was demolished in 1908.
Clark School at Bennett and Franklin avenues and McMillen, often called Eighth Avenue School, at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue, were both built in 1877. Clark was abandoned later and McMillen closed in 1951. Woodbury School was erected at Woodbury and South Avenue in 1879 and closed in 1901.
In 1880, the first Gunn School, also called Keeline School, was built at Linden and North Broadway. In 1924, the current Gunn building replaced it.
Avenue B or Streetville School was built in 1880 at 25th Street and Avenue B. According to several former students, the school remained in use until the early 1980s, when it was torn down to build a housing complex.
Eighth Street School was built at Eighth and Avenue G in 1882, but was replaced in 1953 by a new school and renamed the Matthew Tinley School. It’s now the Kanesville Alternative Learning Center, but Tinley’s name remains above the main door facing Avenue G.
In 1883, the first Longfellow School at 20th Avenue and South 10th Street had only four rooms. Despite six additions between 1890 and 1917, it was still too small, so the current Longfellow facility took its place in 1939. The gym was added in 1957.
In 1884, Third Street School, later named General Dodge School, was constructed at Third Street and 11th Avenue.
In 1890, the Second Avenue School was constructed at 23rd Street and Second Avenue. Despite several additions, it was considered too small and eventually was replaced by the Edison facility.
In 1891, Harrison School was constructed at Harrison Street and McGee Avenue. In 1892, Madison School was built at 759 Madison Ave. Courtland Place School in Carter Lake, also built in 1892, was taken from the school district by court order in 1929, but returned to the district in 1966. The Carter Lake School was built in 1950 to replace the original building.
In 1893, 32nd Street School was built and later named Franklin. A new Franklin School was built on Avenue C in 1975 and renovated extensively in 1994.
Enrollment in the 1893-94 school year was at 4,175, including 341 in high school. The superintendent report for that year boasted that “no Iowa city has better educational facilities,” adding that the buildings are “magnificent brick structures handsome, modern, durable.”
The district built Roosevelt in 1907 at 17th Street and Avenue E, adding to it in 1913, 1925 and 1952. A 1966 fire destroyed most of the older section. Only the 1952 section was salvaged when the school was rebuilt.
In 1908, Oak Street School was built at Oak and Broadway. Sold in 1950, it became the St. Patrick parochial school.
The district built Edison School in 1917 and built an addition in 1951. At one time, it served 1,200 students from kindergarten through eighth grade and was known as the largest K-eighth grade building between Chicago and Denver. However, Edison became a K-sixth grade school and the older part of the facility was torn down.
When Thomas Jefferson High School was built in 1921 at 25th Street and West Broadway, it served grades seven through 10, but the district had grown so fast that the district felt two high schools were necessary. T.J. became a high school, and the old Council Bluffs High School was renamed Abraham Lincoln High School.
In 1924, Rue was constructed at 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue, and in 1926, Walnut Grove School was constructed at 29th Street and Avenue J. Both are still in use.
By 1930, student enrollment was at 10,210, and by the 1953-54 school year, Council Bluffs had two four-year high schools, one junior high school combined with elementary school grade levels, and 14 elementary schools.
The first school built after the Great Depression and World War II was Hoover, built at 1205 N. Broadway in 1950.
In 1957, Pusey was constructed on 15th Avenue, Deforest at 29th Street and Ninth Avenue, Lewis & Clark on Grand Avenue, Peterson School at 26th Avenue and South Ninth and Myers School at 37th Street and Avenue G.
In 1960, Eastside Junior High School was built on Bonham Street and Bennett Avenue. In 1967, it became the new Abraham Lincoln High School, while Eastside moved to the old A.L. building and became Kirn Junior High School. However, the 19th-century structure that first housed Council Bluffs High School, then the first Abraham Lincoln High School and finally the first Kirn Junior High, became history in 1976 when a fast-moving arson fire destroyed the building. While the old Kirn gymnasium, built in 1931, still stands at 510 Bluff St., it was sold to J. Development Co. in 2007 for $8,000.
In 1961, Lake school was built on North Broadway, and Woodrow Wilson Junior High School was built at Avenue H and 21st Street.
In 1966, Glendale, Sunnydale, Lake, Carter Lake and Crescent merged with the Council Bluffs School District by mandate of the State Legislature and vote of the residents. Lewis Central declined and the Lewis Central Community School District built its own high school.
In 1972, the Harmon Tucker Vocational Education Center was built on North 18th Street. It now is the Tucker College and Career Center.
By the 1974-75 school year, student enrollment was at 13,765, but the baby boom years were over. Dodge, Harrison and Avenue B schools closed that year.
While the new Kirn Junior High School opened in 1979 on North Avenue, the district in 1981 closed the Lake and Sunnydale schools and in 1986, the district closed or sold Peterson, DeForest, Myers and Madison schools.
In 1986, ninth grade was moved to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson high schools. Beginning in the 1985-86 school year, seventh- and eighth-graders attended either Wilson and Kirn Junior High.
The Glendale building, used for years as the PACT center, was sold in 2007.
The Crescent Elementary School building, built in 1958, went through an extensive rebuilding after an arson fire in 2006.
Plans call for all school buildings remaining in use to be updated and renovated by 2015, prompting the district to repurchase and reopen DeForest this year for use as an interim facility.
Sixth-grade students began attending Kirn and Wilson in the 2009-10 school year, when both facilities became middle schools.
Thomas Jefferson High School has undergone a major renovation, and a similar renovation has begun at Abraham Lincoln High School. The combined cost should total about $55 million and will be paid for by the statewide 1-cent sales tax.
No new buildings have been built since 1979, but this year, the school district announced plans to replace Carter Lake School with a new building and will build a new school near College Road and Valley View.
– Information in this story was compiled from school district and The Daily Nonpareil records.
“The people who compiled the records did a great job of documenting the existence of at least 50 schools,” Diane Ostrowski, district spokeswoman said. “However, in some cases we don’t know where the school was or when it was built. For example, the 1893-94 annual superintendent’s report refers to schools the other records do not mention.”
“Two new school houses have opened in West Council Bluffs, known as Courtland Place and Windsor Park schools,” the superintendent’s report stated. The report also mentioned Avenue F and Fifth Avenue schools.
While Courtland Place became the Carter Lake school, only the names of the three others seem to have survived. Ostrowski hopes “we can piece some of that information together over the anniversary year.”
Originally, the town of Kanesville was divided into four wards in 1847, each of which maintained a Mormon-operated private school. Kanesville became Council Bluffs in 1853, and its voters created the Council Bluffs public school system in 1859. The first classes were conducted in rented rooms, but in 1864, the district built its first school building.
The First Ward School, later known as Stutsman, was a two-story brick building at 120 E. Pierce St., designed by architect William Ward, and built at a cost of $6,500. It was sold for $2,000 in 1886 and became a private residence.
The Fourth Ward School at Willow and Seventh was completed in 1866 and was replaced in 1880 by the first Bloomer School, which in turn was replaced in 1923 by the current Bloomer School. The first Bloomer School cost $8,000 to build in 1880. The price tag for its replacement came in at $225,000 and included a clock facing Seventh Street. The clock remains in place.
The district built the first version of Washington School in 1866 on Washington Avenue at North Main Street. Some called it Mill School because it was near Dagger’s Mill. The first Washington was replaced in 1954 by the current building at 207 Scott St. The concrete steps that used to lead to the original school can still be seen on Kanesville Boulevard and now lead to the school’s playground.
In 1867, the district built Court Street School at Court Street and Cherry (now 15th Street and First Avenue.) According to one written account, the school also was known as the 15th Street School and as the Pig Tail Street school because it was near a slaughterhouse. The 1893-94 school report stated the school was abandoned in 1894 because the lot sat so low, the building itself was “damp and unsafe.”
Franklin Pierce School, built in 1867 at Frank and Thomas streets, functioned for a short time as both a grade school and high school. Superintendent Allen Armstrong had reorganized the school system, divided classes into grades and set up a high school on the Pierce building’s second floor. Later, the high school moved to the Washington/Mill school building, which might explain the reference in the 1889 city directory to “the high school” on Washington Avenue and North Main Street. The building was abandoned in 1894 and sold in 1901. A new Pierce School, built in 1884 at the corner of Pierce and Franklin, closed in 1950. In the 1889-90 city directory, the two Pierce schools are identified as East Pierce School on “East Pierce and Little Frank,” and Pierce School at “East Pierce and Franklin.”
In 1869, the district built Center School on the northeast corner of South Sixth and 13th Street. It was sold in 1883.
The first official high school, christened Council Bluffs High School, was built on Fifth Avenue just west of Glen Avenue. This three-story, 11-room school also was known as “The High School on High School Avenue” and as “The High School on the Hill” in the 1889-90 city directory, and the school district president’s annual report of 1893-94 boasted “119 scholars” at the school that year. The first commencement ceremony took place in 1870, an 1890 program shows nine graduates. The school was replaced in 1900 by a new Council Bluffs High School at Fifth Avenue and Bluff and the old building was demolished in 1908.
Clark School at Bennett and Franklin avenues and McMillen, often called Eighth Avenue School, at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue, were both built in 1877. Clark was abandoned later and McMillen closed in 1951. Woodbury School was erected at Woodbury and South Avenue in 1879 and closed in 1901.
In 1880, the first Gunn School, also called Keeline School, was built at Linden and North Broadway. In 1924, the current Gunn building replaced it.
Avenue B or Streetville School was built in 1880 at 25th Street and Avenue B. According to several former students, the school remained in use until the early 1980s, when it was torn down to build a housing complex.
Eighth Street School was built at Eighth and Avenue G in 1882, but was replaced in 1953 by a new school and renamed the Matthew Tinley School. It’s now the Kanesville Alternative Learning Center, but Tinley’s name remains above the main door facing Avenue G.
In 1883, the first Longfellow School at 20th Avenue and South 10th Street had only four rooms. Despite six additions between 1890 and 1917, it was still too small, so the current Longfellow facility took its place in 1939. The gym was added in 1957.
In 1884, Third Street School, later named General Dodge School, was constructed at Third Street and 11th Avenue.
In 1890, the Second Avenue School was constructed at 23rd Street and Second Avenue. Despite several additions, it was considered too small and eventually was replaced by the Edison facility.
In 1891, Harrison School was constructed at Harrison Street and McGee Avenue. In 1892, Madison School was built at 759 Madison Ave. Courtland Place School in Carter Lake, also built in 1892, was taken from the school district by court order in 1929, but returned to the district in 1966. The Carter Lake School was built in 1950 to replace the original building.
In 1893, 32nd Street School was built and later named Franklin. A new Franklin School was built on Avenue C in 1975 and renovated extensively in 1994.
Enrollment in the 1893-94 school year was at 4,175, including 341 in high school. The superintendent report for that year boasted that “no Iowa city has better educational facilities,” adding that the buildings are “magnificent brick structures handsome, modern, durable.”
The district built Roosevelt in 1907 at 17th Street and Avenue E, adding to it in 1913, 1925 and 1952. A 1966 fire destroyed most of the older section. Only the 1952 section was salvaged when the school was rebuilt.
In 1908, Oak Street School was built at Oak and Broadway. Sold in 1950, it became the St. Patrick parochial school.
The district built Edison School in 1917 and built an addition in 1951. At one time, it served 1,200 students from kindergarten through eighth grade and was known as the largest K-eighth grade building between Chicago and Denver. However, Edison became a K-sixth grade school and the older part of the facility was torn down.
When Thomas Jefferson High School was built in 1921 at 25th Street and West Broadway, it served grades seven through 10, but the district had grown so fast that the district felt two high schools were necessary. T.J. became a high school, and the old Council Bluffs High School was renamed Abraham Lincoln High School.
In 1924, Rue was constructed at 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue, and in 1926, Walnut Grove School was constructed at 29th Street and Avenue J. Both are still in use.
By 1930, student enrollment was at 10,210, and by the 1953-54 school year, Council Bluffs had two four-year high schools, one junior high school combined with elementary school grade levels, and 14 elementary schools.
The first school built after the Great Depression and World War II was Hoover, built at 1205 N. Broadway in 1950.
In 1957, Pusey was constructed on 15th Avenue, Deforest at 29th Street and Ninth Avenue, Lewis & Clark on Grand Avenue, Peterson School at 26th Avenue and South Ninth and Myers School at 37th Street and Avenue G.
In 1960, Eastside Junior High School was built on Bonham Street and Bennett Avenue. In 1967, it became the new Abraham Lincoln High School, while Eastside moved to the old A.L. building and became Kirn Junior High School. However, the 19th-century structure that first housed Council Bluffs High School, then the first Abraham Lincoln High School and finally the first Kirn Junior High, became history in 1976 when a fast-moving arson fire destroyed the building. While the old Kirn gymnasium, built in 1931, still stands at 510 Bluff St., it was sold to J. Development Co. in 2007 for $8,000.
In 1961, Lake school was built on North Broadway, and Woodrow Wilson Junior High School was built at Avenue H and 21st Street.
In 1966, Glendale, Sunnydale, Lake, Carter Lake and Crescent merged with the Council Bluffs School District by mandate of the State Legislature and vote of the residents. Lewis Central declined and the Lewis Central Community School District built its own high school.
In 1972, the Harmon Tucker Vocational Education Center was built on North 18th Street. It now is the Tucker College and Career Center.
By the 1974-75 school year, student enrollment was at 13,765, but the baby boom years were over. Dodge, Harrison and Avenue B schools closed that year.
While the new Kirn Junior High School opened in 1979 on North Avenue, the district in 1981 closed the Lake and Sunnydale schools and in 1986, the district closed or sold Peterson, DeForest, Myers and Madison schools.
In 1986, ninth grade was moved to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson high schools. Beginning in the 1985-86 school year, seventh- and eighth-graders attended either Wilson and Kirn Junior High.
The Glendale building, used for years as the PACT center, was sold in 2007.
The Crescent Elementary School building, built in 1958, went through an extensive rebuilding after an arson fire in 2006.
Plans call for all school buildings remaining in use to be updated and renovated by 2015, prompting the district to repurchase and reopen DeForest this year for use as an interim facility.
Sixth-grade students began attending Kirn and Wilson in the 2009-10 school year, when both facilities became middle schools.
Thomas Jefferson High School has undergone a major renovation, and a similar renovation has begun at Abraham Lincoln High School. The combined cost should total about $55 million and will be paid for by the statewide 1-cent sales tax.
No new buildings have been built since 1979, but this year, the school district announced plans to replace Carter Lake School with a new building and will build a new school near College Road and Valley View.
– Information in this story was compiled from school district and The Daily Nonpareil records.
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