Council Bluffs celebrates 150th, too

Windsor Park. Woodbury. McMillen.

Do the names mean anything to you?

They were among the dozens of schools attended by Council Bluffs students over the school district's 150-year history. Some buildings were abandoned, some were sold, at least two burned and many are still in use.

“The people who compiled the (district's) records did a great job of documenting the existence of at least 50 schools,” district spokeswoman Diane Ostrowski 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.”

The report said: “Two new school houses have opened in West Council Bluffs, known as Courtland Place and Windsor Park Schools.”

The document also mentioned the Avenue F and Fifth Avenue Schools.

Courtland Place became the Carter Lake school. As for the three others, only the names seem to have survived. Ostrowski said district officials hope “we can piece some of that information together over the anniversary year.”

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 Independent School District in 1859. The first classes were conducted in rented rooms, but in 1864 the district constructed its first school building.

The First Ward School, later known as Stutsman, was a two-story brick building at 120 E. Pierce St. It was 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.

Here is a look at the history of other school buildings in the district:

1866

The Fourth Ward School at Seventh and Willow Streets was completed. It was replaced in 1880 by the first Bloomer School, which in turn was replaced in 1923 by the current Bloomer School.

The first version of Washington School was built near 207 Scott St. Some called it Mill School because it was near Dagger's Mill. The school lasted almost 90 years, until it was replaced in 1954 by the current building facing Scott Street. The concrete steps that once led to the original school can still be seen on Kanesville Boulevard, now leading to the playground.

1867

Court Street School was built at Court and Cherry Streets (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. An 1893-94 school report stated that the school was abandoned in 1894 because the lot sat so low, the building itself was “damp and unsafe.”

Franklin Pierce School, at Frank and Thomas Streets, functioned for a short time as both a grade school and a high school. Superintendent Allen Armstrong had reorganized the school system, dividing classes into grades and setting up a high school on the Pierce building's second floor.

Later, the high school moved to Mill School. The building was abandoned in 1894 and sold in 1901. A new Pierce School was built in 1884 at the corner of Pierce and Franklin. It closed in 1950.

1869

Center School was built on the northeast corner of South Sixth and 13th Streets. It was sold in 1883.

The first official high school, Council Bluffs High School, was built on Fifth Avenue just west of Glen. The three-story, four-classroom building had its first graduating class in 1871. But the building was too small and was replaced in 1900 by a new building at Fifth Avenue and Bluff Street. The first high school was demolished in 1908.

1877

Clark School at Bennett and Franklin Avenues and McMillen, often called Eighth Avenue School, at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue, were both built. Clark was abandoned later, and McMillen closed in 1951.

1879

Woodbury School was erected at Woodbury and South Avenue; it closed in 1901.

1880

The first Gunn School, also called Keeline School, was built at Linden Avenue and North Broadway. In 1924, the current Gunn building replaced it.

Avenue B, or Streetsville, School was built at 25th Street and Avenue B. It remained in use through at least 1917.

1882

Eighth Street School was built at Eighth Street and Avenue G, 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.

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. A gym was added in 1957.

1884

Third Street School, later named General Dodge School, was constructed at Third Street and 11th Avenue.

1890

The Second Avenue School was constructed at 23rd Street and Second Avenue. Despite several additions, it was considered too small and was replaced by Edison School in 1917.

1891

Harrison School was constructed at Harrison Street and McGee Avenue.

1892

Madison School was built at 759 Madison Ave.

Courtland Place School in Carter Lake also was built. It was taken from the school district by court order in 1929 but was returned to the district in 1966. The Carter Lake School was built in 1950 to replace the original building.

1893

The 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 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.”

1907

The district built Roosevelt School at 17th Street and Avenue E, adding to it in 1913, 1925, 1952 and 1966.

1908

Oak Street School was built at Oak and Broadway. Sold in 1950, it became the St. Patrick parochial school.

1917

Edison School was constructed; an addition was built in 1951. At one time, it served 1,200 students from kindergarten through eighth grade and was known as the largest K-8 building between Chicago and Denver. However, Edison became a K-6 school and the older part of the facility was torn down.

1921

Thomas Jefferson High School was built at 25th Street and West Broadway and served grades seven through 10. But the district had grown so fast that two high schools were necessary. T.J. became strictly a high school, and the old Council Bluffs High School was renamed Abraham Lincoln High School.

1924

Rue School was constructed at 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

1926

Walnut Grove School was constructed at 29th Street and Avenue J.

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.

1950

The first school built after the Great Depression and World War II was Hoover, at 1205 N. Broadway.

1957

Pusey was constructed on 15th Avenue, Deforest at 29th Street and Ninth Avenue, Lewis & Clark on Grand Avenue, Peterson at 26th Avenue and South Ninth Street and Myers at 37th Street and Avenue G.

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 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.

1961

Lake School was built on North Broadway, and Woodrow Wilson Junior High School was built at Avenue H and 21st Street.

1966

Glendale, Sunnydale, Lake, Carter Lake and Crescent merged with the Council Bluffs School District by a vote of the residents. Lewis Central declined, and the Lewis Central Community School District built its own high school.

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. In 1981, Lake and Sunnydale closed and, in 1986, the district closed or sold Peterson, Deforest, Myers and Madison Schools.

1979

The new Kirn Junior High School opened on North Avenue.

1985

Ninth-graders move to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson High Schools; seventh- and eighth-graders attend Wilson and Kirn. Now Wilson and Kirn are middle schools, home to sixth through eighth grades.

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. School officials are also considering a school on land purchased near College Road and Valley View.

The Crescent Elementary School building, built in 1958, went through an extensive rebuilding after arson damage in 2006. And both Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson High schools are undergoing major renovations.

Plans call for all buildings remaining in use to be updated and renovated by 2015. The district repurchased DeForest so students have a school to attend during renovation to its aging buildings.