Hometown Monday - Old Carrollton School in final days

Hometown Monday

Old Carrollton School in final days

 

From: Coon Rapids Enterprise, Thursday, November 14, 2013. Front Page Story:

Sometime next summer the 1937 Carrollton School House will disappear from the rural landscape, following action by the Carrollton Community Heritage Club at their October 28 meeting. After nearly a decade of effort trying to save the building, the group dedicated to preserve the memories of the Carrollton Community have realized the task is too large and
expensive to achieve.

“Our intentions were to refurbish the building, maybe put an apartment in there, maybe a
community center,” said Rosemary Paulsen, one of the members of the CCHC.

The group even spent money in 2006 to have asbestos removed from the building in hopes that a renovation could eventually take place.

“We had all kinds of plans, of course, but we had no real money and the building continued
to deteriorate,” Paulsen added. “I hate it. It’s really sad. It’s the last standing public building in Carrollton. It would have been nice to save it,” Paulsen said.

The final straw, Paulsen said, was a report from Sebern Structural Services of Panora, who
was commissioned to document the deterioration and provide necessary costs to rehabilitate.
From there, the group solicited bids for demolition and the one from Mike Daniels was accepted.
Paulsen said he’ll fit the job into his schedule and will have it down by next summer.

Carrollton, the first county seat in Carroll County, had a school as early as 1856. In 1909 a consolidated school in Carrollton was built and in 1936 it burned down. It was replaced with this all-brick building and for many years it had 10 grades, although in the last years it was limited to eight grades. It closed in 1959.

Paulsen said that now plans for the demolition have been made, new ideas for the school property can begin in earnest. Not surprisingly, several have already been made, such as making an historical interpretative park or maybe shelterhouse. Many other ideas will circulate when the large group of Carrollton enthusiasts gather for the ‘Old Settlers’
Picnic’ on August 16 of next year.

In the meantime, Carrollton Community Heritage Club members can continue to enjoy
the Old Carrollton Park which it has developed on property which once was home to the
community’s first grocery store.


Families are Forever! ;-)

Those Places Thursday - Star Church 1955

Those Places Thursday

Star Church 1955

This photo would have been taken between my sophmore and junior year in high school. This is the rural Methodist Church that was the focal point of our rural community. The left hand side of the building was the original church, see below. The right side was originally the Star School building that had been located across the road to the far left, above. It was moved, a new basement was built, the school building "set on top" and it became a "Community Hall" - very nice, for the times.

The Bolger family, my wife's family, lived a mile to the north of this intersection, and a half mile west. She attended the school from kindergarten through seventh grade, then went to Coon Rapids Consolidated School. My family (Smith) lived a mile south and two miles to the east, across the county line in Greene County. I went to Coon Rapids school starting in the eighth grade. After we graduated from high school, a few years, this church closed and the members all went to Coon Rapids for church, as well.

For comparison, this is the original church, a few years earlier.

This physical location is a few miles north of Coon Rapid, Carroll County, Iowa.

Note: The Carrollton School and Store I wrote about a few weeks ago, was located just a few miles directly west of this location.  ;-)

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - Carrollton, Iowa

Those Places Thursday

Carrollton, Iowa

Store about 1920
The people are John Crow, his wife, Delia, and her mother, Mrs. Christopher

[Photo Courtesy of Carroll County, Iowa GenWeb site]

In Eileen's 1936 Diary entry in Week 32, she mentioned the school fire in Carrolton. I then posted the local newspaper accounts of that fire, as well. I wanted to follow up with this post about the town itself, focused on this GenWeb based article that is worth a second look.

Notice in the second part of the article, about the current active Carrollton Community Heritage Club, they mention that the "Carrollton schoolhouse is still intact" and go on to mention possible uses of the building to preserve the history of the area. This would be the building that was built after the 1936 fire, 75 years ago.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

My Hometown on Monday - Carrollton School Fire

My Hometown on Monday

Carrollton School Fire

In Week 32 of Mom's diary - 75 years ago - she mentioned the fact that the Carrrollton school had caught fire and burned to the ground - about 15 miles north of where they lived.

Following are two stories from the Coon Rapids Enterprise, that appeared in the 11 and 18 Aug 2011 editions, respectively:

75 Years Ago
August 14, 1936
The consolidated school building at Carrollton was completely destroyed by fire last Saturday evening. Although the origin of the fire is not known, it is believed to have started from spontaneous combustion in the coal bin which was stored about five tons of coal. Eldin Annear and family and the Possehn family, retuning home from Coon Rapids at 11:30 first discovered the blaze through the window on the northwest corner of the building.
Fire departments from Coon Rapids and Glidden were called immediately and made quick response but the blaze had gained too much headway for anything to be saved. The frame building was a mass of flames and the fire fighters had to turn their attention to extinguish the flames in the dry grass of the school yard.
Ralph and Oscar Lloyd brought Thomas Hessler’s tractor and plow to the stubble field west of the schoolhouse and plowed a wide strip to stop the spread of the flames. Verne Carter and others made attempts to enter the building but the dense smoke made it impossible. Several men remained at the school yard the remainder of the night to watch that no spark would spread the fire. The chimney remained standing until after the fire had died down, but it collapsed about 4 a.m.
The building consisted of two basement rooms, four school rooms and four halls and housed ten grades which required four teachers every year. Harvey Toft is superintendent. Miss Ellen Fouts, who taught there last year will be back, and two new instructors have been employed.
Verne Carter is president of the school board, Donald Anderson is secretary and Frank Squires treasurer. Other board members are Charles Bowman, Thomas Hessler, Ed Davis and Abe Conner.

75 Years Ago
August 21, 1936
Members of the Carrollton school board met here Tuesday evening with the Coon Rapids
school board and accepted the offer of the later to take Carrollton students here without charge until suitable school arrangements can be made at the former county seat where the school building was destroyed by fire on the night of August 8. Carrollton has a school of ten grades and it was decided to send the five higher grades here by bus while quarter for the five lower grades will be provided space at the United Brethren church at Carrollton.
The Carrollton school board plans to hold an election in the four school districts comprising the consolidated district to vote on the question of erecting a new building at Carrollton. With the insurance money from the destroyed building and an additional fund of several thousand dollars on hand the Carrollton board has sufficient funds to erect an excellent building. A government grant is also being discussed. The loss in the recent fire was total including all school records which causes an embarrassing situation in regard to school credit of pupils. The school faculty is not to blame in this matter as the school had no fireproof vault.
The Coon Rapids school is also without a vault for valuable records, a situation which is now having serious consideration.

Families are Forever!  ;-)