Down in the SE corner of Cedar County is Lime City, which is just a dot on the Gazetteer map, and that is where this school is, located next to a cemetery. Very visible on the north side of I-80, about the 269 mile marker. If arriving from the west, the best without too much backtracking is to take exit 265 North to Rochester (X46), the turn East on F44/290th Street to Old Muscatine Rd, and then turn south. Just north of the bridge over I-80 is 306th St on the east side of the road; turn east there and it will take you to the school. If arriving from the east, take exit 271, and proceed south on US6/SR38 to Old Muscatine Rd and then turn west. Follow the road to the bridge over I-80, cross the bridge and turn east on 306th St to the school. Since we first saw it years ago, it has had a new roof and a row of three window on the east side of the front. There is an old swing set on the east side of the lot.
If anyone has any information about this school, please comment below or email.
This last photo was taken from the south side of I-80 on Old Muscatine Rd.
Photos taken on 8/13/15
UPDATE: The following photos were taken on 6/8/17:
UPDATE 8/27/18: The following three photos were taken in 1935, and are courtesy of Ted Marolf, whose father is the fourth from the left (with little aviator hat) in the first group photo, and his uncle on the pony was a teacher there for a time.
12 comments:
Hi, My name's Kris Clark and I own the Lime City school and the roughly one acre on which it sits. My grandparents bought the structure in 1958 and turned it into a home. They lived their through their deaths and it was inherited by their son, John Hinkhouse, my uncle. John's now in a Davenport, IA nursing home and I then took over the property. We're now maintaining the house--probably to put it back in the condition it was in when my grandparents turned it into a home. I live in Tipton, about 8 miles away. We spent many happy days at what I refer to as Lime City when I was a child. I'll be 65 in October. Thanks for posting this and feel free to ask me any questions. I'm at 563-219-0467. I believe, also, that it's the only 2 room country school still standing in Cedar County.
Oh, also, as mentioned this is a TWO room school, not one room, so perhaps somewhat unique for this site. I wonder how many other 2 room rural schools there are left in Iowa.
Hi Kris!
Thank you so much for that historical information. Do you know what the Township # of the school was?
We've been watching your work to fix the place on our bi-weekly drives to Moline. We like to see these schools restored.
Oh, we could tell it was a 2-room school. We first called the blog one-room school because that's what we thought the old schools were. We've come across other two room schools, so there were quite a few of them. Perhaps we should just rename the blog "country schools."
Glenn, The school and property were a major disaster area when we started taking care of it,my uncle hadn't been in a position to care for it for a decade or so of the last years he was there. It took us a long time to clear off the property --you may have seen that too, including emptying the house. We've worked on the windows and now are scrapin and putting on a primer coat. The sills of the structure need replacing --a considerable job. You'd be welcome to come and see it any time, just let me know. My great grandparents settled in this area, roughly of Sugar Creek Township in 1853. My uncle John was the last of the Hinkhouses to live in the township. We have lots of work to do on the school --no special plans, but in no hurry. Historic preservation is my hobby --though you can imagine what that's like! Where do you live?
Also, I don't know the township number of the school, but can find out.
Kris,
Yep, We've watched your fixing-up for a long time now. We originally had questions as to whether the building was a church or school because of the cemetery. Then last year I found information about it being a school and that was when we decided to photograph it for our collection.
Rather than continue this conversation through the blog, go to my email at jude3.gctwm@yahoo.com.
Thanks.
I live next door to a "house" that was originally Sugar Creek #3(i believe) Pleasant Hill..it sits on 290th st and has been moved a coupl of times according to maps. It has been a residence sice the 1950's from what i've neen told. I love that Kris is rescuing anothe Sugar Creek School
Hi Cynthia,
Where on 290th is this house/school? I'd like to get a shot of it.
Also, my mother went to school at the Sharon school, no idea what it's number is, which is a mile or so from the Sharon Cemetery, just north of Wilton and on a gravel road to the east----also, just off 80 on the right hand side as you're heading south to Wilton. Mom, who will be 91 on July 4, walked to Sharon school when she was a kid from the family farm, several miles away. She wrote about it a bit, but not as much as she should have. No idea if you're interested in this, but Mom would be tickled to death to talk to anyone about going to school at Sharon, which has been a very small residence for decades. I think Freeman Kaufmann, the father of Jeff and grandfather of Bobby, Kaufmann, also went to Sharon. Freeman lives a mile or so from the school and is 90 or a bit older. Jeff K, who teaches history at Muscatine Community College, is head of the Republican Party in Iowa, just FYI.
Kris,
So are you saying this Sharon school building is still extant?
I doubt if your mother walked "several miles," since the schools could be no father than two miles apart in Iowa. That may seem like "several miles" to a kid though!
Kris, I do think there are some federal grants available after July 1st for assistance in preservation of your property. I'm not exactly sure how tobresearch them but I do know at one time there was a group of people that were helping counties try to hang onto properties like yours and help individual owners find those resources and I beleive they had some information linked in some of the genealogy sites, and county school sites. I will try to locate them again, but your best luck might be google. They used to come open every year in Jan and again in July. Good luck, and thank you for doing what you are. I know you may think it's just for you, but it makes so many others feel good. Someone did the same thing to a school my grandmother went to, and if they didn't it wouldn't have survived. Bless you!
I am looking for "Sugar Creek School" that was standing during the winter of 1855. On Christmas Eve, 1855 a meeting was held at this school house in Cedar county approximately 30 miles east of Shueyville, Iowa. The weather was absolutely awful and 30 below, so bad that in order to attend the meeting the Shuey contingent decided it was better to walk that to try and take horses. Part way to the school they over nighted in an unheated and un plastered inn that had not yet been completed. It was so cold that one of the Shuey's nose froze, yet they persisted in making the meeting! They were interested in getting a college for their community that the Church of the Brethren in Christ wanted to build in Iowa. Since it was so cold no one else shoed up and they were awarded the opportunity to build what later became "Western College" in Linn County, Iowa. I believe this school is the one where that meeting took place largely because of the cemetery adjoining the school. There is a Brethren minister buried in this cemetery. Being one of the very early American religions that was created from a mix of German Lutherans and Mennonites, they often used schools for worship services and any other public buildings available including barns. This particular sect determined in 1820 that slavery was wrong and threatened their membership with excommunication if they had any part of slaves. At the time they came up with this, members who had inherited slaves were required to free them immediately. Any that they had recently purchased they understood the hardship of losing that investment and made an exception so the slave could work off his purchase price, but he Church would make the determination when he had worked long enough and they would free the slave! They also at the same time decided women were equal to men in God's eyes and from that point on, could do anything that a man could do as far as the church was concerned. They were supportive of women's rights from 1820 forward and often the suffragettes would meet in the Brethren churches! From my prospective this is all a very important part of invisible Iowa history that I think needs to be recorded and celebrated! Does anyone know anything about this or if for certain this is the school?
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