Fremont #1

From Atkins, proceed north on 33rd Ave to 69th St. 1/10 mile west of 33rd on the south side of the road is the school, now converted as a house.  Appears to be part of the Bloomsbury Farm complex.

Fremont #5

From Atkins, proceed west on 71st Street/County E44 to 31st Ave, where the school sits on the SW corner.

Photographed 4/28/18

UPDATE: Destroyed by a derecho on 8/10/20.

Benton #?, Lower Stone School

Built in the 1880s, this school’s roof was destroyed by a fire in the 1940s.  At some point in time the school was used as an art gallery, but is now used for storage.  Proceed north out of Shellsburg on County W26 4.7 miles to 59th St, and then proceed .9 mile east to the school on the south side of the road.

Photographed 8/4/12

Benton #7, Upper Stone School

After church today, being a beautiful day for driving, we headed up north of Shellsburg to find a school I read about.
One needs to travel 5.5 miles north of Shellsburg (or about 4 miles south of Urbana) on county highway W26 to 58th Street Drive, then go west one mile. The school is on the southeast corner of 58th and 31st Avenue. Built in 1875, this beautiful stone school, now used as a home, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is surrounded pretty much by trees, so photography was difficult without trespassing. The old pump is still there.

On 12/11/11 we rephotographed the school; we knew the winter weather would give us a clear field of view.  However, a storm earlier this year destroyed hundreds of trees in the area of this school, and apparently the four trees on the west side of this school suffered from this storm since all that was left were stumps.  While we got some nice photographs, it was sad to see the loss.

Update 5/19/2012:  The following interesting information was sent to me by the owner.  

The Upper Stone School house was built in 1875 by local craftsmen.   The  18 inch walls of Yellow Limestone believed to come from a quarry one mile north and on the north side of the river was used at this School and also at Lower Stone which is located one mile east of Upper Stone, 1/4 mile south and 3/4 mile east.   Lower Stone was built in 1880's but had it roof razed by a fire in 1940's.

Why the two stone schools were built so close is unknown but they were on the fringe area of Benton City which was the prospering, intended county seat.  The rail road went through Vinton instead and Benton City started it's decline in the late 1800's.

In a old documented photograph over forty students were attending Upper Stone in 1880's when a new wooden school  was built about 1/2 mile south and on the hill.   It has been destroyed over the years.

In 1905 the stone school house and property was sold to my grandfather (Elmer Scott) for a home and he operated a saw mill across the road to the west.   My mother (Mildred Scott) was born in the stone school house along with three sisters and three brothers.

The property has been owned by two of my Uncles since Elmer and his wife passed away in 1950's.  I purchased the property in 1975 along with 20 acres of land.

I remodeled the house and lived with my wife there for over twenty years.  In 1976 I went through the procedures to have the National Historical designation be assigned to Upper Stone School.  We did have the stone work tuck pointed by a local company who has done historical houses before.  There are many school carvings etched into the stone.

We built a new house south of the school house and our intent is to keep the school house preserved for future generations   After retirement I intended to reconstruct the inside of the school back to it's original use but still haven't found time to do so.

In 2011 we suffered straight line winds and several of the old cedar and catalpa trees feel victim to the winds and only a portion of the roof of the stone school house had to be replaced due to a fallen tree.

Russ Glime

Walker, IA, Polk #6

This school was one we came across on our way home from Independence, the same day we shot the previous photo (10/30/05).  We took a back road to a friend's house before heading home, and passed this school 3.5 miles west of Walker, on the south side of Iowa SR 920, at the junction of County Route J92.

UPDATE 12/10/10:  SR920 is now designated County Route D62.  This school is no longer here.  Some foundation debris was seen today; perhaps it was moved elsewhere rather than torn down?

UPDATE 11/20/18: I learned from someone who knew a member of the family who rented the farm on which this school stood, and they were told that a grass fire got out of control and burned down this school.

Monroe Township #5

In April 2005 we read an article, with accompanying photo, in the Cedar Rapids Gazette about an old school near Garrison, IA.  This school is about five miles west-northwest of Garrison on the southeast corner of 13th Ave and 59th St.  The school came into the possession of the Benton County Historical Society when the Monroe Township Trustees decided the school was no longer needed.  But the school would have to be moved.  The article discussed the need to find property for it, and to restore it, with Vinton being a possible location.  Although there was no information as to when the school was originally constructed, the article indicated it may have been in 1870s or 1880s.  The local 4-H group used the building for meetings into the late 1990s.  We have not read any follow-up as to what happened to this school.  We photographed it 5/15/05.

Update 8/6/12:  The following two photos were taken by Larry Blazicek in the summer 2011.  A storm with very strong winds caused damage to the building in July, and the county condemned the building. It was razed in September 2011.