In 2008, the city experienced a 500- year flood that devastated a lot of
properties. 600 properties in the city were damaged. Over 300 of those needed
to be demolished. One of those properties was a residential property
that had been a former schoolhouse that was built in 1927, that was
substantially damaged and could not be repaired. As part of FEMA's
requirements to mitigate damages to historic properties, we needed to find
a project that we could use and direct some funding toward. What we did was
solicit proposals from our local historic society and the
Little Red Schoolhouse Museum popped up as, as just a, a perfect example of
what we would wanna do.
{sound of ringing schoolhouse bell}
Little Red Schoolhouse was a schoolhouse here in Black Hawk County and it was
built in 1911. There were hundreds of one-room schoolhouses here in Iowa
but by the mid-60s they had been phased out with consolidation.
It was in very bad shape. It was in very bad shape. It desperately needed to
be painted. Pieces of paint peeling off, you know, as big as my hand.
And as the children would come up the back door on the ramp, when they would
come in from recess you know, you see peeling paint there and you're a kid,
what're ya going to do?
What was done was siding replacement. There were several areas of rotting
siding and to keep sympathetic repairs for the original, a lot of the siding
was replaced and repainted.
The boardwalk. It was very splintery. And so they provided the material and
one of our Kiwanis groups donated the labor. It was very much appreciated
that we could get a professional painter and get a nice, get the nice siding.
We have no more ugly boards or boards that you touch and they're soft.
The Little Red Schoolhouse Museum is a hands-on, you know, the kids can go in
there and,and you know actually sit at the desks and, and you know, see
what it was really like.
June 20th, 1911 and this is what (voice trails off)
They started with a one-week class and then it started to grow and they added
a second class, a second one, and I've seen it go from three,four, five and
now this is our second year to have six, one-week sessions for children.
We do the four Rs', readin', writin', rithmetic and recess. It is such fun
because the kids who are here want to be.
Since the repairs have been made it stands out. It's just kind of a shining
little red schoolhouse now. It receives lots of visitors young and old lot of
kids that get to go through that.
For a community that is interested in history it gives a very good idea of
what, what things were like 100 years ago. And I think our community
appreciates the past.
{sound of children playing}