The newly finished ‘fireproof’ 1917 Traer Public School building. School opened in the new building on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1918. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles documenting the history of the school buildings in North Tama County Community School District courtesy of the Traer Historical Museum.

TRAER – Just two months after the April fire destroyed the nine-year-old school building, Traer voters passed a $62,000 bond issue for a new school. The June 1917 election was the first school election in which women were allowed to vote, and 45 women exercised that right.

The bond issue passed with only seven no votes out of 138. The budget for the new building was $92,000 including the $62,000 bond plus $30,000 from insurance on the old building.

Construction began on Traer’s third brick school building in the fall. Fire safety was a major concern. The building that was destroyed was wood frame with a brick exterior and a tile roof. The new “fireproof” building has reinforced concrete floors and tile walls faced with brick. The stairways are enclosed and served as fire escapes on the north and south side of the building. There were seven entrances and exits from the building to allow quick exit.

The contract to build the new school was awarded in the first week of July in 1917. All the bids exceeded the cost expectations of the board and architect. They went over the plan specifications several times, cutting everything possible to reduce the cost. Most of the cuts were made in equipment and furnishings. The board decided that one room on each of the three floors would be left unfinished.

Members of the Traer Public School Orchestra pictured outside the main entrance of the ‘fireproof’ 1917 building. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Construction began in late summer 1917 on the 148 foot by 60 foot building. The concrete classroom floors were covered with maple flooring and the halls and stairways are concrete covered with mastic. The superintendent’s office, reception room and record vault were located on the first floor.

The home economics department was in the southwest portion of the first floor. It had a kitchen, pantry, dining room and sewing room. Across the hall was a large lunchroom. The shop or manual training department was in the northwest part of the first floor. It had a workbench room, machine room, and a finishing room.

The gymnasium wing had a 72 foot by 31 foot basketball floor and an 18 foot ceiling. There was bleacher seating for about 300 on the east side. The dressing rooms and showers for both boys and girls were beneath the bleachers.

An outstanding feature of the building was the auditorium. The 35×14 stage was located on the ground floor where the kitchen for the school is now located. The gallery seating entrance to the auditorium was located on the second floor with 500 opera chairs. It was used for school assemblies, literary programs, and instruction by motion pictures and stereopticon. The Opera House downtown was used for school plays.

The grade school classrooms were on the second floor. At one end of the hall is an office for the principal. There were 158 lockers in the hallway. The third floor was used for junior and senior high school study rooms, recitation rooms, a science laboratory and lecture room. The building was finished throughout with fir stained a dark oak color and varnished with flat varnish. All rooms contained bookcases and cabinets.

George Dedic stands in front of the 1917 Traer Public School building in 1938. The photograph was taken from the northeast. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

The exterior is a modern Gothic style exterior with a varicolored red brick trimmed with Kasota stone. Kasota stone is a dolomitic limestone mined near Mankato, Minn. The stone surrounds the main entrance in the center of the building on the west side. This entrance was a favorite site for photos for many years.

The building is heated with a central heating system with radiators in each room. The entire building was equipped with electric lights. A central system of clocks and bells run by a master clock was installed.

The building was designed to accommodate 500 pupils. School opened in the new building on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1918, with 368 students, 179 elementary students, 67 junior high and 122 high school students.

There was no school lunch program so kids either walked home for lunch or brought lunch from home. In the 1920s, the domestic science department started preparing a one dish hot lunch at cost. The eleventh graders were in charge of preparing food. About 60 country students took part in the program.

In 1936, a bond issue was brought before voters to build an addition to the east side of the gymnasium, adding bleacher seating for 500 to 600 persons. The bond also included new shower and dressing rooms for boys and girls and a music room for the band, orchestra, and glee clubs. It was resoundingly defeated.

The south side of the 1917 Traer Public School building taken in 1938. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

The locker room and shower facilities were inadequate in 1936 and continued to be a problem. In 1940, a bond issue to build new locker rooms and showers for boys and girls on the south side of the gymnasium passed. No major changes were made to the building until the 1950s.

Today, the building has served students of the district for the past 107 years. It remained unchanged until the locker room addition in 1940. The first major renovation took place in the mid 1950s and will be discussed in the next article.

Future installments

Be on the lookout for the next installment in this series covering the 1956 new gymnasium and addition of the first school hot lunch program. The Traer Historical Museum also has plans to publish the following future articles in the Telegraph:

-1958: Buckingham joins Traer

-1959: New Classrooms

-1961: Traer becomes Traer Clutier

-1963-1964: Dinsdale joins Traer-Clutier and North Tama is born

-1964: New elementary school building and remodeling throughout