Central School is a historic structure located in

Lake City, Iowa Lake City is a city in Calhoun County, Iowa, United States, founded in 1856. The population was 1,731 at the time of the 2020 census. The sign coming into town proudly proclaims that Lake City has "Everything but a Lake." History Lake City wa ...

, United States. A bond referendum for a new school passed in February 1884. The

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

architectural firm of Foster & Liebee designed the building in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

style, and it was built by contractor Robert Harrison. They based their plan on an example the school board found in Everett's ''School Architecture''. The exterior of the two-story structure is composed of locally produced brick and it cost $7,175 to build. Two classrooms were located on each of the two floors. A frame building to house the kindergarten was built in 1895, and the school board determined the following year to expand the building by four more classrooms. In 1897 the addition was completed, as was another grade school building in town. A high school was built in 1904, which took the pressure off the school's population. The building served as a school building until 1980. It was acquired three years later by Central School Preservation Inc. and renovated for a historic-cultural center. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1985.

References

School buildings completed in 1884 Lake City, Iowa Italianate architecture in Iowa School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Calhoun County, Iowa Museums in Calhoun County, Iowa {{CalhounCountyIA-NRHP-stub