Once not so long ago, Iowa had the most country schoolhouses of any state in the nation. There were over twelve thousand six hundred in the state, with ten in Wright County. Today, only a few remain.
The Wall Lake Township Schoolhouse #5 was one of five in the Wall Lake area. It was built in 1889. In the 1960’s the Wall Lake Monday Club took on the task of restoring the old schoolhouse. Eventually, the building was moved to the Wright County Fairgrounds in Eagle Grove, where it remains today.
Last year, the Wright County Fair Board announced that the building was to be demolished, because it is in disrepair and too expensive for the board to maintain. This caused a shocked uproar across Wright County, as many who value our history called for a solution.
Now, the Wright County Historical Society is asking for your help to save the historic Wall Lake Number 5 Schoolhouse from demolition, and preserve it for the future.
The Eagle Grove chapter of the Wright County Historical Society, which previously renovated the Carnegie Library in Eagle Grove and now maintains it in partnership with the City of Eagle Grove as the home of the Eagle Grove Historical Museum, has struck a deal with the Wright County Fair Board to save the schoolhouse, on the condition that the Historical Society will restore it and preserve it for the future.
“Our goal is to raise enough money to repair everything that needs repair now (new windows, painting the siding, replacing the shingles, etc.) and eventually adding handicapped accessibility and switching the heating to safer, steadier, more reliable, and less expensive electric heat,” Explained Scott Thompson, treasurer of the Eagle Grove chapter, “leaving enough left over to establish a Certificate of Deposit (CD), so that the interest earnings on the CD will fund ongoing maintenance costs into the foreseeable future.” Thompson also hopes to eventually find a schoolbell for the site. And he said that the schoolhouse would be available for tours by appointment, and during the Wright County Fair.
“It’s very basic,” said Thompson, of his motivation for working to preserve the schoolhouse. “I want to preserve something of my past. Because I grew up in a one room school.” Thompson related that he recalls riding his bike a mile, along with his older sister, to the Dersheid #1 schoolhouse, until Eagle Grove schools consolidated when he was in the third grade, in the 1950’s. “I have fond memories of that,” Thompson said. “If you don’t preserve the past, there’s nothing left for the future.”
That sentiment was echoed by Wright County Historical Society President Ron Mohr last year, when plans to demolish the schoolhouse were first revealed. “Once these buildings are gone, they are gone, along with the History,” Mohr told our sister newspaper, the Wright County Monitor, at the time.
You can support this effort to preserve local history with a donation made online via the fundraising platform Go Fund Me at https://gofund.me/201bcf9b – or by sending a check made out to Eagle Grove Historical Society to:
Eagle Grove Historical Society
Scott Thompson, Treasurer
P.O. Box 272
Eagle Grove, Iowa 50533
The Historical Society is also seeking partners for fundraising efforts. If you own a local business or can volunteer or support this effort to preserve our local history, or simply wish to arrange to make a donation in person, please reach out to Thompson by phone at (515) 851-0037.
