Buchanan School building now houses Ambroz Recreation Center

The Cedar Rapids School Board faced a problem finding enough classrooms for a growing student population in 1902. A committee was formed to figure out a new building site on Mount Vernon Road, because the board thought it was imperative to place a school in that neighborhood as soon as possible.

The school board planned for the building to just house the first three grades. That summer, construction began on a building between Theda and Upton avenues (21st and 19th streets) with two large classrooms. By September, it still wasn't finished. Students were sent to their old schools, but teachers - Alice Rudd and Gertrude Prescott - still were assigned.

The following September, Buchanan opened with 24 students.

Over the protests of area residents, the school board decided to close Buchanan in 1912 and send its students to Johnson. As soon as he heard that the school would be empty, Dr. A.W. Berryman of St. Paul's Methodist went to the board with a request to rent the facility for a Sunday school. A year later, the Mt. Vernon Avenue Improvement Club met at Buchanan to formulate a request that the school board reconsider its decision.

Buchanan reopened for the 1914 school year with kindergarten through second grade. Older children still were sent to Johnson, Jackson or Tyler. And Buchanan parents began lobbying for a new school building.

Buchanan continued to grow. A four-room addition was part of a $750,000 bond issue put to a vote in September 1945. The bond issue was approved 1,346 to 140 (out of 33,303 voters). On the heels of that election, the board was presented with a survey of the Cedar Rapids School District by University of Iowa College of Education Dean Paul Packer that termed the proposed Buchanan addition 'inadequate.”

The school board then began discussing purchasing a new site for a new Buchanan School in fall 1946. The purchase of a 10-acre tract for $17,500 from Henry S. Ely was approved in June 1947. The site was north of Mount Vernon Road and west of what would be 26th Street.

Preliminary plans for the 600-student, $600,000 Buchanan building met with board approval in July 1949. The Buchanan area had around 400 grade-school age children in 1949. August kindergarten enrollment at the old Buchanan was the largest ever, requiring three sessions instead of the normal two.

With plans and specifications for the new Buchanan approved by the board, the new school's contract was awarded to O.F. Paulsen Co

In March 1951, with construction of what had been called the 'new Buchanan School” well underway, and classes expected to be held there in the fall of 1952, a dilemma arose. Buchanan School was going to remain in use, so the new school needed a name. A contest was organized by the board and The Gazette. Tom Woodhouse, a fifth-grader at Buchanan, won with the name Grant Wood. He said he chose that name because Wood had taught at McKinley Junior High, encouraged education and nothing in Cedar Rapids had been named for its famous native son.

By 1963, Buchanan was going strong. It had 268 students, and the board had added a kindergarten room in 1960 and three classrooms and an office in 1962. The 1960 construction corrected a strange food service arrangement. The old kitchen had been located under the stage in the gymnasium-auditorium. The food was prepared and lifted up to the gym floor, where it was brought out to the gym from a small closet and put on serving tables.

Even after new construction, the school's classrooms were still small and had a lack of storage space. Using the gym for an auditorium and dining hall required careful scheduling. Outside, the school sat on a scant 1.65 acres, part of which couldn't be used because it faced a heavily traveled Mount Vernon Road.

In 1973, the school board voted to close Buchanan the following fall because of declining enrollments and budget restrictions. A trade was brokered with the city for the Ambroz Recreation Center on 17th Street SE to ensure the board would have a place for its Metro school project. The deal stalled because an original agreement granting the property's title to the school district required the land be used for school purposes only.

To get around that, Board Secretary Otto Wiedersberg said the deed included a reverter clause specifying that the building would revert to the school district if the city stopped using it.

The new Ambrose Recreation Center needed considerable remodeling.

'The biggest problem we've had with the building is lack of storage space,” explained Nat Hull, assistant director of recreation in 1979. 'Schools do not have closets and cupboards. When we got here we realized we had 34 bathrooms and no cupboards.”

Some restrooms were converted to closets. Three classrooms became large storage areas. Two restrooms and connecting coat rooms became a photography lab. The goal was to continue remodeling and redecorating to remove the schoolhouse appearance.

Today the building houses the Ambroz Recreation Center and the offices of the Riverfront Recreation Commission and the Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation Department.

l Comments: (319) 398-8338; diane.langton@sourcemedia.net