Creston to reveal pieces of early 1930s

People will get a chance to travel back in time at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Union County Historical Village adjacent to McKinely Park.

Creston historians will open a time capsule found within the former Lincoln elementary school building which is undergoing demolition. Before the work got too extensive last month, Creston historian John Walters and others salvaged certain pieces of the building including a concrete block engraved with Lincoln School and the time capsule.

If Sunday’s weather is good, Walters said the time capsule will be opened outside the house at the village. If the weather is not good, the opening will be within the house. The plan is to keep the contents of the capsule at the village. Lincoln’s time capsule opening is not the first as one was opened from the former high school building in 1996. Those items are kept at the village.

Walters and others are hoping people from the area who attended the school during its early days in the 1930s will attend the capsule opening. The property the school is on is planned to be converted to housing. The school building has its own history.

According to February 1931 Creston New Advertiser articles, the condition of the previous Lincoln school building is what got all the attention.

“Frank Ide, President of the Creston School Board received a message from the Superintendent of Schools that they needed to have a meeting. The City Council had informed the District that Lincoln School was being condemned and they would have to evacuate the building immediately.

No classes at Lincoln School tomorrow! The school leaders immediately began a search for housing the Lincoln School students. They quickly managed to obtain the basement of the Congregational church and their parlors for students in kindergarten, first and second grades. Grades 3, 4,5, and 6 were able to be placed in the junior high school building (corner of North Elm and Mills St.).”

West Brick (a nickname for the first Lincoln School building) was officially condemned by the City Council on Feb. 8. It was about 50 years old. Twenty-five years before it had had an addition. Now the question was: Do we repair or rebuild? It was determined that repair would be $7,000-8,000. Soon architects entered the picture and drew up plans for rebuilding the school. On May 18, 1931, voters authorized $40,000 in bonds for building a new Lincoln School. The vote passed easily with with a margin of more than 2-1.

Several weeks passed with the school board determining and approving plans for a new Lincoln school to be built. All good and usable materials from the condemned building will be salvaged. The frontage will be on Jefferson Street. It will be a modern one-story buff colored brick building with white stone trim. The new building would hold 200 students having seven classrooms, a kindergarten room and a large community hall. A principal’s office and a teacher’s room will be off of the front entrance with the community room north of them. The community room also had a stage for programming.

Bids for construction would be opened on July 30, 1931. Razing of the old building would begin immediately. The general contractor bid was close to $31,000, plumbing bid was close to $15,000 and the electric bid was about $1,000. Five percent of the total cost went to the architects.

On Sept. 28, 1931, the Creston News Advertiser shared the approximately one year after condemnation, the small metal box sealed within stone was laid on the corner of the building. The cornerstone ceremony would be held on Sept.28, 1931.

“Thronging the grounds and overflowing into the street, a crowd of more than 1,000 persons witnessed the ceremony of laying the cornerstone of the new $40,000 Lincoln grade school building.

The cornerstone ceremony shared two numbers by the high school marching band, two number by Lincoln School students, a short talk by Donn Harper, county attorney, words from the President of the Lincoln School PTA, words from Fred Ide, and two local ministers also took part. The new school will open on Jan. 4, 1932.”