BRYANT SCHOOL

Recently I was looking through some Algona High School yearbooks from the 1920’s and came across some photos of the inside of the Bryant school building.  Although I never attended Bryant, I used to play summer softball on the city little league as a child and often practiced on the ball diamond there.  From my youthful perspective, I thought the building looked huge and imposing.  These interior photos piqued my curiosity about the building and its history and so I of course had to do a little digging.

From the1922 AHS Yearbook

Extra Room Needed

In 1898, the Algona School Board was considering prospective sites for a new high school.  There were two school buildings in use at that time.  The Central schoolhouse was located where the building formerly known as the O.B. Laing Middle School is currently situated.  It had been built in 1885 and housed every grade until 1896 when the Third Ward schoolhouse was erected.  Although that relieved some of the overcrowding in Central, it became apparent only two years later that it would be necessary to erect a building dedicated to housing the high school classes. 

The building of the new school was not without controversy, however.  Did you know that the school was almost built in other locations?  Although the site finally chosen was the one most preferred, it was also the most expensive at $6,400.  There were four owners of the property.  C. E. Heise owned four lots and wanted $3,000; Thomas Little owned a house and lot for which he was asking $650; Will Haggard owned an empty lot priced at $500; and finally David A. Haggard placed a value of $2,250 on the two lots he owned on which his house, barn and outbuildings were located. 

Due to the costs involved, the board also considered building on a half block on east State Street which could be secured for $2,000.  Their other possible choice was the full block west of the old Chrischilles homestead on the hill west of city hall (approximately where the Water Works building currently stands) at a cost of $3,000.

Location Chosen

By September of 1898, the board decided on the Heise property as the location of the new high school building.  They scaled back on the amount of property they wanted to buy which divided some of the lots in half and hired lawyers to deal with the owners.  When that didn’t work, they had the ground condemned and the appraisals came in at considerably less than the asking prices.  One of the owners, D.A. Haggard, had special circumstances due to the fact that when the school was built, the building itself was placed in such a manner that the east side of the school was within a few feet of his home.   Heise and D.A. Haggard both appealed and the cases went on for several years. 

The lawsuits didn’t stop the construction of the new state-of-the-art school building.  Bids were let in August of 1898 and construction began soon thereafter.  The need for the new building was great.  That fall Central School was so crowded that the high school classes were moved to the Old Normal School building which was located a few blocks northwest of the current Catholic Church site.  Unusually cold weather occurred that winter with temperatures at times between 30 and 40 degrees below zero.  The old stoves in the building were unreliable and entirely inadequate to combat the frigid winds.  A rickety stove pipe even came crashing down on several occasions jeopardizing the safety of the students.

Bryant Opens

It had been hoped that the school would be ready in time for the beginning of classes in September of 1899, but due to construction delays, the building was finally ready for classes in November of that year.  The high school occupied the larger room on the east in the second story.  The seats were of oak and adjustable as to height.  The northwest room on the same floor was used for recitation purposes.  That room was furnished with cane-seated chairs with arm rests. 

An article published in the Algona Republican on March 21, 1900, described it as follows:

“The Bryant building constructed in 1899 is the home of the High School.  Besides the High School rooms, five grade rooms are provided, three of which are as yet unfinished.  This beautiful structure with its Colonial architecture surrounded by native oaks is an ornament to our city.  The foundation is of pressed Lehigh brick, while the superstructure is made from Twin City buff brick.  The building has a slate roof, cement floors in the basement, and flush water closets.  The heat supplied is steam, furnished by both direct and indirect radiation.  Natural slate blackboards are used exclusively.  The walls and ceilings are beautifully tinted with three shades of green.  Water is supplied to all floors.  Owing to a lack of available funds, the laboratory is not yet provided with desks and suitable appliances for science work.  The expenses for this property are as follows:  Contract for building, something over $14,000; for heating and plumbing, $2,500; for architect, $500; for grounds, about $3,200; for furniture, $450. Besides this was extra pipe work in the garret, sidewalks, grading of grounds, etc.  These expenses aggregate $21,000.  More than another thousand will be needed to complete the unfinished rooms.”

Captioned "After a Busy Day"

Captioned "Our Place of Business" 

The Lab

Mock Political Convention Held in the Assembly Room

In the column "Tidbits from Evelyn" printed in the January 20, 1955 edition of the Upper Des Moines, the columnist shared her memories which provide a good description of the interior of the school in early days:

"Bryant was not so pretentious when I went there.  The addition had not been built, fewer studies were offered, there was no gym, no domestic science taught, no study hall.  Assembly room took in the entire east 3rd of the building, a small library opened off this, and wide halls and cloak halls and the stairways took the middle section.  Two class rooms were on the second floor with the assembly, chemistry lab and physics doubling and located in the northwest corner.  Miss Kern had the southwest class room.

Downstairs Miss Wallace had the southeast room for her kindergarten youngsters--or it may have been primary grade. Miss McCoy was across the hall in the northeast corner, Supt. Overmyer had the middle room facing the front stairs, and other class rooms were in the northwest and southwest corners, divided by the basement stairs."

A wing was later added on the north side of the building in 1912 at a cost of $49,000, completing the structure as I remember it.  The addition contained the first gymnasium.  I have been told that entry to the gym itself was rather peculiar.  The only accesses to the gym floor were through the locker rooms.  Public seating consisted of bleachers that were mounted to the wall with the bottom seat located several feet above the floor, sort of on a platform.  Entry doors to that seating were at the top.  Rather than go all the way down to the locker rooms to enter the gym floor, students often took a shortcut by hopping over the bar at the bottom of the bleachers and dropping down onto the floor.

The Kitchen

Mr. J. F. Overmyer seated in the office

From "Picturesque Algona"

The new Bryant schoolhouse was completed just in time to be prominently featured in the book “Picturesque Algona.”  The building went on to serve thousands of children during its lifetime.  It was demolished in 1980 to make room for a newer, single story structure that cost over one million dollars to build and where children, including one of my grandsons, continue to receive a first-class education. 

Bryant School in 2015

The arch from the old school entry was preserved until early in 2015 when it became unstable and was removed.  Though the last remaining memorial of this building is now gone, I am glad we have these photos to document its long and glorious life.

Until next time,

Jean (a/k/a KC History Buff)

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