Time Machine: Big Springs School

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the 1880s, the Big Springs School, a one-room school house, stood about four miles north of Cedar Rapids on Iowa Highway 11 (Center Point Road) near where it now intersects with 42nd Street NE. The school grounds included a cold water spring at one corner, which provided a year-round supply of fresh water. Newspaper clippings tell of Christmas programs, box socials, days off when the teacher was sick, spelling contests between Linn County country schools, and rural school picnics.

The school and its acreage were identified as the Big Springs School District.

A two-story red brick school was built at the site in 1922, when the Cedar Township community was growing and more classroom space was needed. It replaced the small one-room country school, and cost an estimated $18,000 to construct. The new Big Springs school had three classrooms.

The district continued to grow and within six years, an application was submitted to become part of the Cedar Rapids school district. Seventh and eighth-graders from Big Springs were transported to Franklin Junior High in 1928 and the six elementary grades remained at Big Springs.

By 1934, the majority of Big Springs' students had to walk on Highway 11's pavement to get to school. Residents of the district petitioned the City Council for a gravel walkway for students to use on the east side of Highway 11 from 32nd Street. The public safety department added school stop signs at the school building.

On June 6, 1938, continued growth forced the school to close. Its students were split between Kenwood and Garfield elementary schools.

The city parks department benefited from an arrangement made with the New Deal program, the National Youth Administration, beginning in December 1940. The NYA training center at Big Springs directed sewing projects at first, then added shops for building new park benches and tables and repair of damaged equipment.

For three years in the early 1940s, the U.S. Navy also used the classrooms.

Trophie L. Wetzel owned the 77 acres surrounding the school and sold it as an investment to Everett E. Reynolds in 1943 for $8,000. A portion of the Big Springs schoolyard was included in the sale, but not the part on which the school sat.

In 1946, the Cedar Rapids School Board received an offer from Reynolds for $300. Reynolds claimed to be the successor of the original Big Springs property owner. When the Big Springs district received a deed for the property in 1923, a reversion clause was included that said when the land was no longer used for public purposes, it and 'the improvements thereon” would be sold for $300 by the school to the successors of the original owner.

Reynolds repeatedly submitted his $300 check and the school board repeatedly returned it. The board declared the property was still in use for public purposes, since the Cedar Rapids district was using it for storage of school equipment.

When area residents asked that the school be reopened in August 1946, the school board considered the petition briefly, but Superintendent Clyde Parker recommended that it remain closed.

The Cedar Rapids district filed a 'quiet title” petition in District Court in January 1950 asking that the court declare the district the absolute and unqualified owner of the Big Springs school property on Center Point Road NE. Parker called it a legal technicality to straighten out the district's title to the property, which was muddied by vague property records from the past. The school district needed a clear title to dispose of the property, but it had not yet made plans to do that.

The school board's opinion on keeping Big Springs began to shift in March 1950, when authority to sell the school and its acre and a half was on the school election ballot. In 1954, at its January meeting, they debated whether to sell the property and return it to the tax rolls after it had been vacant for more than 15 years. The old school house was described as 'just a shell” with boarded windows and a deteriorating floor.

The school was sold at auction in April 1955 to Claude J. Pollock, builder and developer, for $17,100. The building came with 1.13 acres of land. Pollock began renovation of the building into an apartment house with six units.

The Pollocks invited 20 friends to an indoor picnic at the old school house in the summer of 1955. They gave it the name Claudette Manor, a feminization of Pollock's first name.

In 1956, the old school was in use again. The address of Claudette Manor was 1854 42nd St. NE.

Its first tenants included four schoolteachers. It was connected to the city water system, but water from the deep well was also available.

The building changed hands several times before it was torn down in 1977.

Four Judy's Homestyle Hamburgers & Fixin's were opened in Cedar Rapids in 1977 and 1978, one of them at 1854 42nd St. NE, but the company was forced to close when national chain Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers brought suit against them because of brand similarities.

Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers took over the stores in 1980. Owner R. David Thomas' daughter, Wendy Thomas, for whom the stores were named, came to Cedar Rapids for the opening of the restaurants.

A remodeled store still stands at 1854 42nd St. NE.