Showing posts with label Smith School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smith School. Show all posts

Monday, October 24, 2016

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Smith's Villa and School, 1874 to 2011

Named for Dr. William Remsen Smith the original villa and school has stood on the same grounds in Sioux City since 1874. Changes over the last 137 years has brought it to what it looks like today. That again will change soon because of the new school, built next door and almost complete. The old Smith School building will be torn down sometime in June of 2011 and the ground leveled to make space for a new parking lot.

This blog post may serve as an obituary and a last testament to an important historical part of sioux City, Iowa.

Timeline with Photos:
1874 -











1885 -




1886 to Early 1890's -
































Late 1890's -








1910's -











1925 -











1934 -






May of 2008 -






March of 2010 -
Work "on schedule" for Sioux City's newest school

May of 2011:

Students give Smith Elementary a goodbye hug
































Links:
Smith School on Facebook

Biographical Sketch of Dr. William Remsen Smith -


Sunday, October 19, 2008

Sioux City History and Culture by Bicycle Part 64: Historical Sites that no Longer Exist 1, (Repost)

When I originally posted this I stated the St. Monica Hospital no longer exists. That was incorrect. incorrect because the info. I have on the address is incorrect. The National Register of Historic Places web site says the hospital is at 4500 Hamilton Blvd, instead it is at 4300 Hamilton Blvd. The building today is still in use as the Mercy Hospital Hospice facility. Prior to that it was a cardio vascular doctor's office facility.

The repost of this part 64 now only includes the Leeds Junior High School which was replaced with a new building on the same site. Here is that info.;
Leeds Junior High School (added 2002 - Building - #02001228)
3919 Jefferson St., Sioux City
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architectural Style: Art Deco
Area of Significance: Architecture, Education
Period of Significance: 1925-1949, 1950-1974
Owner: Local Gov't
Historic Function: Education
Historic Sub-function: School
Current Function: Education
Current Sub-function: School

This was done very recently. I think the new school opened just this year. There is another school called Smith Elementary that has a beautiful castle design on the outside. The school district wants to tear it down in favor of a new building. The people in the neighborhood & parents of the students are saying no, do not tear it down & replace it. Instead remove the outside of the building, demolish the inside, build the new building with the old castle design from the stone used on the old building. This way the the outside of the old building is preserved. While SMith is not on the National Register of Historic Places list it is an old historical building that needs to be preserved, at least the outside of it.

I think it is very sad when an historic site is removed in the name of or the face of progress. Since I have started this I have been remembering the old commercials about old historic buildings being torn down & what needs to be done to preserve them. In one of the commercial you hear a couple talking about where they got married & that now the old church is a gas station. I think in another it talks about an old school that is a golf course or shopping mall. More needs to be done to preserve these beautiful old historic sites or one day none of them will exist at all.

I have deleted the original post on this.

I will post about the St. Monica Hospital in the next blog post about historic sites in Sioux City.