New Cleveland School one day before opening, The History Center clipping files, 1/22/1950.
Starting in 1920, Cleveland School was located in the old Chandler mansion at 1500 First Avenue NW for thirty years. Following the end of World War II, the Cedar Rapids Community School district was ready to build its first new elementary school on the west side of the city since the opening of the newly reconstructed Harrison School in 1930. The new Cleveland Elementary School opened on January 23rd, 1950 and cost $580,000. On that day, 342 students left the old school and entered the new Cleveland Elementary seven blocks to the west at 2200 First Avenue NW. The architects for the new school were Childs and Smith of Chicago. When the school initially opened in 1950, it was described as “the last word in modernity”. It is officially the first school building constructed and opened after World War II in Cedar Rapids.
Mark W. Stoffer Hunter, Research Historian, The History Center
