National Register of Historic Places

Grant Vocational High School

Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa
Listed
October 12, 2015
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
15000728

About this property

Grant Vocational High School, also known as the Board of Education and the Cedar Rapids School District Central Office, is a historic building located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1915, this is a rare example of a vocational high school in Iowa as only a handful were ever built. While it offered various student activities in athletics and the arts, its curriculum was based on the manual arts instead of humanities or college preparatory courses. A Progressive Era idea, vocational education began in Cedar Rapids in 1904. Within a year there was a call for a dedicated vocational high school. There was much debate as the local school district's regular high school was beyond capacity and there was a need for new elementary schools. Efforts to build the school began with the passage of a bond referendum in 1911. Cedar Rapids architect William J. Brown designed the three-story, brick Prairie School structure and it was built by the F.P. Gould Company of Omaha. While the school started strong, it soon failed to live up to expectations as vocational education was expensive to operate and enrollment was voluntary. Because the building is not unlike a regular high school, it was converted to that purpose in 1924. In 1936 Cedar Rapids experienced another round of school construction and Grant was converted into an office building for the school district. It served that purpose until 2008. The building now houses commercial enterprises. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

Location

346 2nd Ave., SW.
Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa
41.97414, -91.67725

Categories

EDUCATION
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

People's Savings Bank
Industrial
0.3 mi
First Avenue Bridge
Industrial
0.3 mi
Highwater Rock
Listed
0.4 mi
Cedar Rapids Milk Condensing Company
Industrial
0.5 mi
Sinclair Building-Smulekoffs Furniture Store
Industrial
0.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Grant Vocational High School listed on the National Register?

Grant Vocational High School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 12, 2015.

What type of historic resource is Grant Vocational High School?

Grant Vocational High School is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Grant Vocational High School?

The period of significance for Grant Vocational High School is recorded as the industrial era.

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