A view of the school in 1864 looking southeast from the corner of Carleton and Green Street. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO VIA THE TAMA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

TOLEDO – The site of today’s South Tama County Middle School has been home to Toledo’s schools for nearly 170 years. Since the mid-19th century, each generation of students has attended classes on the same block at Green and Carleton Streets, even as the buildings themselves have changed many times.

Toledo’s first schoolhouse was built in 1855. It was a small frame building located on the northeast corner of the block. T.N. Skinner did the carpenter work and C.D. Fanton completed the plastering. The structure also served as a church.

In 1861, the original frame school was moved to the south side of the block. A brick building was constructed in its place. Then, in 1873, another brick building was erected, this time in the center of the school block.

In 1878, a larger school was built to accommodate Toledo’s growing student body. It was a three-story brick building with a basement, designed to hold 800 students. Located at the corner of Green and Carleton Streets, its main entrance stood in a tower section. The structure had a stone foundation, a painted exterior, and a roof made of slate and tin.

This building became the town’s high school and remained in use into the early 20th century.

From the Tama County Museum files; the old Toledo High School built in 1878. A note indicates that it is a picture of the Tama County Superintendent along with Tama County teachers. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO VIA THE TAMA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

By around 1913, the third floor of the 1878 building was declared unsafe. While a new school was being constructed, students were temporarily placed in multiple sites around town. The youngest children attended classes in the original brick building. Other groups were housed in the Congregational Church basement, which stood on the present site of the Toledo Public Library, as well as in upstairs rooms of Aldrich’s store and the fire department.

In 1915, a new school was completed under contractor Charles Ennis. That building still stands as the core of today’s South Tama County Middle School.

The school continued to grow during the mid-20th century. In 1952, a north addition was built to include rooms for music, shop classes, home economics, and a gymnasium. Another addition was constructed in 1956 on the south side to provide more classrooms.

Clark Field, the school’s football field, was located directly east of the building, in the area now occupied by the basketball and tennis courts. The field was complete with bleachers for spectators. Later, another athletic field was built on the east edge of Toledo.

The final class graduated from Toledo High School in 1962. Afterward, high school students became part of the newly consolidated South Tama County district. The building transitioned to other uses but has continued serving the community’s students, now as the middle school.

The existing school building when it was constructed in 1915. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO VIA THE TAMA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

At the conclusion of this long chapter in Toledo’s educational history, students of South Tama County Middle School are poised to enter a new era–marking, for the first time, a relocation to a different school site. The transformative project repurposes the former Iowa Juvenile Home — an empty state facility since 2014 — into a modern, expansive middle school facility just a few blocks south of the century�’old building that has served generations for nearly 170 years. The approved bond referendum, passed overwhelmingly in 2022, laid the groundwork for this change, with construction projected to be completed in time for the 2025-2026 school year In many ways, this move brings Toledo’s schools full circle — from that modest 1855 frame schoolhouse to today, as students prepare to walk into a newly envisioned space that reflects both the legacy and aspirations of their community. A ribbon cutting and open house for the new school was held on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., and a full story and photos from that event will be included in next week’s News Chronicle.

This information was provided by the Tama County Historical Society.

The existing school circa 1923 looking southeast to the west side of the present building from Carleton and Green Street. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO VIA THE TAMA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY