97.524.2

The ruins of the Bloomington School, taken by Farwell Brown shortly after the upper roof had collapsed in 1986. Located about a mile west of Dayton Road in Ames on the Olson Farm near the present-day [2008] site of the National Animal Disease Center, the one-room schoolhouse could have been maintained as an historic site, but, obviously, was not. Shortly after this picture was taken, the structure was demolished. Parts of this structure were used to restore the old Hoggatt School, an Ames one-room schoolhouse which now occupies part of the campus of Meeker Elementary School. The wainscotting, for example, were used in the Hoggatt restoration, which was the first big project of the Ames Heritage Association [since 2004, the Ames Historical Society]. When the village of Bloomington was still in existence, its one-room school was located northeast of the town of Ames. Bloomington School was in operation through 1945. [other views of Bloomington school taken in 1986 by Farwell Brown: 97.524.1 and 97.524.3]