IRVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
This school was destroyed by fire On March 11, 1892. An alarm of fire had been turned in at Eighth and Bluff STREETS. The team of horses from the Fourth street engine house was attached to the uptown engine and the machine was drawn up the long, steep hill. When the engine arrived difficulty was encountered in securing a supply of water. There was no plug in the neighborhood and the firemen were forced to drain the cisterns of nearby residents. After the water supply had been exhausted, it was discovered that the large cistern on the school grounds was almost full. The hose was attached to the supply fountain and shortly after the blaze was extinguished. The building, however, was a total loss.
The school had been designed by Architect George Thompson, of New York, whose father, John THOMPSON, also of New York, was at that time a member of the board of education. The overcrowded school had caused the board of education to rent additional space in a building in the vicinity. At the time of the fire, it had been planned to build an addition as large as the building destroyed. The building and its contents had been insured by the DUBUQUE FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY and three other companies for a total of $8,750.
In 1953 the proposition of selling old Irving School was approved by Dubuque voters by a vote of 433 to 46. On July 1, 1953, the school site was sold to Westminster Presbyterian Church for $46,052.
The $600,000 building on Pennsylvania Avenue, boasting a one thousand dollar intercommunication system linking the office to every schoolroom, was dedicated on October 28, 1953. When opened in September 1953, Irving became the first elementary school built in the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT since 1939.
