As old Marengo High, now Grant School, turns 100, district aims to celebrate its history

It’s been 20 years since the last class of seniors graduated from the old Marengo High School.

During homecoming events, anyone who attended the school is invited to come back for its upcoming 100th birthday celebration.

The old high school building now houses fourth and fifth grades in Ulysses S. Grant Intermediate School and fifth and sixth grades in Marengo Community Middle School. The elementary district took over the building to serve its students when Marengo Community High School District 154 opened its new school on Aug. 27, 2004.

There have been changes to the school over the years, , Marengo-Union Elementary School District 165 Superintendent Lea Damisch said.

The original high school building opened in 1924, and additions came in 1952, 1954, 1962, 1978 and 1995. Despite all the growth, parts of the original building are still there, she said. “On the 1924 side, we have restored as much as possible to the original.”

That does not mean the building is outdated. The lighting systems have been upgraded to LEDs, the windows are historically correct but also energy efficient, and asbestos has been abated in areas it needed to be, Damisch said.

“It has been a labor of love over the past 20 years” to keep the original building features, she said.

One feature she never wants to see go are the interior doors. While exterior doors had to be updated for security, “the interior doors are the original wood. We are not getting rid of that,” Damisch said.

She’s hoping some of the graduates who come back may have had a hand in some of the murals – painted in the 1960s to the 1980s – that still adorn the school. Those murals still depict the school mascot, the Indians, and the Native American history of Marengo, she said. “We have not painted over it.”

Marengo’s history may play into why, for some, protecting the original high school is vital. The former Washington School was closed in the 1980s and later torn down. Washington School was designed by architect Louis Sullivan in 1883.

“My mom taught at Washington School,” Damisch said, noting she graduated from Marengo schools herself.

She doesn’t know if they will have five former students or 500, who come back for homecoming, Damisch said, but her staff will be at the school to be “ambassadors for the visitors,” she said.

The open house is set to run noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at Grant School, 816 E. Grant Hwy.