Miss Hattie opened the first schoolhouse in La Porte City in the mid 1800s. It was made of logs located on "school house square" (1st Street and Commercial). Dr. Wasson donated the property for school purposes only. At the same location, a second frame building was erected in 1863-64, and near this school the first brick school building was built in 1871-72.

By 1894, on "school house square," was the first High School, built in brick and masonry. Junior High students and faculty occupied the school from 1954 to 1975. The building was disassembled in the late seventies. The drawing is how it looked in 1919.

"Making The Grade" is a sketch of students in the school from Mr. Kinne's art class, 1970-71. This was inside looking towards the north from atop the stairs.

Scott Voelschow has donated the drawings and accompanying text to the CedarNet Historical Tour of Black Hawk County Tour in 1998.