Franklin Middle School in C.R.

HISTORY HAPPENINGS | JESSICA CLINE, ROB CLINE

Stories about front railing, ‘bucket of blood’ gym, art collection

We have been inspired by the work of Leon Lueck, a longtime educator in Marion and Cedar Rapids, who, for many years, has been recording and bringing to life the history of Franklin Middle School in Cedar Rapids.

This year, the school, at 300 20th St. NE, celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Lueck, as it happens, was Jessica’s speech coach while she attended Franklin, and his wife, Jean Oberbroeckling, was Rob’s former speech coach and a longtime, vibrant member of the McKinley Middle School community. The two kick-started and inspired our creative lives.

We interviewed Lueck over lunch at Big Grove Brewery in downtown Cedar Rapids in early January — learning a lot about Franklin in the process.

Notably, Cedar Rapids was the first community west of the Mississippi to build “intermediate” schools. What today is called Benjamin Franklin Middle School was the third of these schools to be commissioned, and it was dedicated on March 12, 1924.

Franklin became a high school from 1935 to 1957, a junior high from 1957 to 1987, and has been a middle school from 1987 to the present.

PRANKSTERS

One of Lueck’s first stories was a doozy.

When you pass the school building, you’ll notice the hand railing that splits the large concrete staircase leading to the front doors. Leon learned from a former student — the one who did the deed — that the railing was put there after a Ford coupe was driven up those steps in the 1950s.

And then a few daring students from the Class of 1955 hung undergarments from the flagpole that used to stand near B Avenue. Then they tossed the flagpole’s rope high into the adjacent spruce tree.

According to the fellow who climbed the tree to make the rope inaccessible, school officials moved the flagpole nearer the front doors to discourage any more pranks. The spruce tree still stands tall by the school’s stone marker at the corner of B Avenue and 20th Street NE.

TWO CAFETERIAS

Recent Franklin students and parents will be able to tell you that the building boasts two adjacent cafeterias.

While Jessica was always partial to the North Cafeteria, the South Cafeteria’s history particularly stood out to us. Initially, the space was meant to be a pool. However, due to the rising cost of ceramic tiles after World War I, it was never completed. Instead, the room became the girls’ gym and the wrestling practice room.

As the story goes, the students dubbed the gym the “Bucket of Blood” due to the frequency with which students playing basketball or participating in wrestling workouts would crash into the walls of the tight space.

On the first floor, you can find the lower gym — which was added to Franklin in 1935 and expanded in 1980. Across from the gym is the boys’ locker room occupying a space that originally had a dirt floor and was intended to be a rifle range though it was never completed.

ART COLLECTION

Franklin also boasts an expansive art collection, which Lueck has lovingly fostered over the years and which contains everything from paintings to sculpture to carefully chosen Neo-Classic and French and English Gothic architectural details.

To any native of Linn County, it is well-known that Grant Wood and Marvin Cone had deep connections to the area. Remarkably, some of those connections are on display on the walls of Franklin.

Paintings that can be seen include Wood’s “Indian Creek” and a few reproductions, including “Autumn Oaks.” The original used to be found in Franklin but is on loan to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Additionally, Marvin Cone’s “Iowa Hills” also can be found.

In recent years, Lueck has added works by former staff and students of the school. Among our favorites is Dale Barnhart’s “Three Water Colors” (1936), which can be found on the fourth floor. Barnhart wrote the school’s fight song, “Thunderbolt Battle Cry,” and worked as an animation artist for both Hanna-Barbera and Walt Disney.

While he was too humble to mention it to us, Lueck has contributed some of his own photos to the collection, including “Corn Detasseling” and “Root River Ride,” as well as examples of his woodworking.

Lueck has long offered tours of Franklin — including to groups of former Franklin students who gather for reunions — and would be delighted to show you around the school, too. You can email him at llueck@southslope.net.

Jessica Cline is a Leadership & Character Scholar at Wake Forest University. Her dad, Rob Cline, is not a scholar of any kind. They write this monthly column for The History Center. Comments: HistoricalClines@gmail.com