105 S Clinton Ave, 25 Eighth St

Summary

Clintonville High School
105 South Clinton Avenue/ 25 Eighth Street, Clintonville, Waupaca County
Architects: Parkinson & Dockendorff; Foeller, Schober, Berners, Safford & Jahn (1951 school); Berners, Schober & Klip (1966 connecting addition)
Dates of Construction: 1918 (original construction); 1951 (Rexford Elementary School constructed nearby); 1966 (addition connecting high school building to Rexford)

This building is the culmination of three building campaigns resulting in two schools – the 1918 Clintonville High School and the 1951 Rexford Elementary School – connected by an addition built in 1966. The building is constructed on land donated by the city’s namesake, Urial Clinton, for educating the city’s youth. Its location is the site of the first school building constructed solely for that purpose (rather than repurposed cabins or houses) and remains an integral part of Clintonville’s public education system.

The oldest portion, the original Clintonville High School built in 1918, was designed in the Collegiate Gothic style typical of other secondary and higher education buildings of the 1910s through 1930s. The 1918 high school is a three-story T-shaped building composed of an earth tone mix of face brick and Indiana (Bedford) limestone accents. It was designed with many of the features that were considered critical to successful high schools of the period, including science laboratories, extensive vocational training rooms, a gymnasium with a stage that doubled as a location for socials and events, and an assembly hall/auditorium.

The next-oldest segment of the building, on the west side of the property, is the Eben E. Rexford Elementary School. This school was built in 1951 and is one of two extant elementary schools built that year that were designed by the firm of Foeller, Schober, Berners, Safford and Jahn, architects and engineers out of Green Bay. The Rexford School is a simple, but nicely-detailed example of Mid-Century Modern school design. Overlapping planes of Lannon stone and ochre face brick are punched through with concrete-framed windows. A Mid-Century Modern, asymmetrical entrance canopy remains largely intact.

A 1966 addition connects the 1918 Clintonville High School building and the 1951 Rexford School building. The addition is simple in design, with large expanses of beige-colored brick interrupted by narrow projecting faux pilasters and vertical stripes of cream stucco extending the full two-story height of the building interrupted by windows and vents.

The evolution of the 1918 high school building, with its additions and repurposing as an elementary school, is a prime example of the way school districts continue to draw on their investment in a school building as needs change, and the role school designers played in planning for the constant change that affected their school buildings. The school is a fine example of the way schools in small cities evolved over a century of use.

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