Abandoned Education - Orange School - Waterloo, Iowa

It's a great day at Orange School. Whipped cream is extra.

Don't worry if that line makes no sense to you. 

It's not supposed to. 

Just after the 2015 school year began, Laura and I were on our way from Denver to Minneapolis, with a detour through Waterloo, Iowa. We stayed overnight here, visiting my sister, before proceeding on to our respective parent's houses, in Minnesota.

After we checked in to the hotel, we met up with my sister for dinner. Afterwards, Laura went back to the hotel, and I went with her on a drive around Waterloo. Specifically looking for abandoned buildings, or other points of interest to my camera. You never know when you'll need material for whatever story pops in your head to write about.

Such as these doomed castle themed apartments. From the outside, they looked awesome, but I guess they were pretty run down on the inside. She said they were talking about tearing them down after the land was sold. These needed to be fixed up, not destroyed.

They did last nearly 4 more years after my picture. While researching this story, I took a virtual drive around Waterloo. Based on the pictures I took in September 2015, updated to whatever the last time the Googlesmobile was. When I found the block where these castlepartments once stood, there was only a grassy vacant lot now.

Luckily, I can dial back time, several clicks on the Googles Street View...

What an amazing coincidence!

The Googlesmobile drove by the castlepartments, at the exact time they were being demolished, in August, 2019.

Thank you for that!

Just up the street is a Hardee's. It's still open and decidedly, not demolished.

(Hardee's in Anoka, MN, was demolished just over a year ago. Three units of in-line retail are being built on the land right now. One of the spots is going to Dunkin Donuts. Complete with a coffee drive thru. Because that's what those narrow streets with no turning lanes needs the most... A high traffic drive thru.)

And here's a wild twist on former fast food building. It's a liquor store today, but it used to be part of a very famous fast food chain... I'm not going to tell, you what it used to be. But if you can't figure it out, I could be persuaded to drop a clue or two...

The former Waterloo Hostess Bakery was too large to fit into one picture from the car. The Home of Wonder Bread closed in November, 2012. The city of Waterloo bought the property two years later. Part of the building was converted into a brewery in 2016. I Wonder if said brewery has mastered a Twinkie beer, in honor of it's new home? After all, beer is liquid bread (it's good for you)! 

Wonder Beer?

Further up the road is the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum. Stories of some  are how I know of it. Podcasts from Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, Bruce Prichard and others have all shared stories of this museum, and of the professional wrestlers honored inside. A lot of it centered around the induction weekends when members would come to town. So that's where I know it from. 

They've also shared some stories from parties held at Flirts Gentleman's Club, next door!

Even if they're highly edited for low light, getting pictures of both buildings made me very happy!

Abandoned Drive-In Restaurant?

My patented just-above-minimum research revealed this Perkins closed in 2020. It's empty available, with an excellent assortment of exterior and interior pictures, on the Loop.net page. Built in 1978, it has a similar look to the Coon Rapids, MN, Perkins I used to work at, when I was 16. (Which was built in 1977.) There had been several renovations to the building over the years. There would be another set of minor changes to the exterior, between this and when Perkins shut down, according to the photos on Loop.net. 

The Waterloo Kmart closed in April 2017. My Googles drive by showed the building was still empty as of 2022. Definitely looks like an early-to-mid 70's style Kmart building, with the enormous IUD-shaped parking lot lights, being a dead giveaway. It's smaller than the Kmart in Rochester, MN, (that I wrote about last month), but had the same re-branding to Big Kmart. Likely in the late 1990's. 

Too bad I cut off the sign, or the composition would have ruled. That and better light.

This shot of Kmart was taken on the way to one of the main objectives of this whirlwind photo tour... 

Waterloo Greyhound Park. 

Opened in 1986, closed in 1996. Decaying away until July 2018, when it was finally demolished.

Given the low levels of light and the distance away from the grandstand, this was the best photo I could get. Which is fine, I'm glad to have just seen it. The Waterloo Greyhound Park has received a fair amount of coverage on traditional Urban Explorer sites and YouTube videos, due to it's novelty.

By all means, do check out some of that. 

The Waterloo Greyhound Park is a very interesting property. It's coverage both in life and death, in a good tribute.

While I don't think it's the same thing, I hope this contributes on some level to lasting coverage of...

Orange (Public) School

An excerpt from the auction flyer taped inside the front door:

Adding a few more notable dates this flyer failed to mention; Orange School closed in 2013. Not counting the few couple I took in near darkness, I took these photos on September 14, 2015. The building was demolished in March, 2017.

And I demand to know why that flyer did not list those two dates.

Blurry darkness cant hide how cool this place looked.

But the shinier and newer, replacement Orange School was built a block away from the old Orange. Now obsolete, the city was already talking about quickly tearing it down, instead of trying to find a new use for the buildings. My sister talked up Orange School as something I needed to see, while we ate dinner. She was right! I knew immediately after seeing the school, that Laura and I were absolutely stopping by here after we checked out of the hotel.

Orange School was demolished in March, 2017. 

Demolition photo politely borrowed from Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier's story that you can't read without subscribing. And I'm not doing that. So I'm only going to link to their home page. 

That'll teach them!

My sister was right. Orange School was gone the next time Laura and I visited Waterloo, in October 2017. That was the trip where we stopped in Coon Rapids, Iowa, on our way to Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

******

That night, my cheap digital camera fell off the bathroom counter and onto the tiled floor.  Unfortunately damaging the main dial/buttons on top. After some tinkering, I got the camera to work, but the zoom and several other features were disabled.

Running some more camera tests by snapping a few pictures of the Lost Island Water park,  visible across the parking lot, from our 7th floor hotel room window. Losing the zoom feature was a no-go for me. We're on our way to 9 more days in Minnesota, I'm going to need a camera with a zoom feature for the pictures I'd planned on taking. But I don't need anything fancy. A simple $100 digital camera is good enough for what I'm doing, so we'll stop at the WalMarts and see what my options are this morning.

Found one met my standards, on clearance for $88.

Good enough!

I'm still using that camera today, albeit very infrequently. The camera on my phone is so much better and always on me, that I don't need to bring the old one out. But I really needed this camera, from this morning, up until I bought that phone in April 2018. Yes, I did use that camera to take a picture of it's box.

Excellent opportunity to test out the new camera, lies just across the street from WalMarts. The closed-up Carlos O’Kelly’s Mexican Restaurant was being prepped for demolition. It caught my eye as we were leaving Walmart, so I pulled the car into the adjacent stripmall parking lot and walked around the building. Shooting it from all sides, while testing out the features. Which were far greater than the options on the even barer bones basic digital camera with training wheels that I had been using, since 2008.

Shortly after Carlos O’Kelly’s was torn down, a Chick Fil A was built here.

That's not a clue.

Across San Marnen Drive, there were a few more photo targets I wanted to make, since we were in the area. VidCycle sold new and used video games, used DVD's, comic books and pop culture type stuff. I usually tried to stop by when in town, and usually found something cool to buy. 

Vid Cycle is now Electric Underground. They still have that cool looking TV shaped LED board attached to the building, but the Pac Man themed window paint is gone. So is the classic Helvetica fonted sign. The new Electric Underground logo is shinier and flashier and lamer in my opinion. Electric Underground still sells new and used video games, used DVD's, comic books and pop culture type stuff... and VAPES!!! 

Because of course it does...

But in September 2015, next door to Vid Cycle, was a recently closed Godfathers Pizza. 

Wow, abandoned buildings of Waterloo are practically throwing themselves at me! Sign in front indicated the building is for lease, but has a pending tenant. One pane of door glass is broken out, but the menu board and fountain drink machines inside were still intact. Despite the lack of tables and chairs inside, they almost looked open for business.

According to the Googles, this former Godfathers Pizza was soon demolished and replaced with a credit union. 

The last thing I wanted a picture of was Stuff. I'm a huge fan of overly vague names for retail establishments, and if I ever owned one (which I wont), it would simply be called: Store. So I was kind of excited to see what a store called Stuff was about. 

And... That's a let down. 

They're not even trying to be ironic with it... Nevermind.

Laura and I drove through nearby country roads, just south of here, but really not that far. All laid out in neat 90 degree angles, through fields of corn, before hitting the intersection of Orange and Kimball. Home of the closed up Orange School, where my sister had taken me the night before. 

Now in full brilliant sun, I could walk around the building and shoot it from all sides. Though I was really hoping for a nice cloudy day to serve as a backdrop for these pictures. Clouds are always better than sun.

Googles Satellite view of the former Orange School campus.

The original 1915 Orange School building is the rectangle with the dark grey and white roof. Newer additions to the original Orange School, were made between 1952 and 1955. Orange School was named after the previous school district operating out of Orange Township, this district was combined with Waterloo, in the early 1970's.

Googles Street View drive by, 2012, when Orange School was still open.

Turning right off Kimball Avenue, onto School Drive, onto School Property, to park the car. I'd hoped to not draw too much attention to myself, since the school is in the middle of a residential area. I've already been seen by a bunch of people. Let's hope they all have better things to do, than caring about what I'm doing.

We parked on the side lot, back amongst some trees, away from the road. I parked where the car would be shade covered, since Laura had no interest in walking around an abandoned school building, with me. She hung back and played on her phone as I was off writing this story in my head.

The way these windows and doors are boarded up, looks more like an industrial building than a school. Only knowing what I found online about Orange School, and based on the satellite view, I'm assuming the south side of the school was used as a gymnasium. You can see the higher roof line, just beyond the boarded up industrial building windows.

Next to that is a set of completely uncovered doors and windows. 

Kind of crappy to put the handicapped parking spot on such a steeply angled hill.

How well is this supposed to work with wheelchairs?

Those double doors sure look to be open to something auditoriumy. 

Painted pawprints line the halls, to both the upper and lower levels.

We do chicken right!

Curved driveway leading up to the main entrance of Orange School.

Roughly in the same spot my sister parked last night when she showed me the school.

Only it was far too dark for photos. 

Newer doors and stairwell, added on to the south side of the 1915 school building.

Looking inside those doors.

That animal who only walks on vertical surfaces must have went into the stairwell behind the blue doors, on the other side of the hallway.

Very few of the windows were covered, although many had the blinds pulled. Meaning I could take pictures of well lit rooms all around the building. Looking into the first lower level classroom of the 1915 building. This would have been the southernmost corner room. The sun coming in the windows facing the door area from the last couple pictures.

As much of the 1915 building as I could into frame with going further down the hill.

Which would have further distorted it by perspective.

So we'll just walk back up to the front doors and see what's going on there.

Sign in the front window for an equipment auction, that was held about five months earlier.

The graphic designer for this poster was clearly inspired by the ultra cramped layouts of post-2010 Wasted Quarter. Looks a whole lot like a page out of Abandoned Englewood. 

Looking at the stairs down to the lower level.

There was a light on the lower hallway, when we were here last night.

Up to another set of doors, leading into the main level. Those are really odd looking stairs, deeper and shorter. Probably fine for smaller children, but I think they would make me trip, if I walked up them without looking at my feet.

Looking into a light blue room.

The angled newer addition on the north side of the building. Additional classrooms built in the 1950's, to handle the area's growing population. 

The staircase inside the 1915 building, as viewed through the closed doors of the new addition. Hallway lights are turned on for both levels. It didn't appear that any sort of pre-demo work was being done at the school, which had been closed for just over 2 years, when I took these pictures. 

Missing floor tiles and broken glass shards. 

Finger Licking Good.

Kids of Character

From 1972-2013, Orange School was only used as an elementary school. This room (on the angle new addition) appeared to be a Kindergarten classroom. But I could be wrong about that.

This photo didn't work out. Just not in focus at all. Still, you get the idea how the newer classrooms branched out from the 1915 building. Those missing floor tiles and broken glass shards were behind the doors in the center of the picture.

Demolition photo politely borrowed from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier, showing that door with the walls disappearing around it. I wondering if they cleaned up the broken glass before tearing the building down. What if one of the destruction workers cut their foot on it? 

I didn't go up to most of these classrooms windows on my walk. Some of them had the blinds pulled, and I decided to stick to the path here. If I had more time, I would have probably taken a lot more pictures. But Laura was waiting for me in the car, on the other side of the building. We also had a bunch of stuff planned before getting on the highway up to Minneapolis. So I was in a slight hurry.

But this place was so cool!

The second to last classroom, before the newer north wing ends. Very dirty windows and one of those ridiculously heavy tube TV's still mounted to the wall, above an intact chalkboard.

The large classroom next to it was home to a large pack of big ass heavy old TVs. Apparently they did not go in the auction, because absolutely no one wants a TV like this anymore. Hopefully before Orange School was demolished, someone took the TV off the wall in other room and reunited it with his brothers and sisters, in this room.

Doors leading into the north wing of Orange School, classrooms on both sides, leading down to the 1915 building.

Now here is a huge personal dilemma... 

This door is unlocked and not even latched closed. It opened right up when I checked. I could easily walk right in and explore all over the inside of Orange School all that I wanted...

But Laura is waiting for me at the car, and Orange School's neighbors have already watched me walking around outside the building for 20 minutes, so I may already be being stared at...

Damat... I'm on a schedule! And I do not need the hassle of getting arrested for trespassing here and now. Or stabbed by homeless meth heads, camping out in the 4th grade. I really wanted to go inside, but I'm 40 years old and that kind of risk is just stupid right now.

So I'll just continue on my way around the school.

OUTSIDE the school...

There is just something cool about weeds poking through the cracks in neglected pavement. Especially when it highlights a grid layout like this pavement.

The back side of the 1915 building, with new additions branching off to the north and south. An old school fire escape goes out from the third floor and down to the squared off weedy cement.

Another demolition photo politely borrowed from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier. This time showing the south addition being ripped away from the 1915 building. Surprised that fire escape was still attached to the building. However all of the Orange School windows have been yanked out. Probably all sorts of asbestosey...

I'd assume this lot between the school buildings was previously a playground area for the Orange students, with the basketball court directly behind where i was standing. A white covered entrance has been built over the lower level exit door. Likely to keep rain and snow from collecting the base of the stairs, outside the door.

Hey Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier, mind if I use this picture to illustrate my covered door theory? 

All of those cinderblocks represent the broken apart north addition.

Continuing along the southern wing, where it attached to 1915 Orange. You can see a piece of the reflection of the fire escape on the wall. With the addition of ceiling fans in many of the rooms, and the occasional window mounted AC unit scattered around the building, I'm thinking this school would be miserably hot to sit inside.

The other half of that classroom.

Opposite end of the hallway at the stairway by the auditorium.

And it looks like an original Orange School basement window has been bricked over at some point.

Another classroom?

And another one...

Stop!

Give me 10 words that rhyme with Orange.

Hallways just inside that last doorway. The exit sign at the far end is still lit up red.

And the opposite end of that last hallway, leading outside to the portable toilets. 

Leftover from the auction?

Did they shut off the water but leave the electricity running?

The picture I took from the opposite end, through the door glass didn't turn out. Too dark and looked a whole lot less interesting from this side.

Now I've almost completed my walk around the Orange, I'm back at those oddly covered windows, that don't match up with any other area of the school.

This is where the elementary school kids would fix your car.

Hey! I remember those doors! And that very dangerous handicapped parking space... I'm pretty sure there is a gymnasium to the left of those uncovered doors and windows. I could look inside those to try and figure out, but I just don't feel like it.

Actually, I'm back in front of where our car was parked. I told Laura about the open door and my internal conflict, on the other side of the building. She agreed that we didn't have time for me to play Urban Explorer today. We needed to get going...

One final shot out the drivers side window, and back up into town.

******

We were scheduled to meet up with my ex-brother-in-law, who was going to guide the next leg of our ongoing Abandoned Waterloo Tour. Up next was a drive out to the Cedar Riverfront area, site of the former Rath Meat Packing plant. He told me that Rath closed the plant for good in 1985, with the buildings sitting vacant ever since. 

The former Administration building for the Rath Meat Packing plant. It's mostly boarded up, but (as of September 2015) there were many access points, where you could go inside with very little trouble. He said that the Rath buildings still fill up with homeless people. Every few years the police go through them to clear it all out. They usually pulling out 5 or 6 dead bodies, each time, he added.

The much larger production facilities are across the street, behind where I was standing to take this picture. While some of the smaller buildings have been torn down since Rath closed, nearly 40 years ago, the two largest buildings are still standing today. Debate is ongoing about what to do with the site. Clean up and renovation of the area is often talked about. With conversion to residential space always on the table. So far, no one's put the money up for anything to happen.

Of course, there is also talk of full site demolition being a viable option.

We walked around the Rath Administration building for about an hour, while I took a big bunch of pictures that I'm not going to show here. Those can be another post. In another year.

More important was getting some food on our way out of town.

So the three of us stopped in at the Wishbone restaurant, for lunch.

This bar/restaurant was well known in Waterloo, and the food was fantastic. (Except the fried chicken gizzards. Our tour guide loved them, and I tried one on a dare. All I can say is no... Not doing that again...) My bacon cheeseburger was great and the fries were top notch. Excellent food in a very unassuming house looking building.

While researching this story, I found out that the Wishbone had closed in March of 2020, and never re-opened. The bar/restaurant was burglarized after closing for the night. According to security cameras inside, the thieves broke into the coin operated machines, stole cartons of cigarettes then tried to steal the safe out of the basement, but were unsuccessful. One of them then tried to set the building on fire to destroy the evidence. That fire damaged the restaurant severely enough, the owners finally announced it wouldn’t reopen, in July 2021.

The two geniuses that committed these crimes were arrested shortly after. 

They stole the equivalent of pocket change, didn't get away with it, but destroyed a local institution in the process. I couldn't find anything about their sentence for committing these crimes, but it definitely wasn't enough.

After eating, we said our goodbyes, got on the freeway and headed north to Minneapolis. 

Just outside Waterloo, we stopped in Waverly at a Gas Station that wasn't a gas station.

I've already told that story, several years ago. So go read that here.

However, I found out via the Googles, that former gas station has been converted into a mini-storage place. Gas-N-Go is now known as Storage Fix.

Imagine this, their color theme is white buildings with Orange garage doors! So you'll never be confused that the storage place you're at, is actually a storage place! Similar to the Orange garage doors on the white buildings of a U-Haul storage place... Or similar to the Orange garage doors  on the white buildings of a Public Storage... 

Not at all similar to Orange School...

Because that just isn't there anymore.

Kentucky Fried Chicken!