Clermont Public School, also known as Larrabee School, is a historic building located in

Clermont, Iowa Clermont is a city in Fayette County, Iowa, United States. The population was 586 at the 2020 census. Clermont is home to Montauk, the mansion of former Iowa governor William Larrabee, along with much historic architecture. Geography Clermont ...

, United States. The school was named for its patron, William Larrabee, who was the twelfth

Governor of Iowa A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

. Larrabee himself had been a teacher in

Allamakee County, Iowa Allamakee County () is the northeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,061. Its county seat is Waukon. History Allamakee County was formed on February 20, 1847. The derivation of the name i ...

. During his time in the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the Iowa, state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . Each Senat ...

and as governor he championed education reform. He used as one of his campaign slogans: "A schoolhouse on every hill and no saloons in the valley." with Larrabee and his wife Anna studied school buildings for a number of years, and were involved in planning this building. They hired

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...

architect Charles A. Dieman to design the structure. R. A. Wallace, a contractor from Cedar Rapids, was responsible for its construction. The building was over-engineered as Larrabee insisted that the strength of everything be doubled. The bricks were produced, and the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

was quarried, locally. It is a two-story Neoclassical building that features a classical portico, brick

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s with Doric capitals, and two arched

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

s on the

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...

. Larrabee died while the building was under construction, and his wife,

Anna Matilda Larrabee Anna Matilda Larrabee (, Appelman; August 13, 1842 – December 30, 1931) was an American social leader. Married to Iowa List of governors of Iowa, Governor William Larrabee (Iowa politician), William Larrabee, she served as the First lady, First ...

, took over supervising its construction. From 1913 to 1924, it housed all grades until a high school was built. It remained as an elementary school until 1990 when the city of Clermont acquired the building for use as a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

and

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1995.

References

School buildings completed in 1913 Defunct schools in Iowa Neoclassical architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Fayette County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County, Iowa School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa 1913 establishments in Iowa {{Iowa-school-stub