Stuart School
The school was built in 1913 at the intersection of Ward and Wilson streets on Ottumwa ’ s south side . Overcrowding was an issue at the school as it also housed junior high students , prompting Evans Middle School to be constructed in the early 1950s . The school ceased operations in 1974 , but the building is now an apartment complex .
“ People in my morning kindergarten went K-12 together , and we went all the way through and have remained friends as long as we ’ ve lived . That ’ s hard to do .”
-Molly Myers Naumann
Recess is in session at Stuart School in 1952 . The school served as both an elementary and junior high school , but overcrowding led to the construction of Evans Middle School . Stuart closed in 1974 , and the building was later converted into apartments . / The Lemberger Collection
Walsh High School
The Walsh High School most people know started out as an all-boys school in 1953 on Chester Avenue , but a fire to the Ottumwa Heights College campus four years later left Catholic girls without a school at St . Joseph Academy , which was on the campus . A co-ed Catholic high school was completed on McCarroll Drive in 1962 , but closed as a high school in 1970 . It shed its private school label when it became a junior high in the Ottumwa Community School District , and later the administrative offices for the district . The building was torn down in 2016 .
The first year for the new Walsh High School in 1962 , which brought together Catholic girls and boys under the same roof for the first time . The high school closed in 1970 , and was later a junior high school for the Ottumwa Community School District . / The Lemberger Collection
12 We Are Ottumwa