Our move is accomplished

We are happy to report that our move from the second floor to the lower floor of the Ely Community Center has been accomplished .  We have been working on re-shelving our holdings and last week were finally able to hook up the computer, printers and scanners.  We are up and running again!  We still have some putting away to do, but we hope to be done with that soon.

USUAL HOURS are 9:30-11:00 a.m. on Tuesdays. HOWEVER, If you plan to visit to our archives room, ALWAYS CALL AHEAD!
We can also open if you call for an appointment.
(319) 848-4074 (Barb) or 848-4963 (Clary).

RESEARCH by Society members is available for a suggested donation of $10.00 per hour.

DONATIONS:  We continue to request donations relating to the history of Ely, Shueyville, Western, and surrounding rural areas. If you have historic photos, you don't need to give them up!  We can scan them and add to our digital photo collection which now numbers around 1,000 photos.

We invite you to visit and find out more about Ely's history, and the Ely Community History Society.

1929 basketball team

Information provided by Norbert Krob:
Front row: Norbert Vanorny, Lumir Kriz, Wesely Dvorak, George Lorence, Louis Stanek
Back row: Not sure, Andrew Clark, John Phillips, coach Walter Wagner

We're moving

Due to the City of Ely needing additional office space, the Ely Community History Archives will be moving from the small room on the second floor of the Ely Community Center to a larger room on the ground floor. The move is expected to be complete sometime in early April, 2018.

While it will be quite an undertaking to move all the files contained in our history collection, an advantage is that we will be more visible and available to the public on the ground floor.

We are looking forward to getting things out of the boxes and back on shelves in our new home!

Prairie Ridge School

We found and scanned the below article from a 1955-56 local newspaper.  It shows the 4-H boys examining the old school bell that was once in Prairie Ridge School bell tower.

With the help of some local men that were in the 4-H group we were able to identify some of the boys. From the left:  Marvin Trachta-short boy, Ray Pisarik above Marvin’s head, Richard Buresh or Bob Zahradnik in print shirt far left, Gerald Zahradnik-head above boy by bell,  Kenneth Bonnty in front touching the bell, George Hasley next to his brother Andy Hasley, Lynn Glass (possibly), Unknowns, two heads partially hidden, Truman Wilken (or possibly George Chadima) with back to camera.

Click the article to enlarge it.

Recently, someone posted a small version of the below 1910 photo on Facebook showing the old Prairie Ridge School that used to sit north of Wright Brothers Blvd. on Spanish Road.  Click on all photos to enlarge them.

From the Vavra Family Collection, Ely Community History Center Archives

A comment below the photo read ....

My grandparents owned the land it was on and once the school was no longer used it was moved to my parents (Edwin and Martha Buresh) farm just 1/4 mile farther north and was used as our garage and my father's shop for many, many years! We still have the building.  Unfortunately the building is not in good shape any longer.   My father, and aunts, and an uncle attended school there, and my brother built his first home on the original site.

Here is a closer look at the children in the above photo:

From the Vavra Family Collection, Ely Community History Center Archives

And another photo:

From the Vavra Family Collection, Ely Community History Center Archives

This is a photo of one of the Prairie Ridge teachers, Edna Smith, also from the Vavra Family Collection.

The below map of section 24, College Township, Linn County, Iowa shows the original location of Prairie Ridge School (left center) on V. Buresh property. Wright Brothers Blvd would be at the bottom of the image now, and the left side of the image would be Spanish Road.  (Image from: The Kenyon Company, 1930, Plat Book of Linn County, Iowa).  Click the image to enlarge it.

This is what the school house looked like a few years ago, from Glenn Chatfield's blog, Iowa One Room Schools.

Also check out more photos taken in 2016 of the old school from 42N Observations,
https://42n.blogspot.com/2016/07/now-and-then-prairie-ridge-school-near.html

Christmas in 1896

Merry Christmas 

from the Ely Community History Society!

Here's what was happening in Ely in 1896!