Big Creek Schoolhouse

Built in 1863

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

1. Big Creek Schoolhouse Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by William C. Page & Joanne R. Page, 8/30/2003:
The Big Creek Schoolhouse is locally significant as the most tangible expression of Polk City's aspirations to become a major metropolis in central Iowa during the mid-19th century. Although the railroads bypassed the community (then known as Big Creek) and scotched these hopes, as the largest building in the community, the Big Creek Schoolhouse became the center for public education, social events, entertainment, and worship.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

2. Big Creek Schoolhouse Marker

The marker is mounted at eye level on the left side of the entrance.

The 2-story, frame, main block was built in 1863 as a Schoolhouse. The main block's footprint measures 31’ x 58’. It rests on stone footings, is constructed of heavy, hewn timber frame, clad with narrow, clapboard siding (now covered with vinyl siding), and is covered with a facade gable roof. A cupola, which serves as a belfry, surmounts the east end of the roof. The building originally provided a facility for school children in Big Creek so they no longer had to walk to a log Schoolhouse north of town. On Sundays, the building provided a location for Sunday worship services, conducted by Rev. D. C. Marts, a Baptist minister.
Interlocking, heavy, hewn timber provides the structural framework of the main block. The framing is constructed like that of a barn. A series of five bents linked together with beams forms the building's skeletal structure. First growth black walnut provided the heavy timber for the Big Creek Schoolhouse. Builders harvested this wood from land around the Corydon Bridge, an area that today serves as the Sandpiper Beach at Saylorville Lake, a public recreational spot located a few miles south of Polk City.
In 1894,

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

3. Big Creek Schoolhouse (southeast/front elevation)

the building became Polk City's town hall, and the construction of a two-story, rear addition in 1915, including an auditorium stage, redoubled the building's utility as a community center. Thus, the Big Creek Schoolhouse evolved as a meeting place for village life instead of a magnet for settlement, and in so doing became a potent symbol of the community's common heritage and enterprise.
The Big Creek Schoolhouse is significant as the finest surviving work of master builder John Adam Schaal. The edifice shows how Schaal used his considerable skills to adapt heavy timber framing for the construction of a Schoolhouse.

Excerpt:  The Big Creek Schoolhouse was built in 1863 when the community was known as Big Creek. It is the work of master builder John Adam Schall, who was able to adapt heavy timber framing for the construction of the two-story Greek Revival structure. It served as a schoolhouse and community center from the time it was built until 1893. It became Polk City's city hall the following year, and continued to serve as a community center.
Unused portions of

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

4. Big Creek Schoolhouse (south elevation)

Today this building houses the Big Creek Historical Museum.

the first floor and the whole second floor of the building was leased to the Big Creek Historical Society, which converted the space into a museum. Restoration took place from 2005 to 2009. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.