PHOTO OF THE DAY: DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME

This photo is featured in the weekly Monday morning Facebook post shared by Heritage Hall Museum & Archives offering a look back to an earlier time in the Freeman community. The narrative the follows gives it context:

The accompanying photo is familiar. We know it as the Freeman Community Center.

But for most of its life – 1957 to 2009 – it was home to Freeman School District 33-1 and the Freeman Flyers.

The Freeman Public School Gym was home to basketball games, wrestling matches, and music, theater and Christmas programs. It was home to community events – public programs, the annual fireman’s dance, wedding dances and the Freeman Winter Fair. It was the venue when Vice President George H.W. Bush brought his 1988 presidential campaign to Freeman.

When it was built in 1957, it was a game-changer – literally. Until that point, the public school gym was located on the subterranean floor in the center of the three-level building Freeman Public School, located immediately south on east side of Wipf Street between Second and Fourth streets.

The construction of the new jr.-sr. high school on the southern edge of town, which opened in September 1976, eased the serious overcrowding of classrooms at Freeman Public. But it took another 16 years before a new gym was added to the jr.-sr. high school.

And thus, in 1992, this building became the Freeman Elementary School Gym.

The elementary school continued to operate in the 1925 building on Wipf Street until 2009 when a new elementary school was built adjacent to the jr.-sr. high school. With that, the school gifted the “old gym” to the city of Freeman.

There were challenges; the gym had been connected to the heating system of the classroom building which was demolished and there were other significant infrastructure improvements that required funding. Thanks to a successful public fundraising effort, the project moved forward and the community center opened in early 2012.

It continues as a venue for community events.

This photo and information come from our archives. We invite you to visit; we’re open weekday afternoons from noon to 4 through April.