Nearly Century-Old Structures Find A New Home

The 1929 ticket booths from the old community stadium, located between the 400 and 500 blocks of North 1st Street in Oskaloosa, were moved to their new home at the new community stadium located in the 2000 block of Stadium Drive. They now rest at the south entrance of the facility.

The fate of the structures was decided in a February board meeting, where the Oskaloosa Schools Superintendent Paula Wright said she was approached by Mahaska County Recreation Foundation last fall. They asked if the District would consider donating the entrance structures currently at the old community stadium to the new stadium.

“I am in favor of historic preservation,” said Wright of the prospect of moving the structures.

The move was considered more financially viable after the District was presented with the cost of tuck-pointing the current structures. “I didn’t think the school District spending money to tuck-point old structures made sense when somebody would historically preserve those,” said Board Member Carl Drost.

Board Member Amanda McGraw said she preferred that the structures stay at the old stadium because they are part of that stadium’s history. “We have a great stadium, but it’s owned by Penn,” added McGraw. “We have to pay to play there. We don’t have a lot of say there, so I would not support this.”

Ultimately, the board agreed with the superintendent’s recommendation to donate those structures in exchange for fencing and other works to make the old stadium secure and usable at no cost to the District.