The former Sharon High School in Johnson County was added to Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered Property list earlier this year, becoming the first two-story schoolhouse to earn the designation.

After watching the 121-year-old building fall into disrepair, members of the Johnson County community banded together to fight for the current Fellowship Lodge No. 549 and former school located at 2765 500th St. SW in Iowa City. Stephanie Leonard, a member of the Friends of the Historic Sharon Community Center, said the informal group banded together a few years ago to protect an integral piece of their community.

The purpose of the endangered properties list is to ensure that the public knows about historical properties across the state so that they can be physically maintained.

Leonard said the group submitted a write-up to Preservation Iowa with the hopes that earning the designation would allow the building to become more well-known.

“Preservation Iowa is a good way to get information out about [former Sharon High School],” she said. “We’re hoping to draw more attention to the building and invite more people to come see it. As one of the few rural high schools in the early 1900s, this location is different because the parents in this area wanted a local high school instead of sending their kids to Iowa City.”

Leonard said the group appreciates being selected and hopes the designation will help bring the attention to the building because the community needs financial technological help to sufficiently sustain the property.

Preservation Iowa Most Endangered Property Program Chair Leigh Ann Randak said this designation is reserved for historically valuable and properties threatened by development or deterioration. She said this building was a unique schoolhouse and will be the sixth Johnson County property to be placed on the list and it is also the fourth rural school to be designated.

“It’s significant as a rural, educational structure,” she said. “The building really represents rural secondary education and an attempt to keep education in rural communities in Iowa. The building’s relationship with the Masonic Lodge also makes it significant as well.”

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This structure was not only historically valuable, Randak said, but also threatened by its condition. She said the community and the Masonic Lodge that owns the property is struggling to find use for the land and there are physical-maintenance issues.

The property joins around 160 other properties to earn the Most Endangered Properties in Iowa designation, Randak said. The label hopes to bring awareness to the history within the state that wouldn’t be possible without the members of the Friends of the Historic Sharon Community Center.

“These are nominated by people who are interested and associated with the structure,” she said. “The main influence this designation has is making people aware. When a statewide organization that has recognized not only that the building is in trouble, but it has recognized that this historic building has contributed something to its larger community or even to the state.”

Cheryne Yoder, a lifelong Johnson County resident and member of the Friends of the Historic Sharon Community Center, has been a neighbor to the building since 1988. The proud Iowan said she was first introduced to the property through the Sharon Center parade 17 years ago.

“Every year we’ve used the building for the parade luncheon,” she said. “And we make over 300 sandwiches in the building and people have become more acquainted with the building over the years. There is not as big of a group meeting there as there have been in the past. I [realized], it’s a great building and it’s not getting used enough. We need to keep it open to the public. That’s when I got involved.”

She said this project really gained traction two years ago and the people who were a part of the project have stayed energized throughout the whole process. She added that they all had the same goal — to keep the story and community importance of the building alive.

“By having the building recognized as a historic property, a lot of doors are opened for us to preserve its history,” she said. “[This project has] been about keeping the community together. Our neighbors remember this building, it’s been here forever. The town rallied around the building to begin with and it still holds that importance in our town. It’s part of the community.”