Rapids School, 3516 Rapids Court, Mount Pleasant, Racine County, WI

Significance: The Rapids School is significant as a good example of a rural two room schoolhouse. It is also architecturally significant as a vernacular buildings blending Italianate and Prairie styles, and for its construction of cream brick, an historic material indigenous to the area. The Rapids School retains excellent integrity. The two room schoolhouse is significant in the history of rural education in Wisconsin as a transitional building type from the more common one room schoolhouse to the fully graded school. By the turn of the century, the fully graded school had become the ideal for primary education in the United States, and soon became the norm. In terms of its architecture, the influence of the Italianate style lingered into the early twentieth century in the Racine metropolitan area. At the same time, the Prairie style was a contemporary stylistic influence when the Rapids School was built. Cream brick was manufactured in Racine County for only 75 years, from 1839 until 1914. A Determination of Eligibility (DOE) prepared in 1989 found Rapids School eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Survey number: HABS WI-336