The building’s days as the site of physical education classes and high school basketball games ended in 1978. That’s when it began a new life as a community center. It remains just as essential to the small city as the site for everything from family gatherings to pickleball games.

“There’s a lot of artistry, a lot of history in the building,” said City Councilman Kelly Blair.

That artistry and history was recognized on May 21 when the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Blair said that listing makes the building eligible for grants that will be used to pay for fixing it up, starting with the replacement of the roof. The roof work could begin this year, he said.

Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
The Lost Grove — Harcourt Community & Recreation Center was once the gym for the Harcourt Consolidated School. Relief sculptures of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt are above the main entrance, on either side of a Harcourt Consolidated School sign.

The facility at 116 S. Larch St. is properly known as the Lost Grove — Harcourt Community & Recreation Center.

It was completed in the spring of 1942. According to Blair, the building was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration, which was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to help the nation recover from the Great Depression.

Blair said that he finds it “fascinating” that the federal agency finished the building as the nation entered World War II.

The building has poured concrete walls that are 8 to 10 feet thick.

Relief sculptures of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt are above the main entrance, on either side of a Harcourt Consolidated School sign.

Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
This image of a boy and a girl with a basketball is one of the decorative features of the Lost Grove — Harcourt Community & Recreation Center.

Another sculpture showing a boy and a girl with what appears to be a basketball is also embedded in an exterior wall.

A barrel roof covers the building.

Inside, there is a gym on the main floor and a banquet room in the basement.

“Over the years, it has really stood well,” Blair said.

However, in recent years, the roof has been leaking. The roof was covered in corrugated metal in 1978. That was the year that the school closed and the building was given to the City of Harcourt and Lost Grove Township.

Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
The Lost Grove — Harcourt Community & Recreation Center, once the gym for the Harcourt Consolidated School, is in need of some renovations and repairs.

Blair said when the roof is replaced, the corrugated metal will come off and the building will look a bit different. It will still be a barrel roof, but its appearance will be closer to what it was in 1942.

“It will look very much like the original architectural design,” he said.

Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
The Lost Grove — Harcourt Community & Recreation Center, once the gym for the Harcourt Consolidated School, is in need of some renovations and repairs.