Ireland Hall: the 1890s high school that Cowley College saved
Built in 1890 to 1893, Arkansas City's old high school survived a plan to tear it down and is now part of Cowley College.
By Garrett Pruitt
Cowley College students who walk into Ireland Hall at 300 W. Central are walking into the old Arkansas City High School.
Charles Sumner Sedgwick designed the building. Construction started July 10, 1890, students moved in on Sept. 7, 1892, and the work was done by 1893. The stonework was by Charles Fredrick Rothfus and Antonio and Joseph Buzzi.
The high school moved to a new building in 1922, and the old one became a sixth-grade center until 1941. When the district planned to tear it down, people in town objected.
Cowley County Community College took over the building in 1971 and renovated it. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.