HOLLY SPRINGS, Iowa | Denny Torgerson likens his shop to the pyramids. The structure is that strong, built to last.
It should have been. The gym and auditorium serving the old school at Holly Springs was constructed in 1941, according to the cornerstone. The effort by the Works Project Administration features 20 feet of cinder block inside and poured concrete arches outside.
This wasn't just a place to play basketball and perform plays, you see, it served a third purpose: A bomb shelter.
The Holly Springs school closed in the 1960s as the Westwood Community School District, a consolidation of educational sites here and in Smithland, Salix, Hornick and Sloan, came into being. That district now sees all K-12 instruction offered in a campus on Sloan's eastern edge.
Holly Springs' school became the site for Holly Industries Inc., a sheet metal fabrication business owned and operated by Torgerson, along with his wife, Mardie Torgerson, and their son, Devin Torgerson.
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"We've been around since 1972," Denny says, noting the company was started by the late John Zink.
The custom sheet metal fabrication firm produces slide gates, flipper valves, spouting transitions and control units for free-flow grain enterprises. The company does much of its work for Younglove Construction of Sioux City.
Holly Industries also works with feed mills and grain elevators all across the U.S. and into places like the Ukraine.
Independent farmers also make up a portion of the company's customer base.
Three full-time employees and two part-timers make up the work force here, a work force that goes about its work in this quiet spot where Woodbury County Road K-64 meets Old Highway 141 some 15 miles south of Moville, Iowa.
The old schoolhouse was part of the site until widespread flooding damaged its foundation in 1996.
"I remember coming here with my parents and going up and playing in the old school," says Devin, who is now a resident of Sioux City.
While the old school was taken down, Holly Industries did add to the structure, completing a couple of additions, one in 1994 and a second in 1997.
"The site works for us as it's rural," says Denny Torgerson, who resides near Smithland. "And it's so accessible to get things trucked in and out."
As if on queue, a farmer pulls into Holly Industries with a long piece of equipment that needs work. There's no stopping traffic as he negotiates the driveway turn. There's no traffic, period.
"That's the nice thing about being out here, you don't have to stop traffic like you would at a commercial site in a city," Devin says.
Evidence of the facility's first life can be seen, but you must look closely. There's a small patch of the original gym floor remaining on the west side of the shop. Much of the floor, however, has been taken out, leaving a concrete surface behind, perfect for the company's workload.
"Down below the stage is the original locker room," Denny Torgerson says. "There are names still showing on the girls' lockers."
There's also a line along the east wall that bears evidence of a set of bleachers once attached.
The scoreboard and baskets are long gone, however.
The stage remains on the south side of the gymnasium, a place where basketball players likely sat as they awaited game action. It's also the place where another of the Torgersons' sons, Drew Torgerson, takes his place at least once per year for a band concert.
His band's name suggests a touch of irony, playing in a place that has to be among the strongest structures in Woodbury County. The band is called "In Danger of Falling."
Beyond the stage to the south is a shop area Devin occupies as he tinkers in an after-market performance business, making late model Camaros and Corvettes faster. And just south of that area is the newer office suite serving Holly Industries.
It's where Denny heads to dig out the original blueprints for the gym/auditorium/bomb shelter. The blueprints, which are really blue, show the structure was drawn up by architect/engineer K.E. Westerlind in June 1940.
"He was the same architect who designed the Municipal Auditorium and the Badgerow Building," Denny Torgerson says.
Holly Industries still sees people who, from time to time, stop by to take a peek at what's become of their old gym.
"There are no cracks," Denny notes as he glances around. "Its like a pyramid, almost."
