It was built to replace a wooden structure and a number of country schools and to be able to add courses to the curriculum.

The Irwin High School was renowned academically and also excelled in sports winning many state championships.

In the late 1920s the school was one of the stops for the Harlem Globe Trotters and on that night the home team won.

In 1939 the city of Irwin was one of six communities for a special government study of the effects of the depression and of the New Deal Program.

This article about a property in Shelby County, Iowa on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.