Bennington Township School House #5 is representative of the more than 9,000 rural schools that once dotted the State of Iowa.

This school house was built in 1909, replacing an older building. It originally stood in the center of Bennington Township, four miles east of U. S. Highway 63 on the Dunkerton Road (near St. John's Church). It was thus known as "Center School," and was used as the polling place for the township.

The building was purchased in 1966 for $1,000 and donated to the Black Hawk County Conservation Board. It was moved to Black Hawk Park in 1968 and given a new foundation and roof. Restoration work has been undertaken by several local groups, most notably the Cedar Falls teachers, who made the school house their Bicentennial project in 1976.

The school features old desks, black boards, books, a pot-bellied stove and other furnishings typical of the turn of the century.

The building was relocated to First and Clay Streets in 1988 by the Cedar Falls Historical Society and it is part of the museum complex. It is open to the public from May to October of each year.