The Luling School (McKinley School) is on the north side of the city of Manitowoc in Manitowoc County in northeast Wisconsin along the western shore of Lake Michigan. The Luling School is a two-story elementary school building that was constructed in four phases consisting of the original school and two classroom wings additions (school building) completed in 1892, 1899, and 1907 and the attached auditorium-gymnasium building (gymnasium) completed in 1938.

The Luling School, later renamed McKinley School, was operated by the Manitowoc School District for over 100 years from 1892–2019. Between 1892–1977, the Luling School served as an elementary school. In the 1964, the Luling School was extensively remodeled to perpetuate its use as a central elementary school suburbanization in the Post-World War II era shifted the population – and thus enrollment patterns – to the outlying areas of the city. However, decreasing birth rates began to manifest in decreased school enrollment in the mid-1970s, and for this reason and the Luling School’s proximity to two Post-World War II elementary schools, it was closed. The Luling School was repurposed for use as the Instructional Service Center from 1977–1982, the Administrative Office and Instructional Service Center from 1982–2007, and an alternate high school from 2007–2019. The school building exhibits characteristics of classically derived styles popular at the turn of the twentieth century, specifically Italian Renaissance Revival. Although designed by two architects, Truman Dudley (T.D.) Allen and Christian H. Tegen, the three sections of the school building present a cohesive unified appearance with each successive addition adjoining seamlessly with the next. In 1938, the gymnasium was constructed with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The gymnasium, which was designed by William and Frederick Raeuber, is a one-story building that is generally rectangular in plan consisting of a small entrance foyer at the east end of the multi-use auditorium and gymnasium space which features a rostrum at its west end.

The Luling School is distinctive in the city of Manitowoc as an early graded elementary school that is differentiated from earlier or contemporaneous small ward schools that are reminiscent of late nineteenth century educational trends. While the Luling School was initially constructed in 1892 as a small ward school, and it was expanded twice within 15 years as the local population increase coincided with state-wide compulsory attendance laws and the movement toward graded schools. Between 1913 and 1920, the first vocational school in the city of Manitowoc was operated out of the Luling School shortly after the state legislature enacted a law mandating opportunities for vocational learning. In 1938, the auditorium-gymnasium building was constructed with the assistance of Public Works Administration (PWA). Competitive sports and physical activity became an integral part of curriculums and educational systems between World War I and World War II. The coincidence of the rise of physical education with the New Deal Era resulted in a wave of gymnasium construction through various federal work relief programs. Given this, the Luling School, consisting of the school building and the gymnasium, is significant for its association with significant eras in the development of educational resources in the city of Manitowoc between 1892 and 1938.