Origins

I grew up in a small Ohio town, and I rode the school bus from 1st through 12th grades. My bus ride always included a country road on which every school day we saw a one-room brick school house. (SW corner of Stine Rd and Enon-Xenia Pike). As the years went by, I watched this wonderful, familiar friend fall apart. After I married, the school really began to deteriorate. Every time we visited the area I would want to take a photo of the school, but never did. Finally, when we went specifically for the task, the school was gone. It was a huge loss for me and, since that time, whenever we pass a one-room school, it is a joy to stop to take a picture or two. Thus, our collection here and on our Iowa One Room Schools blog. :oD Jill

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Near Ashland, NE

On 8/7/06, on our way home from our 30th anniversary trip to Yellowstone, we stopped at the Strategic Air & Space Museum just west of Ashland, NE.  It used to called the Strategic Air Command Museum and was at Offut AFB south of Omaha, but in the mid-1990s they built the new museum and moved the planes.

Wanting to see if there were any planes behind the museum waiting restoration, we drove just north of the museum and saw this house made from a school.  The addition was fairly new and they had been stripping the paint on the school portion.

Update: We returned to the museum on 4/28/11 and took another look at this school.  Look at what a beautiful restoration job they did for fixing it up as their home:

5 comments:

  1. I went this school in 1945. I was in 2nd grade. there were about 10 or 12 kids in 1st. thru 8th grade. there was a barn down the small hill to the right of the picture. because some of us rode or horse or ponies to school. the dads took turns dropping off a bale of hay for the horses my name was janet adams. anyone who remembers us, please contact me. 253 847 3373 jan rcardo 4312 293 st. ct. east. graham wa. 98338.

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  2. Hi Janet!

    So can you provide information about when it was built, when it closed, it's name, etc?

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  3. hi, glen, I do not know when it closed. we left there in '46. there was no electricity or water. we had a pump , and the older kids took turns every morning to bring in a bucket of water. it had a long handled dipper, and we all used the same dipper to drink from. ugh!!! after lunch the kids that had horses would go down to the barn to feed and water the horses. that was a wonderful time. we moved into town{Omaha} and I was never that happy again. do you live near Ashland? it's nice to talk with someone who appreciates local history. wishing you and yours the best.

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  4. Hi Jan,

    We live in eastern Iowa. We just take photos of old country schools as a hobby. The article above tells how we came across this one.

    If you look at the labels on the right side of this post, you will see all the states in which we've photographed schools other than Iowa. Also on the right side you will see a link to our blog with the Iowa schools we've photographed.

    We do enjoy history!

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  5. when I went there, it did not have the cement steps, and railing. there were wood steps, and the teacher would stand on the top step. and ring a bell for us to come in. in the winter it would still be dark when we got to school. the teacher had a kerosene lamp on her desk until it was light enough to see well . the school board had coal delivered for the stove. but it always ran out before warm weather came, then the dads would supply the coal. everyone wanted the desks close to the stove.

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