By Charla Wurm-Adams
cwurm@wbcowqel.com
A Sunday afternoon visit to the Harvey One-Room School was an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and relive some memories of the “good ole days.” The open house allowed visitors to have a “Little House on the Prairie” experience here in Crawford County.
The one-room school was built in 1876 and taught children until 1918. Renovations started in 2003 to become one of Ohio’s 113 “little red schoolhouses.”
Carolyn Sand is president of the school’s Board of Trustees and had this to say about the historic educational institution of yesteryear.
“We try to reach all third grade students in Crawford County and so that if every year we get the classroom of third grade students, eventually we’ll have every student in Crawford County come and experience what school was like in the 1800s and early 1900s,” Sand said. “They do the same; they play school, as it would have been in that time period.”
Sand noted that’s not the lone mission of those on charge of the school.
“Our second mission statement is through the Tourism Bureau. We have bus tours come in, mostly in the summer, adult senior citizens, Sunday school groups,” Sand said. “We’ve had people from Indiana, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania. They come, and usually maybe an hour-and-a-half, and we tell a little bit about our project and then they play school as well and they love it.”
Throughout the day Sunday there were homemade cookies of snicker doodles, the cookie of the time, as well as hot cider and a gift for everyone. Children were stringing popcorn and using the viewfinder to view scenes of the past.
There were original relics of children’s worn out shoes, the nickel-plated stove, school desks and chalk boards.
Groups are welcome to come tour for $2 per person and $3 for students all day. It is closed from November through March with exceptions of this Christmas Open house and by appointment only.