First in class: Oklahoma’s oldest schoolhouse
Sometimes we drive by history every day and fail to see it for what it is. Take the state’s oldest public schoolhouse, for instance.
For years, I drove past the old one-room schoolhouse on Second Street in Edmond and saw it only as a nondescript camera shop. Didn’t know how long it had been there or any of the history of the old building. Next to it was one of those quick-lube oil change places, so there didn’t seem to be anything historic to the location.
Then one day I spotted a plaque outside the building commemorating it as the first public schoolhouse in the Oklahoma Territory, 1889.
I finally got to see inside the historic building today, and it was a real treat. Beverly Terry, who serves as sort of administrator of the building, served as our tour guide and told of some of its history and that of its renovation.
Ms. Terry pointed out three original blackboards that were found during renovation and restored. I loved the desks most of all, because they were period pieces, and most if not all still carried initials of students carved into them maybe a century ago.
Best information about the place. Original cost: $35 in 1889 dollars. Cost of renovation in turn of the 21st century dollars: $395,000.
A fourth grade class from the Edmond elementary school where my wife works spent part of the day there Thursday, sitting in the antique desks and being taught a lesson from a teacher in period costume.
My wife, Paula, accompanied the Russell Dougherty Elementary School students to the old schoolhouse, which is only a couple of blocks south of her school. She also dressed in period costume, which included a bonnet.
Naturally, she left her bonnet. So, when we drove by the old schoolhouse to retrieve it today we had the good fortune of meeting Ms. Terry, who was cleaning the building.
The point of all of this is that history isn’t always something on pages of books. We’re often driving past it every day without realizing what we’re not seeing.
Jim Stafford
Business Writer
