Lanesfield School: readin’, writin’, & restoration
The image of the solitary one-room country school stirs feelings of whimsy and nostalgia for many people. It is a symbol of the pioneer spirit, of childhood mischief, and of moral lessons. For rural communities, the one-room schoolhouse was often the community center where families met to celebrate holidays, hold elections, and host pie suppers or ice cream socials.
At one time, Johnson County had approximately one hundred one-room schools. Many of those buildings no longer exist, through closures or demolition. Lanesfield School is one of the few remaining one-room schools in Johnson County. It has a history that dates back to the early days of Kansas, but Lanesfield also has a future due to its restoration as a one-room school museum. Its preservation has taken thousands on a trip back in time to the good old days of the one-room school.
A School is Born
In 1858, the Kansas territorial legislature met in Wyandotte County to draft a state constitution. The group, comprised of free-state supporters, made public education a priority. Kansas entered the Union in 1861, using the 1858 constitution. A provision stated that tax supported public education would be provided for all children in Kansas, with no reference made to race or gender.
Towns and rural areas across Kansas saw an early need for public education for their local children. It was typical for young communities to build a temporary school structure before raising the funds to build a permanent school. Lanesfield, Kansas was no exception. The first school in the community convened in 1863 at a house owned by William Gans. By 1867, eighteen pupils attended class in a log schoolhouse on the Burton Dillie farm. As the town grew, it became clear that a more substantial school was needed to accommodate the community children. In May 1869, nine townsmen met to vote on issuing $1,000 worth of school bonds at a fixed discount rate. The poll book chronicles the fateful decision: “No. 12 Johnson County, Kansas. Held on the 13th day of May 1869, for the purpose of voting for or against issuing one thousand dollars additional in school bonds, and fix a discount rate.” The board passed the bond unanimously. Those who participated in the vote were prominent citizens of Lanesfield: C.S. Dille, D.C. Dwyer, R. Addy, C.W. Balch, A. Maxwell, R. Tyson, O.S. Laws, William Maxwell, and William Humbert. In November 1869, the district paid William Humbert $200 in exchange for land to build the school.
Lanesfield School was built in a vernacular style, meaning that the schoolhouse is typical of the region and time it was built. The school board did not employ an architect to design the school. A common practice at the time was to use school plans, which had been available since the 1830s. William A. Alcott, a schoolmaster, published his Essay on the Construction of Schoolhouses in 1832. Alcott’s work suggested new floorplans for schools and suggested improvements such as backs on desk chairs. In some instances, schools were built based on the idea of what a traditional one-room school should look like: one room, rectangular or square, and sporting a cupola on the rooftop.
Local builders used local materials to build vernacular schoolhouses. Sod, wood, and stone were common materials for Kansas schoolhouses. In Lanesfield’s case, builders used native fieldstone with natural texture for the exterior. The school was rectangular in shape with a single entrance on the south wall.
The Lanesfield School was a welcome addition to the community. In the spring of 1870, sixty-nine pupils enrolled at Lanesfield. The daily average attendance was fifty-one students. However, Lanesfield School’s life as a town school was short lived. In 1870, the town of Lanesfield moved two miles to the west to be closer to the newly constructed depot along the Santa Fe Railroad. The stone school’s solid construction did not lend itself to easy removal. As the town disappeared, Lanesfield School made the transformation to a rural school.
School Days, School Days
The school’s attendance remained strong after the town of Lanesfield moved. Enrollment for the 1871-1872 school year was 71 students. Students came from farms within a two-mile radius of the school.
Lanesfield’s school day schedule remained relatively constant during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A typical day for a Lanesfield student began at the break of dawn. Farm chores were a priority for the children. Boys assisted with the farming duties and girls helped with household chores. At 8:30 a.m., the schoolteacher rang the bell to alert the children to walk to school. School began at 9:00 a.m. with the students lined up based on where they sat in the school. The teacher dismissed school at 4:00 p.m. by ringing the bell. Students headed home to more chores on the farm. The teacher stayed to clean up after the school day and to prepare for the next day.
Schoolhouse Improvements
Lanesfield experienced a number of changes and modifications over the years to meet the needs of the teachers and students. In 1883, the school board approved an anteroom to be added to the south end of the schoolhouse. The anteroom included two interior bays and two doors that opened into the classroom. It was common in some one-room schoolhouses for boys and girls to enter through a separate door. Although Lanesfield had two doors in the anteroom, former Lanesfield teacher Flossie Donovan recalled that students entered through the door closest to their desk. The anteroom included a wash pan, bucket and dipper for drinking, and hooks for hanging students’ coats and hats.
A bell cupola was installed on the roof in the early 1900s. Bell cupolas are one of the standard characteristics of one-room school designs. Teachers would ring the bell to begin and end the school day, but bells served additional purposes for the rural community. Teachers could ring the bell to signal that a child was lost or hurt, or to warn the community of impending danger, such as a prairie fire.
Further changes to the structure occurred because of an event in 1903. In May of that year, lightning struck the schoolhouse and ignited a fire. Newspaper accounts were discouraging. The Edgerton News reported that: “Lightning struck the Lanesfield [School] last Saturday night about 10 o’clock. The building and contents were intirely [sic] consumed in smoke. This is an old land mark…the loss to that district is total. A new building will perhaps be erected this coming fall.” The Gardner Gazette offered a conflicting assessment of the damage reporting that the schoolhouse “burned to the ground.”
No reliable accounts of the damage exist, but much can be ascertained from the school’s treasurer’s reports. It shows a total expenditure of $866.26 for labor, building materials, and school supplies in late 1903 and early 1904. The 1869 cost of building the school was $1,000, so to build an entirely new school thirty-four years later would have undoubtedly been more costly. Thus, the relatively small cost suggests that the school was not completely destroyed in the fire. A 1934 letter from C.E. Still, a former Lanesfield student, confirms doubts that the school had to be rebuilt. He visited the school earlier in the summer and observed, “although lightening had struck the roof and burned out all of the wood, the stone was still intact, and they had made a modern school house out of this old school.”
The restored school interior was typical of many one-room schoolhouses. In America’s Country Schools, Andrew Gulliford notes the characteristics of vernacular school interiors. They included tongue-and-groove flooring, wainscoting, embossed metal ceilings, cast-iron desks, cabinets, shelving, and slate blackboards. Lanesfield possessed most of these features, with the exception of the metal ceiling and built-in shelving and cabinets. The newly rebuilt Lanesfield was admired across the county. In 1909, The Edgerton News observed that Lanesfield had “one of the nicest schoolrooms…in the county.”
Exterior changes continued to be made well into the 1900s. Sometime between 1910 and 1915, a concrete slab was constructed as a porch at the doorway. In the 1920s, a gable roof was built over the porch.
Lanesfield in a New Century
As the twentieth century progressed, the landscape of Johnson County changed. Towns and cities expanded and, one by one, one-room schools began to close their doors. A growing number of families moved to town and larger town schools could serve the needs of the rural community. By the late 1950s, enrollment at Lanesfield began to decline. Schools in Gardner and Edgerton attracted more and more rural school children. In 1963, the Kansas state legislature passed the School District Unification Act with the intent of reducing the unmanageable number of school districts in operation. This act effectively closed a large number of one-room schools in Johnson County and across Kansas. Lanesfield merged with District 81 in Edgerton and closed its doors after 93 years of operation.
The fate of closed one-room schools was uncertain. Some found new life as converted homes. Some became storage for grain or animals on nearby farms. Others deteriorated and were torn down.
Lanesfield School was fortunate to be preserved soon after it closed. The McCamish Township Board, made up of Robert McIntyre, Clarence Gillespie, and Philip Lefmen, contacted the Edgerton School District about saving the school for its historic value. The district agreed to sell the school to Johnson County for one dollar. The community quickly became involved. The Dizzy Doers Extension club made preliminary plans for the school’s transformation into a museum. In 1966th 125-member Lanesfield School Historical Society formed with the purpose of opening the Lanesfield School Museum. After collecting donations of items relating to the school and early Johnson County, the Lanesfield School opened as a museum in 1967.
Over the next twenty years, Lanesfield School operated as a museum. A caretaker, employed by the county, oversaw the site. On exhibit were items from the school, as well as some items from notable Johnson Countians. One exhibit recreated the office of Gardner resident Dr. Reece. By 1987, there was a general feeling among county officials that Johnson County history needed a boost. They hired professional museum staff to undertake the tasks of reviving the county-owned museums. One of the first projects to be undertaken was the restoration of Lanesfield School.
In 1987, Lanesfield School was a shadow of its former self. The 118 year-old building was falling apart and needed structural repair. Four concrete buttresses supported the crumbling north wall. Visitation to the site was low, only 360 visitors per year. Steps to restore the school and make it into a popular destination were quickly put into motion.
1904 All Over Again
In March 1987, the Board of County Commissioner (BOCC) approved funds for the repair of Lanesfield School. Rather than deciding to restore the building to its 1869 appearance, the Museum staff chose the year 1904. The 1903 fire in the school and its subsequent reconstruction provided the basis for the decision. Staff consulted sources from the years 1890-1910 to gather evidence for furnishing the school. Unfortunately, no interior photographs of the Lanesfield School existed from those years. Exterior photos were available, and gave many clues as to the physical structure of the school. Dean Graves signed on as the Restoration Architect in August 1987 and developed a master plan for the site. Graves used research collected on the site to guide decisions for the restoration. His proposals for the restoration included demolition and reconstruction of damaged stonewall; removing the porch and stoop; replacing existing windows with double hung ‘6 x 6’ windows; installing new pine flooring over existing linoleum tile; and reconstructing and reinstalling the cupola with an operable bell. In addition, outbuildings, such as a pony shed and a boys’ outhouse, were to be constructed to compliment the existing coal shed and girls’ outhouse. An interpretive center would be built on the site and would house exhibits and public restrooms.
On October 13, 1988, the Lanesfield School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This honor spurred on the continued restoration of Lanesfield School. Gradually the exterior and interior of the school evolved into a 1904 building. Careful research and oral histories with former Lanesfield students helped guide the restoration of the school. For example, former student Bessie Creel and former Lanesfield teacher Flossie Donovan described the layout of desks in the room.
The restoration itself yielded clues about the school’s 1904-era appearance. For instance, analysis of the original wainscoting showed that it had initially been varnished with a dark stain. New pine wainscoting was milled to match the older sample.
After painstaking restoration, Lanesfield School Historic Site opened its doors once again on April 1, 1989. The schoolhouse embodied the spirit of a turn-of-the-twentieth century country schoolhouse. Thirty wooden desks covered the pine wood flooring. A slate blackboard wrapped around the north wall, in front of the reproduction teacher’s desk and recitation bench. A forty-five star American flag, a bust of President Theodore Roosevelt, and a bookshelf with period books placed the room in an historic context.
The restoration of the Lanesfield School succeeded in revitalizing a precious piece of Johnson County history. It also garnered some recognition for the Museum staff’s and community members’ efforts. The Kansas State Historical Society and the Johnson County Chapter of the American Institute of Architects both granted awards to the Johnson County Museums for the restoration of Lanesfield School. 133 years after its construction, Lanesfield School continues to serve the needs of area schoolchildren. Approximately 3,000 schoolchildren visit Lanesfield each year to experience a 1904 school day in our Living History program for fourth and fifth graders.
In addition to the Living History program, the Lanesfield School Historic Site offers other exciting programs. The Farm Family program introduces kindergarten through third grades to life as a 1904 farm child. The Trails, Rails, and Dinner Pails program explores the history of Lanesfield and the Santa Fe Trail for fourth through sixth grades. School Days and Railways, the newest Lanesfield program, is a joint partnership with the Midland Railway of Baldwin, Kansas. The program is school at Lanesfield, followed by a ride on the eleven-mile excursion train in Baldwin. The program is available for grades kindergarten through sixth grade.
Community visitors come to tour the school and to enjoy the site’s many annual special events. The preservation of Lanesfield School is ongoing. Just as the school evolved from 1869 to 1963, it continues to do the same today. In the years since its restoration, Lanesfield School has been a place where memories have been made and shared. The continuous preservation and upkeep of Lanesfield School Historic Site is needed to make new memories for years to come.
--ALBUM vol. 15, no. 2 (spring 2002)