Lanesfield School Historic Site
In May 1869, nine men of the town of Lanesfield met to vote on issuing $1,000 worth of school bonds at a fixed discount rate. The bond issue passed unanimously. A stone schoolhouse was built soon after. The district clerk’s report for the spring of 1870 showed sixty-nine pupils enrolled, with a daily average attendance of 51 in the one-room building. Although the number of scholars decreased over the years, Lanesfield School held classes until 1963.
The school was an important part of the small community of Lanesfield, which was established in 1858 on the west bank of Bull Creek in McCamish Township. A town company, led by William Gans, bought 160 acres of land there. The town was named for James Lane, a major proponent of the free-state cause in Kansas. By the mid-1860s, Lanesfield had a population of around one hundred. A Captain Gardner, in partnership with Jam Lane, built a two-story hotel; there were also three stores, a blacksmith shop, Presbyterian, Methodist and Christian churches, the school and seventeen dwellings.
Located on the Santa Fe Trail, Lanesfield benefitted from the emigrant and trade traffic. When the railroad from Olathe to Ottawa was constructed by 1871, however, the focus changed to the new rail station at Edgerton. Many of the buildings were moved to Edgerton, but the schoolhouse stayed and flourished. The school was the scene for other activities as well: elections, meetings, social events like Fourth of July celebrations and reunions.
One former student, Jim Payne when asked to reminisce about the school for the 1934 reunion, replied that the “old stone schoolhouse has done service about 65 years and we hope that [it] may continue to serve a long time to come.” After consolidation in 1963, the school sat for a few years until the Lanesfield School Historical Society and the Dizzy Doers extension group opened the county-owned property as a local museum. When the Johnson County Museum System completes the physical restoration of the school in 1988, the old stone schoolhouse will once again foster Jim Payne’s hopes.
The physical restoration of the schoolhouse will correct the water problems, repair the stone facade, and restore the exterior and interior to the period of 1900. The master plan for the site, prepared by architect Dean Graves, A.I.A. and the JCMS staff, calls for the grounds to be restored to that period as well with the appropriate outbuildings and landscaping. An interpretive center will house exhibits about the area, public restrooms and the administrative office.
--ALBUM vol. 1, no. 1 (fall 1988)