A new donation to the Little White School Museum in Oswego helps tell the story of the community’s growth and impact on the school, museum officials said.
Earlier this month, Rebecca Smith Hurd refurbished student desks used at a church school before the local school closed in the spring of 1960 (the last one operating in the Oswego School District). It has been donated, museum officials said in a press release.
This desk has been added to the museum’s permanent exhibition “Education and the Population Boom”.
“This desk helps visitors understand the changes that have occurred in the school district over the past 60 years as it has grown from a small rural neighborhood to one of the largest in Illinois,” said Roger, the museum’s director. Matair explained in a release.
The desk, patented by GH Abbott in 1930 and manufactured by Woodruff & Edwards of Elgin, had a cast iron under construction, maple seat and desktop, officials said.
The church school, informally named for its location across from the Wheatland United Presbyterian Church, was founded in the early 1860s on land owned by Stephen Findlay, according to museum officials. Classes were first held in a wooden schoolhouse, which was replaced in 1929 by a larger brick schoolhouse with some of the most modern features of the time, such as indoor bathrooms and central heating.
Located just on the border of Oswego Township within Will County’s Wheatland Township, the school was eventually officially named Will County School District 38.
With the end of World War II, parents began encouraging middle school students to attend schools in the town of Oswego, according to museum officials. There were more educational opportunities there. From 1949 he bussed her 7th grade and her 8th graders of the school to Oswego at the beginning of the 1950 school year.
It was an era of school consolidation, when the state aggressively pressured rural studio districts to merge with larger in-town school districts to give students more educational opportunities and save taxes. has started playing, museum officials said in a release.
As a result, beginning with the 1953-54 school year, the middle school students were also transported to Oswego by bus. From first grade through her third grade, she attended classes at this school until the church school closed in the spring of 1960. This school was the last rural building in the Oswego school district.
The building was eventually auctioned off by the school district and is now a private home.
The Little White School Museum at 72 Polk Street in Oswego is a joint project of the non-profit Oswegoland Heritage Association and the Oswegoland Park District. Normal hours of operation are Thursday and Friday from 2:00 PM to 6:30 PM and 9:00 AM.
Saturday and Sunday until 2pm, Monday from 4pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but donations are always welcome, officials said.
