The ceremony, at 1 p.m., will be held at the school site, on Kit Carson Drive across from the University’s Perkins Building. The public is welcome. Speakers will include EKU President Doug Whitlock, College of Education Dean Bill Phillips and Robert Grise, a retired EKU professor and local historian who has often led tours of the facility. Also, the West Irvine Elementary School Choir will perform. Tours will be offered after the ceremony.
(Workers ready the Granny Richardson Springs One-Room Schoolhouse at Eastern for its re-dedication on Tuesday, Nov. 18. From left are Vickie Adams, Francine Bonny, Bruce Bonar, Tom Bonny and Estine Tipton. Adams, Ms. Bonny and Tipton are from the Irvine-Ravenna Kiwanis Club. Mr. Bonny and Bonar are with EKU’s College of Education.)A fixture on the EKU campus since it was moved from Estill County in 1976, the schoolhouse has undergone an extensive facelift that includes new weather boarding, painting, new windows, interior and exterior lighting, landscaping, new concrete walks and signage.
“Many older Kentuckians attended one-room schools and have fond memories of their school days,” said Tom Bonny, retired superintendent of Estill County Schools who now serves as assistant director of the South East/South Central Educational Cooperative. “This schoolhouse serves as a living replica of education in the early 20th century and helps us all to understand some of the sacrifices our predecessors made to provide or receive an education.”
In 2003, EKU’s College of Education launched an effort to raise funds to renovate the schoolhouse. A $35,000 grant from the EKU Foundation augmented approximately $12,000 in money raised through a benefit event starring Carl Hurley and the late Homer Ledford and from individual contributions.
The Granny Richardson Springs School opened in Estill County in 1900, six years before Eastern Kentucky State Normal School was established, and closed in 1964. It was donated to EKU by the heirs of the late Eli Sparks. The Lee County Board of Education donated furnishings.
Thirty-one students were enrolled in the school’s first year. That number grew steadily, especially after oil was discovered in the area, but declined again during and after World War II.
By 1963, only six pupils attended.
Martha Elkin (Granny) Richardson was born in 1791 in Clark County and later moved to an area near Brushy Mountain in Estill County. She and her husband, Bradley, had 10 children – eight boys and two girls.
The renovated schoolhouse is again available for school and group tours. To make tour arrangements, contact the Dean’s Office in the College of Education at 859-622-1175.
Also, donations are still being accepted and may be sent to the attention of Associate Dean Kim Naugle, College of Education, 420 Combs Building, Eastern Kentucky University, 521 Lancaster Ave., Richmond, Ky., 40475.
SOURCE: EKU press release
2 comments:
I absolutely love the idea of having the Granny Richardson Springs one room school house rededicated on the Eastern Kentucky Campus. I, like many people my age, grew up listening to my grandparents and great-grand parents tell stories about their childhood, including going to a one room school. (Now, granted, I think my grandpa may have exaggerated a little bit when he said he walked five miles up hill both ways to get to the school house.) The Granny Richardson Springs School is an incredible piece of Kentucky’s Educational History that is a great addition to our campus. I hope that when students walk/drive by and see the school house they will realize the sacrifices made in Kentucky for education and also how far we have come as a state and nation.
My grandmother, Maude Flynn Estes, taught at this school. She also donated a desk at the original dedication ceremony.
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