The Hall County Historical Society began renovation at the schoolhouse in April to showcase Hall County’s first public school building, located alongside the Stolley House in Stolley Park.

The house was erected in the early 1860s by Hall County settler William Stolley. He helped organize School District No. 1 in 1869 and served as director of that school district for 40 years.

The school district built a 14-by-18-foot frame schoolhouse at the present day site of Stolley Park Elementary at 1700 W. Stolley Park Road, but it was later moved to Stolley Park to make way for the modern school and to preserve history.

The little wood frame schoolhouse preserved more for the city Parks Department than it did for history. Over the years, it had become a storage building for paint, playground supplies and plastic ducks from the city’s former children’s zoo at Stolley Park.

Historical Society volunteers cleared out the schoolhouse this spring and then spent the summer and fall with a major spruce-up.

Grand Island Building Department Director Craig Lewis, who has been instrumental in the Stolley House renovation, turned his talents onto the little schoolhouse. He painted ceilings white and walls a pale green with paint donated by Diamond Vogel Paints. Lewis then used a floor sander donated by Tool Barn to restore the wide, pine-planked floor.

Meanwhile, historical society members amassed appropriate furnishings for the schoolhouse.

Don Dietemeyer purchased two authentic blackboards at an auction to grace the east and west walls of the schoolhouse. He also donated a portrait of President George Washington from the Bicentennial Collection. Lewis donated an early copy of a United States map that was copied by Copy Cat Printers and framed by Bartenbach’s Interiors.

A row of school desks were already in the schoolhouse, but more donated desks came in from Dietemeyer and John Hanssen. A row of “New Peabody” schooldesks — individual wooden seats on metal frames that feature a desktop on the back of each seat — are now neatly aligned along the schoolhouse’s north wall.

Each desktop had a carved channel at the top for a pencil or chalk. In the upper right-hand corner was a circular hole — the tell-tale mark of where to place an ink bottle.

An ornate “Burr Oak” stove, donated by Babe and Peggy Kalkowski, sat near the schoolhouse’s west door, where students once ran in to the sound of the teacher’s hand bell, now replicated and sitting atop a row of bench desks.

“We still need a teacher’s desk and a dunce cap,” said historical society spokeswoman Barb Ernst.

A small milking stool was placed in the southeast corner — ready for whenever the dunce hat donation comes in.

Ernst said the teacher’s desk should not be ornate. Instead, it should be a simple library table or farm table.

There are no lights in the schoolhouse and the society intends to keep it that way. Sunlight from six-over-six double-hungs dance into the building through the vintage wavy glass.

The schoolhouse will be open for free tours on the third Sunday of every month (except December) when the Stolley House is open. A few programs may be held in the schoolhouse and if light is needed, kerosene lamps will provide illumination just like they did more than 140 years ago, Ernst said.

Besides the fun of seeing the schoolhouse renovation, the historical society has benefitted from its call for donations. Lewis and Ernst said three stoves came in for the school, so the other two were placed in the Stolley House itself.

A parlor stove donated by Tim and Renita Weigert is in the home’s front room — a laundry stove donated by the Barney McGahan family is in an upstairs bedroom.

The Stolley House’s front door was broken during a break-in two months ago, Lewis said. The home’s alarm system went off immediately in the 3:30 a.m. event that scared the intruders away. Millwright Chris Aubushon, of C&C Millwork, replicated the original four-panel door — and two others the historical society decided to replace due to condition issues from age and use.

“They are exact to what was there,” Lewis said of the new poplar doors. He spent part of Sunday painting the new doors. It’s part of preparation for the coming holiday season.

The Stolley House will be open for free tours from 1 to 4 p.m. on Nov. 20, just before Thanksgiving.

Hanssen will then trim the Stolley House with vintage Christmas decorations. That will be open for free tours from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 10 and 11.

The Stolley House is also available to rent for meetings or special events. The cost is $45 for four hours or less or $75 for the day. To rent, call Ernst at (308) 380-3623.

“People just really enjoy it,” Ernst said of seeing the historic house and schoolhouse.