Beaver Creek School reunion set

September 06, 2009

HAGERSTOWN -- The Washington County Historical Society will host a family day/all-years reunion later this month at Beaver Creek School.

Jim Neville, a volunteer at the historical society, said the event will be held on Sept. 27 from noon to 4 p.m.

Neville said the two-room schoolhouse, which is at 9702 Beaver Creek Church Road, was built in 1904 and closed in 1961.

It was converted into a museum in 1971 and is open from the first week of April to the last week of September. The hours are 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

"This school is just a model of a country school," Neville said Sunday. "It's all typical of what you would have found in any country school in the early 20th century."

Neville said one of the rooms in the schoolhouse was used for grades one through four. The other room accommodated fifth- through eighth-graders.

One side of the museum is modeled after a classroom. Mannequins dressed in period clothing sit at antique desks that are topped with learning aids of the time. Gas lights still hang on the walls, and a coal-burning stove occupies the center of the room.

Artifacts from the late-19th and early-20th century fill the other side of the museum. Some of those items include pianos, record players, sewing machines and toy soldiers. The room also has a cobbler's station that is equipped with a wide variety of shoe-making tools.

-- Dan Dearth

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