Reflections: Little White School Museum is 175 years young this year

On Feb. 17, 1850, Elvirah Walker Shumway sat down to write a letter to her family back in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Elvirah and her husband had followed her cousins, Seth and Lauriston Walker, who had emigrated west not long before. They all settled south of Oswego in the modern Plainfield-Simons Road area.

In her letter, she wrote of the Methodists in Oswego where she attended services in the old county courthouse: “The church is to be finished soon. They are at work on it now. I expect there will be a supper and fair in a few weeks to trim it or put with what is now on hand to trim and furnish.”

The building she wrote about was the Oswego Methodist-Episcopal Church, which later was sold to the Oswego School District, and so becoming the Little White School. And now, 175 years later, we’re getting ready to celebrate that historic milestone.

Oswego’s Methodists completed their new church building at the point where Jackson and Polk streets intersect. For many years, the Oswegoland Heritage Association’s restoration crew and researchers were sure it had been built in 1854, because that’s when the building was officially dedicated. But come to find out, back in that era, Methodist churches weren’t officially dedicated until their construction debt was completely paid off. It wasn’t until a copy of that letter from pioneer settler Elvirah Walker Shumway to her parents back in Belchertown was donated to the museum that they confirmed the actual date.

The church quickly became an integral part of the Oswego area community. Services were held in English at the church, as opposed to the German language services held in the German Evangelical Church, that eventually became today’s Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist.

Despite a strong Methodist population in Oswego – the first Methodist meeting was held in Daniel Pearce’s log cabin in 1833 – financial problems eventually took their toll. The church served the community’s Methodist-Episcopal congregation until 1913 when the congregation voted to dissolve. After dissolution, the church’s congregation joined the German Methodists, and the building stood unused for two years until the Oswego School District bought it for use as primary classroom space.

The building reopened in the fall of 1915 and became known as The Little School where first, second, and third graders received their educations. In 1930, the large schoolroom was divided in two, with first and half of second grade attending class in one room and the other half of second and third grade in the other room. Thanks to federal Works Progress Administration funding, the building was raised and a basement dug beneath it in 1934. Two years later, the WPA funded the addition of a third classroom at the back of the building plus a large main entry hallway. Shortly after, the building’s distinctive bell tower and bell were removed and the building got its first coat of white paint in many years and a new name: The Little White School.

Elementary classes were held in the building until the late 1950s when it was used for storage, only to be pressed back into service in the fall of 1960. During that era, the Oswego School District was undergoing an extreme growth spurt and classroom space was at a premium. As a result, the old Red Brick School a block away and the Little White School were both reopened as junior high classroom space. The last classes were held in the building in 1964 when the “new” Oswego High School on Route 71 opened and the old high school at Franklin and Polk streets turned into Oswego Junior High School.

The building was again used for storage space and, subject to only minor maintenance, was allowed to deteriorate. Then the Oswego School Board announced it was going to seek bids on the property with the intent being to sell it to a private owner. And that’s when the community got together and decided enough was enough. Oswego had already watched the landmark Red Brick School and the Oswego Depot fall to the wrecker’s ball. The Little White School was one landmark they didn’t want to see demolished.

By 1976, the building was a badly deteriorated derelict when a group of committed community residents established the nonprofit Oswegoland Heritage Association with the aim of saving and restoring the building.

So the heritage association was established, and with the active cooperation of Ford Lippold, the executive director of the Oswegoland Park District, a unique three-way agreement was hammered out between the heritage association, the park district and the school district: The heritage association would oversee the restoration project and seek community donations to fund it; the school district would maintain ownership, provided the building’s status as a community eyesore was remedied; and the park district would take over maintenance of the grounds (renamed Heritage Park) and assist with utilities and other costs.

The result was thousands of volunteer hours being donated to the restoration project, with the close cooperation and support of the schools and the parks.

Because of the heavy reliance on volunteer labor and donations, it wasn’t a fast process. Substantial completion of the entire restoration project was not achieved until 2002, 26 years after a group of community residents – including Lippold, Janis Hoch, Marilyn Marklein, Paul Shoger, Frank Wooley and others – met at the Oswego Village Hall with the intent to preserve and restore the building and open a community museum there. Restoration started in 1977.

In 2010, the school district, figuring the park district and the heritage association had the situation well in hand, turned over ownership of the building and Heritage Park to the park district. And in 2011, The Oswego Historic Preservation Commission officially recognized the building’s community landmark status.

Today, the Little White School Museum annually entertains thousands of visitors and its collections contain nearly 40,000 cataloged items.

This coming Saturday, starting at noon, you’re invited to a presentation I’ll give at the museum on the building’s history, including a close look at that 25-year restoration project. Donation is $5, with proceeds going to benefit the museum’s operations.

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