Old North Grove School completes window renovation

SYCAMORE – For the first time in its 142-year history, Old North Grove School had its windows boarded up.

The one-room schoolhouse has been closed since 1952, when students began to attend the larger classrooms of the Sycamore School District. The schoolhouse was built in 1878 and is still in its original location, 26745 Brickville Road in Sycamore.

The windows were boarded up during renovation, which was completed this month by Mulligan Restoration Inc.

The renovation of the school’s 18 windows included: wood-frame stripping and repair, re-glazing glass panes with historic wavy glass, and cleaning and reinstalling hardware, including the windows’ ropes and weights. After the windows were installed, the exterior sills and casing were stripped, sanded, primed and painted.

“We had to be historically correct when doing the renovations,” carpenter Aaron Breitbach said. “Since the windows were very, very old, extra care had to be taken.”

The North Grove School Association received a $12,500 Community Needs Grant from the DeKalb County Community Foundation for the window renovation. Donations were also received from former students, descendants of former students, teachers and community members.

Other planned projects on the building include restoration of exterior trim and cornices, exterior scraping, wood repair and painting.

In 2019, a partial new roof was installed and the chimney was tuck-pointed.

North Grove School Association President Jennifer Parsons described the one-room schoolhouse as “a piece of history.”

“The school is so much more than its building, it is an integral piece of Sycamore history and representative of the foundations of American education,” said Parsons, who also is a fifth-grade teacher at North Elementary School in Sycamore. “The school allows us to experience how life used to be, which allows us to appreciate all that we have today.”

School history

In 1878, the one-room schoolhouse was built as a parochial and Sunday school for Sycamore’s Swedish Lutheran Church, now known as Salem Lutheran Church. The church established the school as a way to teach students the Swedish language and values of their heritage.

To build the school, a third of an acre of land was donated and the church set $200 aside. Building the school cost $211, and an additional $8 was needed to paint and furnish the building and add outhouses.

The school never had running water, but electricity was added. To provide water to the students, the school made a deal with the Flink family across the street: the school would provide bricks if the family built a well and allowed students access to its water.

Only minimal changes were made to the schoolhouse through the years: windows and a front entrance were added and the teacher’s buggy shed became a garage. The floor, blackboards and playground equipment are original, but the outhouses have been replaced. When Northern Illinois University was interested in moving the building to DeKalb, the North Grove School Association was formed in 1985 to keep the school in its original location and to help maintain the building.

Students in first through eighth grade were taught at the school from 1878 until 1952. After that, students were transported by bus to attend school in town. The Old North Grove School building continued to be used as a community center. The Sycamore School District still owns the building and the North Grove School Association pays $1 rent each year.

In 1970, the school was listed in the Illinois Directory of Historical Buildings. It also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sycamore’s first Black family

According to an exhibit at the DeKalb County History Center, Henry Beard and his family became the first Black family in Sycamore and the children attended Old North Grove School.

During the Civil War, Henry Beard, an ex-slave from Kentucky, served in the Union Army, the 105th Illinois Regiment, as a cook. At Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1871, Beard met his wife Judy Jones and brought her back to live at the two-room house on five acres of land he purchased north of Sycamore. After 10 years there, they moved to a larger home on another portion of the land, a mile west of Brickville Road.

“The family is credited as being the first African-American family in Sycamore, and [their 14 children] attended school at Old North Grove School,” Parsons said. “While at school, the children even learned to read and write some Swedish. His children were educated because of the school, which was probably highly unusual during that time period.”

School day experiences

For many, attending a one-room schoolhouse is reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” or L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables.”

For 79-year-old Carole Lichty of Sycamore, it was her childhood.

Lichty attended Old North Grove School for first, second and third grade from 1949 until 1951.

At the time, there were 15 to 20 students in the one-room schoolhouse, with classes taught by one teacher, Mrs. Clark.

“We all knew everybody in school and they knew us, because about half of us were related: cousins, brothers, sisters,” Lichty said. “We sat at our desk, worked on assignments and read ‘Dick and Jane’ books. We had lunch and recess. School was fun, and I never remember anyone causing any trouble.”

Lichty and her family moved away in 1951 and the school closed in 1952. Decades later, Lichty visited the school as an adult. She is now on the school association’s board.

“I walked in and it was just like I was 8 years old again,” she said. “It smelled and looked the same. The pail was still in the dry sink. The desks were the same, the blackboard was the same. It was just like it used to be.”

Mary Swedburg’s great-grandfather, William Swedburg, attended the school. Mary Swedburg is also on the school association’s board.

“The school is a historical jewel that needs [tender loving care,]” she said. “The school has such an important historical value to the community. It’s important to restore and preserve the school for years and generations to come.”

In non-pandemic times, the school is visited by Sycamore second-and fifth-grade students for full-day immersion programs, where they learn what a school day was like for students more than 100 years ago. The North Grove School Association also hosts events at the school in the summer, during Sycamore Pumpkin Festival and for St. Lucia’s Day.

“Living in the country was hard, because we didn’t have running water or heat, so we had to use an outhouse, water pumps and stoves,” Lichty said. “It was a hard life, and not very glamorous, but it was a simple life, a happy life. Visiting the school brings back all those memories, all that history, for anyone that walks through its doors.”

For more information or to donate to Old North Grove School’s ongoing renovation, visit www.northgroveschool.org.

Katrina Milton

Katrina J.E. Milton

Award-winning reporter and photographer for Shaw Media publications, including The Daily Chronicle and The MidWeek newspapers in DeKalb County, Illinois, since 2012.