How the 1-room Oak Grove School was lovingly restored

A rural one-room schoolhouse can evoke a feeling of nostalgia for a simpler, bygone era. According to educator Fred Schroeder, “One-room schoolhouses are cherished symbols of an all but vanished lifestyle: independent, family-centered and consciously tied to the soil.”

Ohio’s Yesterdays blog says one-room schoolhouses were uniform in design with bell towers and tall, narrow windows and constructed of brick or wooden siding built in the 1870s and 1880s. “And later their predecessors were generally made of logs with window openings covered with greased paper and floors of dirt or puncheon. Others were wood framed with clapboard siding and cedar shake shingles.”

Most of the one-room schools were closed by the 1950s, and they were either abandoned or used for other purposes like workshops, garages, storage, livestock or houses.

This also was the case of the Oak Grove School, now owned by Jim and Shirley Croskey, the third generation of the Schlegel family. It was used for storing hay and equipment by her father Roy and grandfather Dale. The Croskeys began restoration of the iconic Prairie Township brick school in 2023, a dream of Shirley’s mother Fonda Schlegel. Once finished with the undertaking, they invited friends and family to an open house to view their authentically restored one-room brick schoolhouse on Saturday, Aug. 31.

A steady stream of visitors arrived to see the Lecky School in Prairie Township in Holmes County, so named because it was located on the Thomas Lecky farm at that time. It also was known as Oak Grove School and built in 1878, according to Shirley Croskey.

“The land map of 1861 does show a school at the same location, so we think it was a log school at that time,” said neighbor Rosemary Crone, who grew up on the nearby Crone farm, which was previously the Hastings farm. “My grandfather, his brothers and sisters, and my mother all attended the school by walking every day from the family farm that is located about a mile west of the school in the valley of Rush Run. Shirley and Jim Croskey deserve a lot of praise for restoring a community landmark.”

“Rosemary Crone and John Crone still live in the area, and their mother Beatrice Hastings Crone attended school at Lecky School from 1922-30,” Shirley Croskey said. “Their grandfather John Hastings and his six siblings attended the Lecky School in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Rosemary and John’s mother Beatrice shared many stories of her school days at Lecky with them. She said that there were two outhouses at the school, one for boys and one for girls. They would organize plays and different activities at the school. Their grandfather participated in one of the plays. They would bring kerosene lanterns to the school for lighting as there was never electricity in the building.

“The Oak Grove School was part of the Prairie Township Rural Schools. My grandparents Dale and Margaret Schlegel bought their farm in April 1932. The schoolhouse was located at the end of their drive, but it sat on land owned by Grant and Laureeta Baker. The school closed around 1940, and the students went to school in Holmesville. My uncle Robert Schlegel attended Lecky School for three years.”

Shirley Croskey’s parents Roy and Fonda bought the Baker farm in the early 1970s, and her grandparents and parents incorporated their farms to DalRoy Farms in 1973.

“Grandpa and Dad used the empty schoolhouse to store farm equipment and hay,” she said. “After my parents bought the school, my mom always wanted to refinish and fix up the school, but Dad thought it was fine using it that way.”

Jim and Shirley Croskey purchased the school from her parents’ estate in 2023 and started restoring it that spring.

“We hired Eli Nisley’s crew to replace the roof, windows, and built in the entrance to resemble what the original school looked like. VM Masonry pointed the bricks,” Shirley Croskey said. “With these changes the school was weather tight, and then we could move on to the cosmetic changes inside the school this spring.

“Eli Nisley leveled the floor, which was a huge job from having several broken floor joists, and after much effort got it to within a half-inch of being level. Then Jim and I finished the new oak floor this summer. The new oak floor was purchased through the Ohio Floor Company. We want to thank Willis Parrot from the Ohio Floor Company for the guidance he gave us in refinishing the floor. We also had electric installed this summer with period lighting. We have been collecting period antiques to furnish the school for some years. I was a teacher for 30 years at West Holmes Local School.”

The Aug. 31 open house allowed the Croskeys’ family and friends to see the restored school, with 108 people attending.

“Our plans for the school are for family reunions, family gatherings and educational opportunities for area children,” Shirley Croskey said. “I saw a quote in a museum a year ago that touched my heart, and it is written on the chalkboard when you enter the schoolhouse: “The only meaningful legacy we will leave this world will be the difference made in others, especially in the life of a child.”