Lawrence Community Nursery School students, clockwise from left, Lily Pryor, 5, Marian Frick, 5, Lydia Storm, 4, Marlowe Kastens, 5, and Courtney Goodman, 4, spin on a tire swing outside their school as their teacher, Amanda Storm, pushes them Wednesday afternoon. The preschool will celebrate its 50th anniversary this weekend as the second-oldest cooperative preschool in the nation.
Little Red Schoolhouse
The children and parents never stopped coming to the little red schoolhouse at 645 Ala., home of the Lawrence Community Nursery School.
The second-oldest cooperative preschool in the nation started April 17, 1948.
On Saturday, parents, students and alumni will celebrate 50 years since the first racially integrated preschool in Lawrence moved to its permanent home in Old West Lawrence in 1957.
"It was probably the most important thing that happened to any of them," said Maggie Carttar, speaking of her five children who attended the school in the 1950s and 1960s. A sixth child of hers has taught at the school.
Carttar was baking a cake in the shape of a red schoolhouse Wednesday to prepare for Saturday's celebration.
Today the preschool serves 60 families. Its mission is to help children develop socially and emotionally, said Stephanie Duncan, the school's director and lead teacher.
"This school is a really good model for the future in a setting that promotes and teaches coming together," Duncan said.
Helen Gilles, a retired Lawrence pediatrician, and her husband, Paul, helped lead a campaign to buy a building for the school's permanent home. Parents established the school to provide a low-cost, cooperative and racially integrated day care, but it had bounced around among several locations.
In 1956, board members bought the Wesleyan Methodist Church at 645 Ala. They painted the building red and white, and classes started there in April 1957.
Gilles says she is proud that the school still stresses that parents take some part in either teaching or maintaining the building.
"I think the aspect of it being cooperative is important because it has gotten parents a lot more involved with their kids and with their children's friends," she said.
The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. Saturday. Gilles will be the keynote speaker. During the ceremony, a stairway from Alabama Street to the school's gate will be dedicated.
The nursery school also recently received a $7,900 grant from the Douglas County Community Foundation to help pay for installation of an energy-efficient air-conditioning and filtration system and an on-demand water heater.
School leaders have also developed a "50 Years of Bricks and Mortar, The Foundation of a Lifetime Campaign" for donations to building projects.
"The current families have been lucky enough to inherit this wonderful place from the people who cared for it for the last 50 plus years," said Derek Osborn, current president of the school. "We want to pass it on to other generations beyond the next 50."
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gkwhdw (anonymous) says…
when I was young, I lived in the 500 block of Missouri and Our girl scout troop held meetings there on Tuesdays. Brings back alot of memories.After our meetings, I always waited at the locally owned Turner's grocery across the street on the corner at 7th and Maine for my sister to pick me up .
KsTwister (anonymous) says…
Does for me too on Arkansas(8something) How I miss the penny candy and bait from Turner's store and the horse drawn ice cream wagons. When Lawrence was cool (and more beautiful).