photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The recently restored Winter School, 744 N. 1800 Road, is pictured on May 5, 2022. The building will now serve as a community museum and event space.

After sitting abandoned for decades, the small limestone schoolhouse that has held space atop a bluff overlooking the Farmer’s Turnpike will finally return to its original purpose as a place to learn and to gather.

The 1870 one-room schoolhouse in Lecompton, known as Winter School No. 70, has undergone an approximately one-year restoration, in which the rotting floor was replaced, the stucco patched and painted, and a bell once again hung from the belfry. Now, the building will serve as a community museum and event center, and is preparing to host its grand opening on May 14, followed by several days of events.

Winter School Director Katie Winter, whose family has long had ties to the school, noted that one-room schoolhouses served as gathering places as well as classrooms, and she said she hoped it would offer a place for people to connect.

“(To see it) as something that’s theirs,” Winter said. “A place that they can come and ask questions and share ideas.”

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The interior of the Winter School is pictured on May 5, 2022.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

A fire ring and benches are pictured at the Winter School, 744 N. 1800 Road.

It has taken years for the building to get back to that point. The school operated for 75 years, serving families within a 2-mile radius, and also hosted social functions such as meetings, plays and spelling bees, according to the Winter School website. After the school closed in 1946, the building fell out of public use, at one point being used for hay storage, and ultimately sat for decades in disrepair.

The building has come full circle in another way. The land for the school was originally donated to Douglas County by one of Lecompton’s earliest settlers, Mathias “Ship” Winter. After a couple of private owners, descendants of the Winter family bought the school in 1984 with plans to preserve it, but the full-scale renovation did not begin until 2019. The building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Events planned for the grand opening offer a picture of what the space aims to provide. In addition to an opening party with music and barbecue, events will include an author talk, a happy hour prairie walk, a calligraphy lesson, and a limestone fence workshop. The Winter School’s first exhibit, “History, Notice Me,” and its accompanying curriculum, will also debut, as will the work from several local artists displayed in the building and on its grounds.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The grounds of the Winter School, 744 N. 1800 Road, feature painted driftwood and space for outdoor activities.

Part of the exhibit, “History, Notice Me,” is pictured at the Winter School.

However, Megan Embers, the artist in residence at the Winter School who has also been working to create some of the materials for the exhibit, said some of the events were the ideas of others, and that flexibility remains for how the space — which also has a stone courtyard, a section of native prairie, a fire ring with benches, and outdoor activities — can be used.

“People will have ideas that we haven’t thought of, and that’s exciting,” Embers said.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Megan Embers, the artist in residence at the Winter School, and Winter School Director Katie Winter are pictured May 5, 2022, at the school.

“History, Notice Me” is presented in the schoolhouse via a photo gallery and activity cards, and also in a virtual format through a series of short videos. There are photographs and information about dozens of local and regional figures — such as Black cowboy Nat Love, Native American writer and activist Zitkala-Ša, and dancer, singer and choreographer Aida Overton Walker — as well as information about larger concepts, such as the function and roles of one-room schoolhouses. The exhibit asks people to consider “What is the goal of school?” and “Can it be neutral?

Winter said the museum is ultimately a place to start talking about the foundations of education, starting with those questions.

“So really to get down more to the fundamentals of why we do what we do at schools,” Winter said. “We’re always talking about reform … but what do we really want from it?”

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Activities that accompany the exhibit, “History, Notice Me,” are pictured at the Winter School.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

An outdoor activity wall is pictured on the grounds of the Winter School, 744 N. 1800 Road.

The restoration of the school was funded by private funds raised by Winter School Preservation Inc. and a grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council.

Winter said “History, Notice Me” would be in place for at least a year. The Winter School will be open in May from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The grand opening party will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. on May 14 at the Winter School, 744 North 1800 Road. The additional events will take place throughout the remainder of the month, and reservations should be made at Winterschool70@gmail.com. More information about the Winter School and details about the grand opening events are available on the school’s website, Winterschool70.com.