With age comes beauty: Historic gem in Ironwoods Park delights visitors of all ages

Classrooms are a place for eager and enthusiastic minds.

It’s no different inside the Historic Oxford Schoolhouse, says April Bishop.

Bishop is a docent at the Leawood schoolhouse, located in Ironwoods Park, 14701 Mission Road. It is her job to guide visitors through the experience of a one-room schoolhouse. Often, the adult visitors generate the narrative.

“They say, ‘I had this desk’ or ‘That photo looks like my schoolhouse’,” Bishop said. “Instantly, they have a connection with it or knew someone who went to a one-room schoolhouse. It’s mostly them talking about their memories rather than me talking about information.”

Indeed, one-room schoolhouses were once plentiful across rural America, including Johnson County.

Many operated into the early 1960s, Bishop said.

The Oxford Schoolhouse operated until 1955 at 135th Street and Mission Road. It is one of the oldest schools in Kansas, having been open from 1877 to 1955. After 1920, it was converted into an elementary school and used until the student body became too large.

Eventually, development reached the schoolhouse’s doorsteps.

It was moved to Ironwoods Park in 2003, renovated and reopened as a historic site in 2004.

The only modern change was to added air conditioning and heating.

The Leawood Historic Commission received the 2005 Award for Excellence for Preservation Advocacy from the Kansas Preservation Alliance.

“There are not many one-room schoolhouses left in our region,” said Melissa Duggan, cultural arts supervisor of Parks, Recreation & Arts for the city of Leawood.

“It really is unique,” Duggan said. “I think it is one of the gems in this city.”

The schoolhouse has open hours most of the year and is open year-round by appointments to school field trips, scout troops, and groups both young and not-so-young.

Docents, like Bishop, provide information and give lessons in arithmetic, history and spelling at antique desks. Writing is done on slates. There can be reading from McGuffey’s Readers, and a recess with historic games and activities.

The schoolhouse also houses a display of historical artifacts, including 19th-century educational texts and class photographs dating back to 1894.

Duggan said the instructional format of the docents differs from those of the teachers during the one-room schoolhouse era.

“They ran a very tight ship then,” Duggan said. “The docents welcome questions.”

Also, Duggan said the docents “recognize the difference of the groups’ curiosity,” so visits can be tailored to a group’s interest.

The schoolhouse hosts events, like an authors’ series this past summer, throughout the year.

Two upcoming special events are scheduled for the schoolhouse.

“Into the Night Fall Festival” will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 11. Th e event will include activities throughout Ironwoods Park, and crafts and mask making in the schoolhouse.

Advance registration is required. For registration and information, go to the city’s site, leawood.org and search fall festival.

The schoolhouse also will offer holiday tradition on the prairie during Ironwood Park’s Breakfast with Santa, which will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 7. Registration is required, and made be made by going to leawood.org and searching breakfast with Santa.