Loyal Historical Society to start soon on new school building
A series of class photos from the Loyal School District. A group of small wooden desks and chairs, set up in small rows for a young class. Books, some about old scientific practices, others about arithmetic and other forgotten lessons of a bygone era lay atop desks and tables in one of the buildings at the Loyal Area Historical Society. These items won’t be in this particular building for much longer, as the Historical Society is planning to build a new place for them to call home.
Throughout the summer, the Loyal Area Historical Society will be working on a project to build another museum building on its site on East Elm Drive. This building, built to resemble an old schoolhouse, will be the new home of all of the Society’s school memorabilia that it has collected over the years.
“The whole thought that brought it up is that we have a lot of school memorabilia,” said Donna Langfeldt, president of the Loyal Area Historical Society. “We have class pictures, so much school stuff. All of this stuff we want to put into a new home and fill this spot (where the school memorabilia is currently contained) into a veterans corner.”
The Loyal Area Historical Society has gathered quite a few pieces of school history under its roof over the past several years. Many of the items, Langfeldt said, have come from not only the current Loyal School District, but also from many of the small country schools that once dotted the countryside around Loyal.
“They have come from all over,” she said of the items in the museum. “We wanted to save this. A lot of the school memorabilia we want to keep and give a good home.”
It is those country schools that have provided much of the inspiration for the new building the Society is working to build. As an alumni from one of the old country schools herself, Langfeldt said the plan is to make the interior appear as similar to an old schoolhouse as they can.
“I want to be able to put in a cloak room and hang some old coats on the hangers,” she said. “We could build some shelves to put lunch boxes on. We want to try to make it a replica of an old school house.”
Besides making it have that rustic school appearance, Langfeldt said they also plan to keep the museum nature of the place in the 14’ x 28’ building. Class pictures will adorn the walls, she said, and the metal Mack School Building sign that currently hangs against a wall in the museum will be placed on the outside of the building to let people know they will be walking into a place full of the area’s school history.
“We wanted that to be above the school,” she said. “A lot of people around here had went to the Mack School out on 26 Road.”
The project is expected to get underway in the next few weeks and will hopefully be completed by Corn Fest this August, Langfeldt said. Being funded entirely by donations, she said the community has been very supportive of the project.
“Hopefully it will be up by Corn Fest” she said. “We have been getting a lot of donations, a lot of community effort into this. We have good community spirit.”
