One of Hennepin County’s last one-room schoolhouses still standing on its original site has made it onto the National Register of Historic Places.
Members of the Champlin Historical Society spent two years going through the arduous process to get the Dunning School on the list of the nation’s most treasured landmarks. On Saturday, they celebrated the accomplishment with an ice cream social and unveiled a bronze plaque that now stands next to the one-story, wood-framed building that served students in old School District 99 from 1876 to 1947.
“This is a big day,” said Champlin Mayor Ryan Sabas during the event. “We are keeping a piece of our history. This place is now forever protected.”
Of course, a few things have changed since the doors first opened. The Champlin Historical Society lifted up the building and removed the original foundation composed of tree stumps and fieldstone and rebuilt it with concrete block featuring a stone veneer. New shingles have been put on the gable roof, concrete stairs added at the entrance and the interior got a fresh paint job.
Some of the original wainscoting is still there as is the school’s first electrical outlet, which still works.
But by and large, the tiny school on West River Road with its large double-hung windows and replica wood-burning stove has retained its character, and still looks much like it did when Marian Robertson attended Dunning from first through eighth grades in the late 1930s through the mid-1940s.
“It’s nice,” the 93-year-old said Saturday as she strolled through the school, noting the historical society’s efforts to maintain the building.
Framed pictures of early U.S. presidents and the roster of teachers who taught at Dunning adorn the walls. Wooden desks reminiscent of those used during the era fill the center of the classroom while tables along the walls feature globes, flashcards, pamphlets, books and small chalkboards like those students used at their desks to complete their lessons — no Chromebooks back then.
