Last Modified: October 4, 2023

The Oil Springs School, a one-room rural schoolhouse, and outhouse was previously located on the Great River Road, north of Harpers Ferry near Mohn’s Fish market.

Steve and Shirley Hawes gifted the school and the outhouse to the Harpers Ferry Area Heritage Society to be restored and preserved. It has been moved to Harpers Ferry and placed on land made available by the Martelle Family adjacent to Tillinghast Park and overlooking the Mississippi River (Harpers Slough) known as Martelle Heritage Park.

The grand opening of Oil Springs School was held on Saturday, September 8th, 2016. At 10 am the was a ribbon cutting by the mayor, board members and donors followed by the raising of the flag and singing of the national anthem. A lunch was served at noon in the community building with a special presentation by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a prairie school teacher played by Laura Keyes. Other activities were a spelling bee, school lesson and other games.

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Classmates Reunite for A Photo Recreation

Historic Stories, Oil Springs School

Oil Springs School Improvements

Oil Springs School

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Classmates Reunite for A Photo Recreation

Alice Evanson (top right of picture) taught at Oil Springs School in the mid-early 1900’s. Like most one room school houses, class sizes were generally …

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Over the winter the floor in the Oil Springs School entrance rotted out with large holes in the floor so it was replaced with the …

Oil Springs School