WALLINGFORD — A glimpse of a bygone era can be seen just off Kentucky 559 at the top of Lake Park Mountain.
The white, one-room Poston School sits just off what is now a paved highway, looking much as it did when the doors closed over half a century ago.
Thanks to some generous donations and hard work, students from Fleming County High School have transformed the once dilapidated building back into the little schoolhouse where hundreds of students learned reading, writing and arithmetic so many years ago.
“We tried to put everything back just like it was back then,” said Charles Berry.
Berry, an agriculture construction teacher at FCHS, retired from teaching but came back in 2008 to substitute for his old position for one year. That’s when the Poston School project began.
“The two brothers who owned the property donated it to the school,” Berry said.
When the project began, the building was barely a shell of its former self. Windows and the door were missing, the floor was practically gone, the ceiling was sagging and the building was completely sunk down into the ground, according to Berry. In the 50 or so years since its closing, it had only been used to store hay.
Work began and the building was jacked up to put in a new foundation. The ceiling was braced up and a new roof was installed. Additionally, the door was replaced and windows were handmade in Ashland to replicate the former windows that had long since disappeared.
A new floor was installed, made to look as it might have in the 1930s.
“We’ve pretty much redone everything,” said senior Daniel Jackson, one of 40 FCHS students to work on the project. “I grew up on a farm so there was always something like that to be done around the farm.”
Jackson, the son of Randy and Pam Jackson of Ewing, said he really liked being able to do something for the community, but it was hard for him to imagine attending such a school after being part of a large school like FCHS.
“You don’t have 500 kids to fight going to class every day,” he said, “they’re all in the same room.”
Some photographs of the school during its hey-day were found and everything has been reproduced or replicated to look much like those photos.
Students even prepared some research done on the school and have produced a booklet, complete with photos and interviews with former Poston School students and teachers, as well as stories about the old school.
Several former students have also had some input on the renovation and decor, sharing many memories of their school days.
“A lot of people have stopped by while we were working on it and some of them said they went to school here,” Jackson said.
A 90-year-old man who happened by the construction sight offered one vital piece of information to the restoration process.
“He said ‘You haven’t marked your outhouses yet,’” Berry told the crowd that assembled for lunch at the Poston School Thursday. Berry explained to the man that they were planning to mark them “boys” and “girls” but the man pointed out that back in the day, many people couldn’t read or write so symbols had to be used to identify the gender of the outhouse.
The two outhouses now sitting behind the Poston School are properly marked with a star for girls and a half-moon for boys, as the elderly gentleman had explained.
Those involved with the project have also taken great care to put very time-period appropriate pieces inside the school, which will serve in a museum-type function from now on. White enamel wash pans along with tin cups and a dipper are near the door as they might have appeared in the first half of the 20th century. A pot belly stove sits in the middle of the room, surrounded by approximately 10 old-fashioned school desks. Several “readers” and books are placed throughout the room, as well as toys likes jacks, marbles and even a cap buster.
An American flag, complete with 48 stars, hangs in the back corner behind the teacher’s desk. A barrel of switches, which was a tool used in a popular method of punishment, also dots the back corner. A portion of a chalk board, which was installed in the school in 1946, was salvaged and hangs on the back wall. Prior to the chalk board, a section of wall was painted black where various students probably did basic addition and subtraction problems at some time.
While removing the chalkboard, a painting done in 1936 was uncovered on the back wall as well. Paper cutouts of a farm scene were adhered to the painted scene, which workers were able to salvage and touch-up with paint. Above it reads, “Before we go to Poston School we bring in the cows to milk.” Its artist is still unknown.
Even a stain at the top of the back wall remains after so many years. During the restoration, workers found the brownish stain and tried to scrap it off and cover it with paint. When a former student stopped by, he explained how the stain appeared after a student brought a jar of tomato juice to school, which turned out to be spoiled and exploded on the wall when it was opened.
The Poston School dates back to the Civil War, when a log structure stood on the current site. That building burned just after the turn of the century in 1907 and the current wood building was then constructed and still stands today, over 100 years later, thanks to the students who helped with the project. The Poston School closed its door to students in 1953.
“It had as many as 50 students at one time,” Berry said.
Some of the former students have been back since the renovation. An open house was held in October when about 20 former students and a total of nearly 250 people attended.
“They were all hugging and crying,” Berry said. “Most of them hadn’t seen each other in 50 years.”
Since its completion, the property where the school resides has been donated to the county, which will be in charge of the maintenance.
Contact Melinda Charles at melinda.charles@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 274.
For more area news, visit www.maysville-online.com.
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