Little School Museum Moving

From the Pontiac Daily Leader:

By Luke Smucker

Posted Nov 4, 2017 at 3:35 PM

The first schoolhouse built in Chatsworth, recognized today as The Little School Museum on North First Street in Chatsworth Area Planning Society Park is moving, for the third time in the building’s history, to a new location on Locust Street. According to Chatsworth Mayor Richard Runyon, the schoolhouse’s final move is necessary for the preservation of the building and to make the museum more visible. The Little School Museum sat on wheels at the end of October with tentative plans to move it during the first week of November from its current location, between the ball diamond and the swimming pool in CAPS Park, to an empty lot on Locust Street, Chatsworth’s main thoroughfare. The building will rest on a new foundation with access to electricity for heating and air conditioning. “We want to protect the building from the weather, so we are going add electricity in order to heat and cool it,” Mayor Runyon said. “We also want to make the building more visible to the community. The new resting place will be on Main (Locust) Street, directly across from the recently-renovated Bluebird Hall.“ The move will bring more historical content to the center of town. The recently-renovated Bluebird Hall features information on Chatsworth High School, historic memorabilia from Chatsworth, information on The 1887 Chatsworth train wreck and also serves as the village’s community center. The town’s old T.P. & W Caboose, which has also been turned into a small museum, also sits nearby. “By moving the schoolhouse, we’ll add more variety to what we can offer to people interested in the history of Chatsworth,” Runyon said. “People will be able to see three museums without having to get back in the car.“ According to the museum’s website, the one-room schoolhouse was built in 1858 on two lots that were donated by William Osborn, specifically for the purpose of building a school. The location was on the town’s north side, between what is now 

Fourth and Fifth Streets. After a new school was built in 1870, the little school was moved one mile east of town and became known as the “Beet School,” because it was attended mostly by the children of the workers at the beet factory, but it was also attended by others who lived in the area. The “Beet School” was moved to CAPS Park by Harvey Peters of Farmer City on April 14, 1971. It was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Glen Dehm, as it was on their property. George Augsburger and Jim Kessinger shingled it. Kyle Bleich is spearheading the latest move of the schoolhouse with help from Ameren, Mediacom and Frontier. The School will travel south down First Street to Locust Street, then turn east and travel two blocks. It will then travel to an empty lot still heading East and about a half a block later will find its new location. “The biggest issue is these companies have to move their utility lines so that the building can travel under it,” Runyon said. “We had to take the bell tower off in order to move it under the power lines. Once it’s moved into position, we’re going to have footings poured. They have to build the foundation up to the building. Once we get it settled, we’re going to do a little work on the floor and stuff to preserve it for the future.

Little School Museum