Wednesday, March 28, 2018

the Wirsing School's family

In the past year, two different branches of the Wirsing School's original family have reached out through the blog.  This is astounding and wonderful, and beyond gratifying.  I would say that it's incomprehensible to think that such a charming little place almost met such an undignified end, but, with grand mansions being torn down every day we know that's not true.  Still, the little schoolhouse that could must have known it had a fan club, it's the only thing explaining why it still managed to stay (mostly) upright. 

Here's a bit of it's history, in photos...

1912 - check out the original bell tower, chimney and porch!

1967

 The two photos above were sent to me by a member of the Wirsing family whose cousin, Ronda Ball, was the last Wirsing to own the schoolhouse. Her grandfather, Wayne Wirsing, bought and restored the schoolhouse in the 60's. He was born just down the lane from the schoolhouse in a farmhouse. Her 3 times great grandpa donated the land and some of the funds to build the school house in 1875, and it was in operation until 1948. The bell is not original to the school and was gone when her grandpa, Wayne, bought the school (The bell had already been stolen when we began work, what a relief to find out it wasn't original). There was a Wirsing reunion held at the school each August from 1967 until the late 1980's.  There are several school desks from the schoolhouse house still in the family.


The photos below are one I just received, taken in 1999 by another Wiring descendant who was doing genealogical research.  Sarah Jane Wirsing (daughter of John Wirsing and Sarah Rush) is his 4th great-grandmother.

1999

1999

1999

1999 - check out those wasp nests!

1999 
1999

The next few photos are the schoolhouse as we found it in early 2013, after responding to a "free stuff" posting on Craigslist.  There are not enough thank yous in the world for the people who posted it...

2013

2013

2013

After the first coat of paint on the front following it's resurrection (see, this is a timely almost Easter post!)...

2016

More or less as she stands today below.  Paint will get finished this year no matter what, as will gutters.  I'm not sure I'll have time to finish restoring the beadboard shutters though.

2017

Given that Wirsing School Road no long has it's school, I think we'll be buying a replica street sign for our driveway, just in case the family reunions resume and they need to find the place...

27 comments:

  1. I think we'll be buying a replica street sign for our driveway, just in case the family reunions resume and they need to find the place...

    OMG! What a fabulous idea!!!!!!!

    Also, I can image your great excitement in seeing these remarkable images!

    CONGRATS on saving this lovely structure!

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    1. It's remarkable just how lucky we've been in the photo department (if hundreds of hours of research is lucky). I know people who would kill for a single vintage image of their home, and here we've been able to find images of both the house and the schoolhouse. Now if only some interiors would appear in my mailbox...

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  2. That is a lot of fun! I know it was a lot of work to haul/fix/restore, but it sure seems worth it!

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    1. I regret NOTHING!!! But I silently chuckle when someone tells me how they'd like to do the same thing!

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  3. Oops! That is supposed to be: I can imagine...

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    1. Can you print it out full res and send it to me, may be nice to hang on the wall ;-)

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  4. Do you still have the sign that was above the door?

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  5. Thank you for discussing this great post.

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  6. For those who have been living for a life time, I’m pretty sure that this schoolhouse brings up so many memories about the past. Looking at these photos has a huge impact on my mind, wondering what could have happened. Reserving the past and making it last till today is such a great and meaningful work that you have managed to complete. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. Thank you for this blog. I have had the opportunity to be able to see the schoolhouse before it's demise. You have done a beautiful job of restoring and upgrading the school. Again, thank you for sharing.

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    1. So sorry I missed your comment, sadly the comments have been overrun with spam and I've been totally ignoring them. So many people loved that building, I'm so happy it's able to have a second life!

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  14. Thank you so much for restoring the Wirsing Schoolhouse and posting this info/ pictures. My mother, Elinor, went to the reunions. One of my sisters was asking me about genealogy today. I was telling her stories that our mother had told me. I was thrilled to read/see this post! Again, thank you!!
    My lineage is John Kasper Wirsing > Henry Wirsing > John Wirsing > Josiah Wirsing > Elizabeth Alice Wirsing (Collins) > Mildred Collins (Grace) > Elinor Grace (Pegel) > Me.

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    1. One bright spot to the shut down has been folks having the time to do genealogy research, I know so many people working on theirs right now. Thank you for the lineage, do you happen to know which Wirsing built the school house? I would adore hearing any of her stories so they stay with the building - if you'd like to share you can e-mail me at sparrowhaunt@gmail.com

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  15. What fun to see these old photos (and my backside in the one from 2013, lol)!! I am going to print out some of the old ones to hang in the cabin :) We had an artist friend do a painting of the schoolhouse as it would have looked in it's heyday, and it hangs in the cabin now. You did a great job of restoring it! Congratulations!!

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    1. So good to hear from you!!! I think the photos are posted in full quality, but if you have any issues let me know and I'll e-mail what I have to you. We really can't thank you enough for your generosity, it's amazing the cult following this little building has. When we're finally able to dress up our driveway we plan on ordering a "Wirsing School Rd" street sign for an old street light we have waiting to be installed.

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    2. It was really fun reading all of this! Someday, we are going to make the drive to look you up in person. We've talked about it many times, just never done it. 😊

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    3. P.S. the pictures printed out perfectly! Thank you! I can't wait to hang them in the cabin :)

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