Before your kids head back to school, take a trip back in time and explore one of the area’s old schoolhouses where children can experience firsthand the life of schoolkids over 100 years ago.
Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead
13800 Switzer Rd., Overland Park, KS, 913.897.2360
Open daily 9:00-5:00, April-October; open until 8:00 on Tue. & Thu. Memorial Day-Labor Day.
Admission: Mon.-Thu. free; Fri.-Sun. and holidays $2/ea., free/under 2.
One of the attractions at the farmstead is the replica 1900 one-room country school. With a slate blackboard and antique desks, children learn what school was like a century ago.
Lanesfield Schoolhouse
18745 S. Dillie Rd., Edgerton, KS, 913.893.6645
Open Fri. & Sat., 1:00-5:00.
Admission is free.
Learn about the history of education in Kansas and Johnson County with a visit to the limestone schoolhouse. Visitors learn about education for rural Kansans in the mid-20th century.
Missouri Town 1855
8010 E. Park Rd., Blue Springs, MO, 816.503.4800
Open Tue.-Sun. March 1-Nov. 15, 9:00-4:30; weekends only Nov. 16-Feb. 28, 9:00-4:30.
Admission: $5/adults, $3/children 5-13, $3/seniors 62+.
Explore more than 25 buildings dating from 1820 to 1860, including a pioneer school. Interpreters in period attire present living history programs, including school lessons, during special events.
Mt. Gilead Church & School
15918 Plattsburg Rd., Kearney, MO, 816.736.8500
Mt. Gilead School, built in 1879, operated for more than a century until it closed its doors in 1946. Historians believe Mt. Gilead was the only school in the area to continuously hold classes during the Civil War.
Oxford School House
Located in Ironwoods Park, 147th & Mission Road, Leawood, KS, 913.339.6700 x157
Visit the school and talk with a costumed docent about the history of Oxford School and the surrounding rural area. Schedule a program for any group any day of the week year-round (except during Open House hours).
Shawnee Town 1929
11501 W. 57th St., Shawnee, KS, 913.248.2360
Open Tue.-Sat. March-October, 10:00-4:30.
Admission: museum tour is $3/adult, $1/child 5-17, free/under 5
Shawnee Town 1929 depicts a typical day in and around the 1920s farm community, including a one-room schoolhouse.
Shoal Creek Living History Museum
7000 NE Barry Rd., Kansas City, MO, 816.792.2655
Open daily, dawn to dusk.
Admission: free. Special events through the year have an admission fee or donation.
The living history museum comprises 21 structures with 17 authentic 19th century buildings dating from 1807 to 1885, including a schoolhouse. Learn as children did in times gone by during special events.