Wisconsin - Old Time Schoolhouses


Garden Valley School  

This is the Garden Valley School on CH E in Waumandee, deep in the ridge country of western Wisconsin. Its nameplate says it was “Public School Dis. No 2,” built in 1902.

The Wisconsin Historical Society  lists out as a “one to six-room school.” This Scotty presents a few other images. It describes the building as “Segmental arch windows with decorative keystones and springers, central around the arch entrance.” It lists the school as having a “Front Gabled” architectural style.

Waumandee, Wisconsin 1860-1960, an Affectionate Portrait” by LaVern J. Ripley,” suggests this school was seen as a modern one back in 1919, later used as a town hall. The village was a small one then, population of about 100. It had an “a general store, a brick garage, two blacksmith shops, the Farmers State Bank and two saloons. It also has a post office, a good modern public school, and a German Catholic church with a two-room parochial school building.”

It is worth noting that much of the history of Waumandee talks a great deal about the St. Boniface School, a Catholic school that operates to this day.

The town’s Land Use Plan of March 11, 2014, noted the Town maintains the Garden Valley School and said it would “study the feasibility of restoring the Waumandee public school.”