ORIGINS

I grew up in a small Ohio town and I rode the school bus from 1st through 12th grades. My bus ride always included a country road on which every school day we saw a one-room brick school house. (SW corner of Stine Rd and Enon-Xenia Pike). As the years went by I watched this wonderful, familiar friend fall apart. After I married the school really began to deteriorate. Every time we visited the area I would want to take a photo of the school but never did. Finally, when we went specifically for the task, the school was gone. It was a huge loss for me and, since that time, whenever we pass a one-room school it is a joy to stop to take a picture or two. Thus, our collection here and the blog with schools in other states. Jill :oD

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Red Oak #1, Bedbug School

This school was Red Oak #1, also known as Bedbug School.  It was moved in 1989 from somewhere in Cedar County to the Cedar County Fairgrounds in Tipton.  About a year ago it was moved to its current location .4 mile north of Tipton city limits on SR38.  It is with an old church, an old log cabin and another old building, all of which have been moved within the same time frame because the foundations are all fairly recent.  The new location is the Cedar County Historical Society Museum.
One thing I thought was interesting is the door being recessed between the cloak-rooms.  Usually there is  a hall from the door with cloak-rooms on either side.  Also, as with some of the other schools, you can tell which wall the blackboard was on - the one without windows.

UPDATE 10/11/15:  The following information came from the Des Moines Register newspaper:

The Bed Bug school in Cedar County has also seen many changes. Built in 1910 in a rural area, it closed in 1925 when the Tipton consolidated district formed.

Most country schools were officially noted by just a district number, so residents came up with creative names for their local schools. Sandy Harmel, museum coordinator for the Cedar County Historical Society, said Bed Bug apparently got its name after it became a popular bunking spot for hobos riding a nearby train line.

Bed Bug was moved to Tipton and ended up as a storage shed behind the high school. It was gifted to the society in the 1990s. But years of housing lawnmowers and other equipment had been hard on its wood planks.

"The floor was very oily and greasy looking — as far as the building, it was in pretty good shape — but it was going to be over $2,000 to have the floor professionally done," said society president Mike Bixler.

The state program provided $1,385 in 2012 toward having the floors repaired. "We probably wouldn't have done this project without that grant," Bixler said.

The organization has also painted the school and rebuilt the roof. A bell rings out to draw visitors during open houses, school field trips and the annual A Day on the Prairie event, which draws about 500 people to the school, a church and other buildings on the society's grounds.

 UPDATE 4/3/17:  The following photos were taken on 1 April 2017, showing the restoration and display
UPDATE 10/9/20:  More photos of the restored buildings.
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