The story of Pleasant Valley’s one-room schoolhouse takes the spotlight at Howell Living History Farm’s Back to School Weekend
Scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 5, the event features a series of talks, tours and programs for visitors of all ages.
Historian and author Larry Kidder, of Ewing, is set to open the series Sept. 5 with an illustrated talk about the role of the schoolhouse in a rural Mercer County farming community in the 19th and early 20th century.
Based on research conducted by Kidder for his award-winning book, The Pleasant Valley School Story, the talk focuses on the history of the school between 1820 and 1936, when dramatic changes in farming and rural life impacted the way that country schools looked and functioned.
The presentation is set to take place 7:30 p.m. in the Charles Fish Barn, at the farm’s visitor center. Doors open at 7 p.m. A donation of $3 is suggested.
On Sept. 6, children are invited to participate in a Back to School program that takes them inside a period-furnished classroom for a lesson in history and geography. Graduates of the class can play games in the schoolyard before heading back to the farm to help with the after-school chores that await in the barnyard. A horse-drawn school bus restored by one of Howell Farm’s volunteers will be on display during the program.
The Back to School program is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Walking tours to the schoolhouse and adjacent Wooden poultry farm are scheduled for 1 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 7. Jane and Larry Kidder, and Pleasant Valley resident Tom Wooden are set to host the tours, which include peeks inside the schoolhouse and farm buildings.
Today, the Pleasant Valley Schoolhouse is owned by Mercer County and administered by Howell Living History Farm as part of the Mercer County park system. It is currently used to interpret a variety of topics relating to both education and community development in the time period 1820-1968. When the schoolhouse closed in 1938, the property was purchased and modified by a former student, Franklyn Wooden, to be his family home and poultry farm. The Wooden family owned the property until Mercer County acquired it in 2003.
Howell Farm is located on Valley Road, off Route 29, two miles south of Lambertville.
More information is online at mercercountyparks.org or howellfarm.org.
Children participate in a “Back to School” program at the Pleasant Valley Schoolhouse. (Photo by Jeff Kelley).,
