Pleasant Point School
Rush County School District 24, Pleasant Point School is one of the last remaining one-room schools in Rush County. It was originally located 6½ miles south of Nekoma in rural Rush County. Attendance records for the school date back to the late 1800s. A 1901 plat map of Rush County shows the building located on section 20, township 19 south, range 19 west, in Union Township about one half mile west of the former location.
According to the Rush Center Breeze, October 18, 1907, George Sheets was awarded the contract to build the present building in the fall of that year. The vestibule and coal room at the front of the building was added later. After the school closed in 1959, the Seltman family maintained the building that many of their family members had once attended. In 2014, to ensure the school's future preservation, Colleen Seltman Messersmith, owner of the school property, donated the building to the Historical Society. On February 18, 2015, the Society moved the building to Grass Park in La Crosse.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the Seltmann family, the building contains most of its original furnishings. It has been carefully restored preserving as much of its original character as possible. Electrical fixtures and a few furnishings installed during a 1950s era modernization were replaced with fixtures more appropriate to the early 20th century time period.
Now that restoration has been mostly completed, the school will have a two-fold purpose. As an historic property, it will provide an opportunity for area youth to experience learning in a setting similar to that of their ancestors. As a museum, the school will serve as an educational resource to tell the story of a time when over 60 one-room schools dotted the landscape of Rush County and house objects relevant to early education in Rush County including collections from innovative pioneer educator Howard Barnard, founder of Entre Nous College near McCracken.
News & Updates...
May 2019: The school was dedicated May 25, 2019 with a number of former alumni in attendance.
Teachers interested in using the building for special classes or educational programs, please contact the Historical Society.
June 2020: We recently obtained school census records from 1893-1923. We now have a complete set
of records from District 24.
New Life for an Old School...
The school on its original site in 2014.
February 18, 2015 - 9:30am to 11:00am.
2015-2017 - Work on the school at the museum campus.
May 25, 2019 - Dedication of the school and flagpole.
For the latest news and updates...
Inside the School...
The Pleasant Point School Museum houses most of its original furnishings from the early 20th century to the 1950s. In addition, the museum displays several items of special interest
relevant to rural education in the time period of the school.
Because the school's original piano had been damaged beyond repair many years ago by vandals, the Society replaced it with a rare piano-cased organ manufactured by Burdett Organ Company in the early 20th century. Piano-cased Organs, made for only a few years, were pump organs installed in an upright piano cabinet. The organ located in the school had originally been used in the Rush Center Methodist Episcopal Church after 1910.
Pictured is the interior of the school in November 2018 after restoration. The building is decorated for the Historical Society's annual Old-Fashioned Christmas celebration on the Friday after Thanksgiving.