Anyone who attended or taught at a rural school in Washington County is invited to attend the third-annual Washington County Rural School Reunion next month at the Hay Lake School Museum in Scandia.

The reunion, which will be from noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 14, is for anyone who attended a one-room or two-room school anywhere in Washington County, said Brent Peterson, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society, which is hosting the reunion. More than 35 people, including several former students in their 90s, attended last year’s reunion, he said.

Washington County had 79 rural school districts and one joint district with Chisago County that were slowly consolidated during the 1940s and 1950s until all of them were closed by the early 1960s, according to Peterson.

Only a few of the schools are still standing, including the Hay Lake School, Eder School in Oakdale, Valley School in Denmark Township and the Hopkins school in Hugo. The McKean School, which was located in West Lakeland Township, was moved to the grounds of Boutwells Landing in Oak Park Heights and was restored by volunteers from the senior-housing complex — many of whom attended one-room schoolhouses when they were children.

Hay Lake School, built of brick in 1896, was considered “one of the finer one-room schoolhouses of its day,” Peterson said. It served as a regular classroom until its final class of students in 1963. The Washington County Historical Society purchased the school in 1978, and it has been a museum ever since. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Former students are asked to stop by and share their stories and photographs; no reservations are required. Cake and lemonade will be served.

For more information, go to wchsmn.org/event/one-room-schoolhouse-reunion-party.

Related Articles

Oak Park Heights: Stillwater man suffers medical emergency and dies after crashing pickup

Champlin man sentenced for assaulting Washington County deputies during traffic stop

Oakdale woman allegedly killed by husband in murder-suicide in rural Dakota County field

Lake Elmo residents asked to help name new city park

Stillwater starts school year with a familiar issue: bus headaches