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Sue Kiesewetter reports:

Antique agricultural tractors will be on display at this year’s spring open house at the former Hughes School – a one-room school adjacent to Liberty Elementary School.

Sponsored by the Liberty Township Historical Society the open house runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, at the school, 6010 Princeton Road.

“It’s going to be something a little bit different, something visual. People driving by will also get to see it,’’ said Paul Stumpf, Liberty Township’s fire chief and a founding member of the historical society.

“We wanted to have a tribute to the agricultural heritage of Liberty Township.”

Members will be available to answer questions about the school and its history.

In conjunction with the open house, the Liberty Township Garden Club will host its annual plant sale in the school’s parking lot.

“Most of the members will dig perennial ‘starts’ from their own gardens,’’ said club member Naomi Ormes. “You just never know what jewels you’ll find.”

Ormes said there would be hostas, daylilies, iris, ground covers and even some bushes – including burning bush – at the sale.

Along with the starts – which will sell for as little as 25 cents each – the Liberty Township gardening group will sell a limited number flats of annuals, $13; and and hanging baskets for $14.

Orders will be taken for flats for those who want them after the supply runs out.

The garden club uses funds from the plant sale to further its causes. Members take care of flowers at the Hughes School grounds, work in Dudley Woods and donate to the Butler County Fair.

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Tags: Tags: former Hughes School, former Hughes School Liberty Township, Hughes School, Hughes School Liberty Township, Liberty Township Historical Society

On Nov. 17, first graders from Liberty Early Childhood School got a chance to visit Hughes School, a former one-room school next door to their school in Liberty Township during the school’s first Pioneer Day. Photo taken by Cara Owsley

Sue Kiesewetter reports:

The former one-room Hughes School will open to the community Sunday for a holiday open house, decorated as it would have been in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

The Liberty Township Historical Society is opening the Princeton Road school from 1 to 3 p.m. for the Christmas open house.

Volunteers will be on hand to talk about the school, its history and holidays in the late 1800s along with answering questions.

Small berry strings, knitted mittens, and pinecones put on by historical members and volunteers will adorn the live tree. Visitors won’t see the blinking lights that adorn modern trees.

“If people want to dress up in period – or regular clothes – and take pictures either inside by the tree or in front of the school, it makes for a nice Christmas card,’’ said Paul Stumpf, a member of the historical society and Liberty Township fire chief.

“It’s also a good opportunity for people to see what’s inside. We’ve had people say they’ve driven by 100 times and never knew what it was.”

The historical society will serve hot chocolate and cookies during the open house. There is no admission charge.

The historical society is also looking for older, longtime Liberty Township residents to come to the group’s meetings and tell stories.

“We’d like to catalog the stories – whether they’re about family or things they remember or tidbits,” Stumpf said. “They may not mean anything individually until you put it together with other stories and it fills in voids in documented history.”

Stumpf said the historical society is also looking for pictures the group can keep or copy. Period toys are also being sought for a display of toys for the holiday open house that will start in the late 1800s through the 1960s.

The one-room school house opened in 1887 and was the second school built in Liberty Township. It was used as a school until 1922, Stumpf said.

After that it became a custodian’s home, was used for storage and fell into disrepair. In the mid-1970s the school board considered demolishing the building before the community stepped in, Stumpf said.

A yearlong restoration was completed and the school was dedicated in 1976 using volunteer labor to do the work and holding fundraisers to pay for it. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is now opened periodically so students can tour the building and learn about Butler County’s early public education history.

For more information, or to donate or loan items to the historic society, contact Stumpf at 513-759-7532 or at 513-678-8346.

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Tags: Tags: Hughes School, Hughes School Liberty Township, Liberty Township Historical Society