Lincoln Highway's Schmuhl School History: One-Room Schoolhouse

From the New Lenox (Illinois) Historical Society.

The school was a short distance south of US-30 (Lincoln Highway) and was built in the to replace the one on the farm of Henry Schmuhl which burned in 1932.  It was one of 140 one-room school houses in the 1940s  in Will County at one time.

Today's brick one was built and classes began in 1933 and was considered very modern for the times and even had a furnace in the basement, electricity , eater and indoor chemical toilets.

As with all one-room schools, it had all eight grades, but a typical enrollment was around twelve students so it wasn't overcrowded.

Teacher salary was $80 a month, with $5 going to pension.  The teacher also cleaned the building.  In 1949 or 1950, it was divided into two classes with the lower grades upstairs.  In the 1950s it became part of School District 122.

The New Lenox Historical Society bought it in 2000 and moved it to its present site on Hickory Creek Barrens.  It used to be on the southeast corner of US-30 and Schoolhouse Road.

Back in the Old Days.  --RoadDog