Gas Creek School
About this property
The Gas Creek School, near Nathrop, Colorado in Chaffee County, Colorado, was built in 1909. It was the only school in Chaffee County School District No. 20 and it operated from 1909 to 1958. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. It is a one-story brick school building, in open land with the 14,196 feet (4,327 m) Mt. Princeton standing behind. It was built as a replacement for a wood-frame schoolhouse that was built in 1890. The school is about 30 by 26 feet (9.1 m × 7.9 m) in plan and is built of orange brick atop a raised concrete foundation. It has a hipped roof and a square bell tower holding a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. It was a one-teacher one-room school, although it has two front doors. A photo of the school is included in "America’s Country Schools", a 1996 book by Andrew Gulliford, who stated: "'Built from a plan book, this school has double entrances with canopies and an ornate bell tower.'" He suggested the school's symmetrical design indicated it may have been taken from a plan book. He also noted that having a belfry or bell tower "usually placed above the entrance to the schoolhouse, had become a status symbol for many school districts' by the nineteenth century." One teacher at the school was Betty Farrington, who taught fourteen students there during 1938-39 for a salary of $75 per month; there was at least one student in each grade from one to eight. The property also includes two privies, a shed, a swing set and a seesaw. It was deemed significant as "an exceptionally well-preserved example of a one-room rural schoolhouse", and is unusual for being built of brick.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Gas Creek School
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Questions about this property
When was Gas Creek School listed on the National Register?
Gas Creek School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 26, 2018.
What type of historic resource is Gas Creek School?
Gas Creek School is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Gas Creek School?
The period of significance for Gas Creek School is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Gas Creek School?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Gas Creek School will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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