Boulder with commemorative plaque in front of the Wetmore Community Center-photo by Anne Hayward
Here is a brief history of the Wetmore School.
This information came from the minutes taken during the Wetmore Community Board meeting held on June 8, 1999.
To read the complete minutes of the meeting, please view the document in its original form HERE.
Here are some basic facts as recorded in those minutes:
The building was completed in 1928 and was used as the Wetmore schoolhouse until the fall of 1961 when the C9 district consolidated with the Florence school district. Grades 1-8 were held in various rooms of the building. According to the notes, there was some question as to whether 9-12 grades were held there.
But, WHG&HS members, George "Bill" Hall and Dick Doman both attended the school and remember that what is now the Coffee Room was the high school classroom, the North Reading Room was the middle school classroom, the main Library room was the grade school classroom, and the Carolyn Shellenberger room was the Library.
Electricity was installed in the North Room in the 1940's thanks to the GI Bill. The rest of the building received electricity around 1955. The original heat was a coal furnace. The outhouses were 30 feet NW of the building. Bathrooms were built in 1958-1959.
More interesting facts can be found in these minutes.
To read the complete minutes of the meeting, please view the document in its original form HERE.
circa 1940
The Hardscrabble Creek flooding.
Notice the school building in the background.
From the collection of George "Bill" Hall.
The old Wetmore School, now the Wetmore Community Building, August 20, 2018.
The building underwent a major renovation in 2016-2017.
It is used for many community events, houses the Wetmore Community Library, and is the new home of the Wetmore-Hardscrabble Genealogical and Historical Society.
