Rose Lake school eligible for placement on National Register of Historic Places

Travelers driving south through Rose Lake might not notice the small, weathered building partially hidden by trees and perched on the narrow strip between State Highway 3 and the Coeur d’Alene River.

Sun, wind, rain and snow have scrubbed almost all vestiges of paint from the horizontal, board siding. The double-hung, sash windows are missing. And the reliability of the rough hewn timbers that hold the old school above the river’s floods looks uncertain.

Yet this, the town’s first school, despite decay and neglect, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Now the building occupies land owned by Idaho Fish and Game, and both Fish and Game and the Environmental Protection Agency considered demolishing the structure. But because a number of area residents supported saving the last pioneer, one-room school in the area, the building remains.

Instead of demolishing it, the agencies left it in place and surrounded it with an eight-foot, chain link fence both to protect it and to discourage the public from contact with heavy metals contamination outside the adjacent, newly paved and well-used public launch area.

This small, 35-by-18-foot school building, most likely built from lumber purchased from one of the many area mills, has had a varied history. When it was first constructed in 1905, it was a typical, rural school with a steep, gabled roof line, double paneled doors at the entrance, windowless at the opposite end but with windows along both sides. A cloak room at the entrance provided space for students’ coats, lunches and boots.

The chimney hole on the south east side of the building is a reminder that the open, single classroom space was heated by a wood stove, where a fire had to be built before the school bell rang in the morning, and stoked often during the day. This task was often part of the teacher’s job description.

The school was still in use in 1911 and located a half-mile from its present location on property then owned by early resident Augusta Oehrling Huelsip.

In 1913, a second school of neo-classical design was built to serve Rose Lake, and gradually the original school building fell out of use as a classroom. According to Shirley Earling (Oehrling), her father, Evier (Al) Oehrling had the little school moved a half-mile southwest to its present site in about 1934, where it began its new life as a Ford dealership and repair service. To accommodate autos, the double paneled doors were removed and larger doors added at the end adjacent to the highway. Just how long the old school served as an auto dealership and garage is uncertain.

Local residents recall that it eventually was used by the county for the maintenance of its equipment. Because of the painted “FEED” sign still visible on the northwest end of the building, it, most likely, was later used as a farm feed store.

Today, the blackboards, desks and wood stove are gone and much of the interior is cluttered with junk, stored there and forgotten.

Rose Lake, once a thriving community, no longer exists. The two schools, the one-room schoolhouse and the second structure that’s now maintained by the Rose Lake Historical Society, are the only reminders of a community that has almost vanished.

Gone is the railroad that carried timber, ore and travelers to and from the communities of the Silver Valley. Gone are the lumber mills and the diverse farms that, according to records, produced 100,000 bushels of wheat, thousands of beef cattle, chickens, eggs and butter. Today, cars whiz along state Highway 3 through a community marked only by the two buildings where the children of early settlers learned their three R’s.

The future of the original school structure is uncertain. The second school is under the good care of the Rose Lake Historical society, but workers and money are in short supply for the extensive needs of the first school. However, according to Harrison Flats resident and Grange Master Don Heikkila, the Harrison Grange has added the Rose Lake pioneer school and the Indian Springs school to its preservation list.

According to Heikkila, the purpose of the grange action is to “help organizations and/or individuals interested in these buildings to find funding and resources for restoration.” He also says that the action has gained the endorsement of the Harrison Gem Community, The Crane Historical Society, the Indian Springs Community Club, State Sen. Marti Calabretta, Rep. Mary Lou Shepherd and Rep. Dick Harwood.

But why hang on to deteriorating buildings, particularly one as humble as the Rose Lake Pioneer School? Why should they be important to present generations and be eligible for the National Register?

The answer for this particular building is probably best summed up in a recent evaluation, the 106 Assessment for National Register eligibility;

“Though unremarkable in material presence, the school building is an important vestige of rural life at a time when settlers followed the railroads and began to establish permanent communities. Perhaps most importantly, Rose Lake’s first school portrays the pioneers’ determination to edify and mold their children through structured education, even as residents carved a modest life from the dense forests of North Idaho. In such humble buildings that scarcely survive in the region, history is simply housed, quietly embedded, still honoring the contributions of those who came before.”