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Show The Old Bell School Provided Education and Protection . i . t ' . '! " : " : ' ' ,! ,. " " ' V : 1 . . . " ' ' ! . - ". - fty Geri Taylor Editor's Note: This is the second sec-ond of a multi-part series on the Old Bell School. The first school house in Pleasant Grove was made of adobes patterned after the Pueblo villages in Santa Fe and was built near 600 South and Center Street. Finished in November No-vember of 1852, it was finally opened the following month, with 19-year-old Alonzo Winters Win-ters as the first teacher. Early in 1853, George A. Smith wrote orders for towns in the northern end of the valley ' to "build a good substantial fort in each of their settlements." While the council was followed fol-lowed by drawing up plans and beginning construction, the settlers set-tlers did not act with haste until Chief Walker made a night raid on the un-built fort and drove off 23 head of horses. Brigham Young is reported to have said, "The Saints are slow in heeding my advice, but quick enough to obey when Chief Walker speaks." Killings Kill-ings in Springville and Sanpete County were cause enough for the town to quickly get the residents resi-dents inside the fort perimeters before it was completed. It was decided to bring the newly built school into the fort also, and in one day it was dismantled brick by brick and moved to the south west corner. By autumn it was again ready for use and William Frampton joined Winters in teaching the growing number of students. The reconstructed school building had a stage at the east end and served as the community commu-nity center for five more years. When it burned down in 1860, everything combustible was lost, but the adobe walls stood firm, becoming even stronger through their "fireing". Four years later these seasoned adobes were used to construct a one-room school, designed by English immigrant Henry Greenhalgh, at its present location lo-cation of First South on First East. Effie Adams noted in her history, "The Old Bell School," that "the arched ceiling, and floor with sand between the sleepers for sound deadening, gave the room excellent acoustic acous-tic qualities, and made it especially espe-cially good for entertainment." As the population increased, in-creased, the building became so over-crowded that some classes were held in city hall while others were conducted in private homes By 1880 if was obvious the school needed to be enlarged, so a room was built on the east side with a sliding door between the two rooms. The addition of a bell tower became an appreciated community asset as the bell not only "called students to school and volunteer firemen to put out fires, but it heralded other occasions in town." It was rung for both happy and sad events and announced that all children should be home by nine o'clock for curfew. "The Old Bell School" got its adopted ad-opted name from this bell that became Pleasant Grove's public pub-lic communication system for many years. When the third addition was completed in 1888, "it Eleroy West (left) and a friend play a game of marbles at Old Bell Schoolhouse. j Photo courtesy of Gary Carlson ; gave the building a finished, balanced look." J.L. Harvey, school trustee who supervised the construction, kept an account ac-count book of expenditures for the project which included: $3.50 for a load of lumber, $2 to haul it from Provo by team; coal $7.85; wood to burn $5; poles from Wamicks, $3.50; chopping wood 50 cents; pipe and nails $9; mason work to Olaf Mon-son, Mon-son, $7; lath and nails $1.75, and many other entries for work or materials used. It wasn't long before the increasing school population required more room and the higher grades were moved to a new building. In 1910 things were reversed and the lower grades were moved to the new buildings while the upper classes class-es were put back in the Old Bell School until the new high school was completed two years later. The center of the community com-munity for more than 50 years now stood vacant, functioning only as a storage unit. Although used for various purposes, including in-cluding a library, the building and grounds were unattended for many years and numerous motions were made to demolish the eyesore. By 1940 city officials of-ficials had decided to "do away with" the old building and use the property to better advantage. According to the history of the school, it was at this time the Daughters of Utah Pioneers stepped forward, determined to save the build- j ing. Recognizing its histori- cal value, they felt it would j be the perfect place to house j their growing collection of pioneer relics. The local press reported it as such: "Pleasant Grove will preserve this old landmark. Loyalty and love for the pioneers of Pleasant Grcve and the ideals for which they stood, have saved this old building from being razed. . . . Mayor S. Alma Kirk promised "Old Bell" continued on Page 6 "Old Belt" continued from Page 1 r. VVY-: ' Mill VII ' U" .':' 1 ' " !i ! the D.U.P. a 99 year lease of the old building." The DUP had a major undertaking un-dertaking on their hands, with repairs and renovations almost beyond their means. The vacant va-cant lot had become the dumping dump-ing ground for old junk, tree stumps and garbage of all kind, for which the new owners were blamed. A new city administration adminis-tration changed the lease to five years and once again threatened to tear down the building unless the unsightly mess was cleaned up. When Captain Lucile Walker, Dr. Howard Driggs and Vice-Captain Cleone Kirk approached ap-proached the city council to ask that the building and grounds be made into a park honoring the pioneers, the mayor re plied the plan was not feasible, since the city had no money for the repairs. Undeterred, Mrs. Walker asked if the city would provide a caretaker if the DUP could raise the necessary funds, to which the council gave their approval. The camp "raised the $787 needed to repair walls, paint the building and buy trees, shrubs and flowers for the park." The Jaycees and Lions club soon joined the enterprise, and with many other organizations and businesses, satisfactorily repaired re-paired and beautified the building build-ing and grounds within a year. The building was dedicated in September of 1946 by President Presi-dent George Albert Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where it was A fence surrounded the Old Bell School to keep animals out of the yard. PGHS football Team about 1911, taken near Old Bell Schoolhouse. Lto r, back: Gunnar Rasmussen, Wallace West, A.P. Warnick, Johnson kid from Lakeview (perhaps Dave). Front: Ed Johnson, Nat Loader, Lew Olpin, Emest Rasmus-son, Rasmus-son, Karl Banks, Eleroy West, Lyman Swensen. Photo courtesy of Gary Carlson also acknowledged by the Utah Historical Society as an official pioneer location. In 1980 the building was accepted by the National Heritage Foundation as an historic site, which made it eligible to receive federal funds for repairs and renovations. The Old Bell School, the oldest in the state, has withstood with-stood numerous repairs, termite ter-mite infestations, burglaries, and re-plastering but in spite of the myriad concerns, the DUP has successfully solicited solic-ited donations and support to keep the landmark a beautiful beauti-ful and lasting icon of our community. Adobes from the original school stand firm in the walls of the pioneer museum, mu-seum, a tribute to the founders found-ers of our city, our true heritage. |
