I t seemed, as I recall it, a lonely little house of scholarship...But that humble little school had a dignity of a fixed and far off purpose...It was the outpost of civilization. It was the advance guard of the pioneer, driving the wilderness farther into the west. It was life preparing wistfully for the future. James Rooney, The Freeman School, or the Red-Brick School House as it was originally called, served the community of Blakely Township, Nebraska from 1872 to 1967. It is representative of the one-room schools that once dotted the landscape of the American West. At the time it closed it had the honor of being the oldest, continuously used one-room school in the state of Nebraska. The Freeman school served not only as an educational center, but also as the church, a meeting hall, the township polling place, and as the social and political center of the community. At present, the National Park Service maintains and preserves this historic structure that is located within the boundaries of Homestead National Monument of America in southeastern Nebraska. Although no children's voices fill the yard, the red brick school still offers visitors the lesson that one-room schools were not only places where children learned reading, writing and arithmetic, but also places where far-flung families could gather to forge a sense of community.
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![[Cover photo] The Red Brick School.](80images/80covercl.jpg "[Cover photo] The Red Brick School.")
 About This Lesson Getting Started: Inquiry Question Setting the Stage: Historical Context Locating the Site: Maps Determining the Facts: Readings Visual Evidence: Images
Putting It All Together: Activities |
How the National Register Homestead National
This lesson is based on the Freeman Homestead and Freeman School, one of the thousands of properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places. |
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