I have lived in the town of Weedville, AZ since the later part of the 1980’s. I had no idea I was living in Weedville until one day I posted a status on FaceBook and that status stated my comment was coming from Weedville, AZ.
What the heck is Weedville?? I thought I lived in Peoria. As I was giggling about Weedville..because let’s face it..Weedville is pretty funny….I googled Weedville, AZ. Apparently some Reverend (Reverend Weed) from Nebraska moved to the area in 1911 and named the town after himself.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0427azhist0428.html
The link above is for any of you who may be interested in reading more..I’m not writing about Weedville today.. I am writing about Peoria. 🙂
As I said, I have lived here for over twenty years. Today was the fist time I have ever stopped at the Peoria Central School in Old Town Peoria. I have driven by this place many of many of times…thought about stopping but just never have. Today..I stopped.
Not only did I stop but I got out of the car and actually went in! 🙂
I was warmly greeted by the volunteers at this facility, “We are open but as you can see, we are in the process of redecorating, renovating and cleaning. You are more than welcome to come in and look around.”
The nice man noticed I was armed with a camera and proceeded to tell me, “and of course you are welcome to take pictures as well!”
I thanked him and proceeded to walk into the first building, this room will be set up as a replica of the old school rooms of the super early 1900’s.
Question..you see rule number 2? Well now look at rule number 3…How are you supposed to address the teacher if rule number 2 is NO TALKING? Yea, I was THAT kid. 😉
By the looks of these desks, I imagine in the early 1900’s they did not have the problem of child obesity that we have today. Maybe the answer to that current issue is to bring back the smaller desks!! Inappropriate? Well, I’ll save that discussion for another blog then. 😀
This is a piano from the late 1800’s – It looks as though it’s in GREAT condition! Chickering was in business from the late 1800’s and actually got out of business before The Great Depression, or so this website tells me anyway. http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/chickering-brothers/
I’m not sure if classrooms were equipped with pianos in those days or not. Most likely not , the museum probably just has it because it’s old and cool and that’s fine but it did make me wonder so I asked uncle Google. I didn’t find anything on music in the classroom in the early 1900’s but I did stumble on this little note. Now, I’m not sure if it’s real or not but it’s cute and kind of neat to think about this little girl sitting at her little desk writing to students 100 years after her time.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/pioneer/school_in_the_1800.htm
To any of you teachers out there…this is a brilliant writing assignment for your students!
Yep, the classroom is even equipped with life size, creepy mannequin teachers. 🙂
This photo was hanging on the wall. I graduated from Peoria High School, the school is 91 years old! The people all look old so I don’t know if this was a graduating class or if it was the staff? I am leaning more towards guessing it is the graduating class..I don’t think in 1938 they would have had that many teachers in Peoria..
The next room looks like they might set it up as a home type setting. Here are some pictures of clothes drying..I like the long johns and the old time picture set up behind them.
I would imagine mom would wash, then squidgy the clothes before she hung them up to dry..
And just look at the art work on this sewing machine! The colors are so vibrant!
In this room was another piano or organ or?? I’m not sure..Anyone know what this is? Who makes it (I forgot to read it when I was actually there and I tried to zoom in on the picture but I cannot make out the lettering..)?
While I was in this room, one of the nice volunteer ladies came back to bring me a flyer for the Grand Re-opening happening November 2nd.
Here she is 😉
And see… there are the creepy, mannequin teachers in the back! 
Can you tell I am not a fan of mannequins?
After her and I talked for a bit, I walked to the Agriculture room. I didn’t get any pictures of this room because I was actually so engrossed with the stories I was hearing!
When I walked into the room there were two couples, about my parents age, in there. The ladies were sweeping and talking and dusting while the men sat and talked. Hmmm…. hah, I guess the old school mentality still applies here. 🙂
They told me stories of how long they have been in the area, what it looked like in their day and actually.. one of the ladies family had owned the farm property directly behind my house until about five years ago. It had been in her family for around fifty years!
Small Town..
Her and I walked together to the next building which was decorated with old old typewriters, stenographer machines, adding machines and in the corner was a glass display that scared me…In it was an old beauty shop set up..to be more precise it was a perm machine..yep..perm MACHINE..hairdressers would wrap ladies hair up in pin curls and cushions and hooked them up to ELECTRICITY…Check out this little video – about 40 seconds in the scary machine makes its grand entrance…. Sorry, in advance, for the poor quality but hey..I didn’t make it.
On that note..I will leave you for today! Until next time. Get out there everyone, learn, explore, talk to people!
kristilynk 