Growing with the Changes: Greenwood School
Historic Greenwood School has changed size, design, and even location, but always diligently served as an educational institution.
In 1872, William Alden donated one acre of his farm in Shawnee Township for a new school in District No. 35. This first structure, known as the Greenwood School, was a one-room frame schoolhouse built to accommodate 60 students.
After serving the community for 45 years, the original schoolhouse was deemed too small. The district auctioned off the building. Floyd Garrett bought the structure and dismantled it to use the timbers to build his home on West 59th Street in Shawnee.
A new two-room stucco school building was built at the present location of 63rd St. and Lackman Road. In 1926 severe weather rolled through Johnson County. This thunderstorm produced lightning that struck the building and burned it to the ground.
In 1927 the Greenwood School re-opened as a limestone structure. The school board used native Kansas limestone as the primary building material to prevent another fire. The building was a two-room school with a basement that served as a lunchroom. The stone school served the community for 30 years.
The old stone structure faced an uncertain future when a new, larger school was constructed in 1957. However, in the end it continued its educational mission. The Johnson County Museum of History opened in 1967 in the former Greenwood School.
Over the years the facility has had seven expansions and in 1998 the Museum completed a 1.2 million dollar renovation and creation of a permanent exhibit on Johnson County history. The exhibit has been recognized with a number of state and national awards. The project won an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History, based in Nashville, TN, an Award of Excellence from the Kansas Museums Association and the Nyle H. Miller Local Historical Organization Award from the Kansas State Historical Society.
--ALBUM vol. 15, no. 3 (summer 2002)