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[SEPT. 6, 2001]  The old school bell casts a shadow on the Walnut Grove School House. For 50 years it has patiently waited for the call to summon rural children back into the building for another day of learning.

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The schoolhouse owned by Lon and Nancy Simpson sits on a section of their property between Remington Seed company and their home on Route 10. The Simpsons purchased the structure in 1993 from Harold Stoll and had it moved to its new foundation and site. Originally intended to house a small gift shop and tearoom, the schoolhouse for the past several years has been rented out as a home by the Simpsons.

Although the schoolhouse has seen modernization in plumbing, electricity and a modern basement that creates living space for tenants, the upstairs schoolhouse is as it was 100 years ago. The original tin ceilings, flooring and woodwork, as well as blackboards, easily represent the same appearance students in 1902 would have seen on their first day of school in the building.

The Simpsons have maintained the old schoolhouse and have, in effect, probably saved it from the fate that hundreds of such structures have met over the years.

Often these one-room schoolhouses would be situated in a grove of trees in the middle of a stretch of farmland. Each of those schools would serve the educational needs of the farm children in the immediate area. As time went on, farms became larger and rural families fewer and farther between. Consolidation occurred, leaving the buildings situated in the middle of nowhere — obsolete and without purpose. There they sat until the elements or a farmer’s tractor drove them into extinction.

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Records show that few of these buildings still exist, but Walnut Grove School still does and sits waiting to be used again, if not by students then perhaps by visitors wanting to see what school was like a century ago.

The Simpsons have ideas of moving in a few years and, like doting parents, are concerned about the future of their schoolhouse. Approximately five years ago Mount Pulaski expressed an interest in purchasing the school, as did the city of Atlanta. To date nothing has come of those initial conversations. The Simpsons are not actively seeking a buyer for the building, but in the event a group is interested in purchasing and maintaining the school as a historic structure, they would be willing to discuss the possibility.

In a day when Lincoln is making a great deal about Postville Courthouse and a well on Fifth Street, an interest in having this historic building become part of the Lincoln tourism experience seems like a natural to this observer.

I am presently working on this school and can tell you a walk inside the structure yields more antiquity and nostalgia than anything Lincoln currently has, except the county courthouse.

Hey, Lincoln, in the event you want to expand sites for tourism, call the Simpsons. The old school bell is just dying to ring an opening of the schoolhouse doors once again. It would be great if it occurred in Lincoln.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak's commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

[SEPT. 1, 2001]  I want to give you folks a number. The number is 15,418. Go ahead and write that down someplace. Now for the sake of analogy, let’s call that number the economic pie. Don’t hang up on me; I’m not giving out a recipe. I’m trying to ask a question that you folks should answer, not I. Now some of you are sharp enough to realize that the number is the population figure given to the city of Lincoln for the 1990 census. That number is, for want of a better explanation, all the potential consumers this city has to offer.

Yes, we can add some for travelers or visitors during one of our promotions, but we can subtract when all of us seem to head out of town on vacations or to find the alleged "super" bargains in Springfield or Bloomington. We could subtract for toddlers or seniors who don’t get out and about anymore. Just for the sake of clarity, let’s stay with the number 15,418.

Our city seems to be in the midst of an argument over whether we are for economic development or are stifling it with our rules and regulations and, most importantly, our attitude toward new business.

My question to all of you is: Does an auto parts store when we have a half dozen, or a Casey’s when we have eight such stores already, really constitute economic growth at all? Is adding a business of a type that has already met a saturation point in this town really what we should call economic growth? Yeah, I’m for free enterprise and creating a new tax base and creating new jobs. But if everything that comes to Lincoln adds just enough to offset what we eventually lose in a similar business leaving, are we really growing?

Remember the number 15,418. No matter what business comes to Lincoln, that is all the economic pie there is for all the retail businesses to absorb.

Now new business blood can stimulate prices. There is no doubt of this. Sometimes those new prices are short-lived, as we see another friend of the community give up on trying to keep just enough of those 15,418 customers to stay in business. Again I have to ask, "Is that growing?" Or are we simply changing the names of the players involved in getting business from the 15,418?

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Economic growth, to me, isn’t seeing more of the same type of retailers we already have in Lincoln coming to town. Economic growth, to me, is seeing the number 15,418 change to a higher number. More people mean a larger pie to take an economic slice from. More people mean some major retailers might look differently on us. Having a 100-year stagnated population number doesn’t excite most major retailers into believing growth is around the corner.

We as a community need to determine what economic growth really is. In my mind it is little factories and widget companies that not only take up our unemployed workforce but also cause others to come to recognize the opportunities those companies present in the city of Lincoln. Changing the number 15,418 will allow new like businesses to come to Lincoln and prosper, without meaning some of them have to close.

I cringe when I hear the words that Lincoln is a bedroom community. Those are the words spoken by every little town across America that has given up on the prospect that it can attract new non-retail business. Yes, the job is tough. We can’t just look in a catalogue and order this kind of factory and that kind of manufacturing plant. It can be done, however, if we put our minds and our hearts together and decide it can be done.

Let me know what you think. Your ideas might be just what all the rest of us have been waiting to hear.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak's commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

This is the em space, a staff writer’s section with observations about life experiences in Logan County and elsewhere. Enjoy your visit.

— Mary Krallmann

[Mary Krallmann] 

Where They Stand

Where They Stand is a commentary section that poses a question about a specific issue in the community. Informed individuals present their position with facts, opinions or insights on the issue. The following commentaries have been printed, unedited, in their entirety, as they were received. If you have further comment on the issue, please send an e-mail message, complete with your name, address and telephone number to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com.

By the Numbers

Alexis Asher

Alexis Asher

Lincoln High School history

1859

Lincoln School District

5

School buildings in 1859

1

"Grammar school" in 1859

1

High school teacher, Mr. January, in 1859

1870-71

Central School opened

1898

High school building started

1900

High school dedicated, Jan. 5

$20,000

Cost of new high school

1920

Election authorized community high school District #404

1958

Dedication of new Lincoln Community High School, 1000 Primm Road, in auditorium, on Nov. 9

Alexis Asher

How We Stack Up

Racial makeup of selected Illinois counties

What's Up With That?

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