Bichet School With Winter Wheat
by Catherine Sherman
Title
Bichet School With Winter Wheat
Artist
Catherine Sherman
Medium
Photograph - Photography Digitally Enhanced
Description
Rows of green winter wheat provides color to the field in front of the historic Bichet School, no longer in service.
The Bichet School was built in 1896 to educate children from a French-speaking near Florence, Kansas. The school continued to serve the community until 1946 when it closed because of low enrollment. The last class had two students.
The Bichet School's architecture is an excellent example of the typical one-room midwestern stone school built during the late 1800s.
The builder, Oscar Johnson, who was a well known stonemason and artisan, left examples of his decorative work on the quoins, cornices, lintels, the intricate arch stone where the date and "District 34" appears, the round decorative window and the bell tower. He was foreman for a rock quarry which yielded magnesium limestone. The rock was cream colored, it hardened upon exposure, was extremely durable and could be easily sawed into any shape.
The school is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Featured in "All Art Welcome" group (05/01/2016); "Philanthropic Artists for a Cause" group (05/04/2016)
Uploaded
April 29th, 2016
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Viewed 965 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/28/2024 at 3:17 AM
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Comments (7)
Morris Finkelstein
Beautiful photograph of the Bichet School, a historic one-room schoolhouse, surrounded by farm fields. Your description of the schoolhouse as a historic piece of American architecture is very interesting. F/L