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Historical Notes
Rapp SchoolSubmitted by Charles Anstrom
1871 - Without a teacher, school opened for operation in a one-story wooden school building 18 x 26 feet with a 1/2 pitch roof about 30 feet west of the present site. The school was built by August and Swan Bloom $175 and finished April 1, 1871. Eight cords of wood for the stove were purchased at $1.25 per cord. The first teacher hired was T. E. Hathaway for $30 a month. Taxes received operate the school for the first year totaled $580. School was held three months in the summer and four months in the winter with the male teacher for the winter and a female teacher for the summer months. 1884 - Five and one-half months of school were taught, beginning on the first Monday in October with two-weeks vacation during holidays. 1929 – Fifty Seven years later, Leighty Brothers of Osage City, Kansas, constructed the present brick school building with a full basement, boys’ and girls’ cloak rooms, library, plus a hand pump and furnace in the basement. April 27, 1959 - School operation in grades one through eight with five students was discontinued. May 14, 1962 - Deeded to Grant Township by Rapp School District 50. September 6, 1971 - Celebrated Centennial of the School, conducted by Rapp Home Demonstration Unit. 1992 - Rapp School Preservation Association organized -- Save The Best of The Past The Future. 1995 - After many fund raising events and individual contributions from former students, friends, a grant from the W. S. and E. C. Jones Trust and many hours given by volunteers, a new roof was installed, front steps replaced, plaster patched, doors repaired and a thorough cleaning done. The building was first available for tours, Living History Days and other events. 1995 - Listed as a State Historic Site and on July 25, 1995 entered into National Register of Historic Places. Rapp School – A Living History Because Rapp school is completely intact as it was in the 1930’s, students and teachers can come and spend and day in the one-room school just as it was operated at that time. Curriculum materials including standardized achievement tests can be used in lessons taught. Blackboards are located around the room were students can display their practice drills. The recitation bench where each grade would come forth to sit before the teacher’s desk and demonstrate completion of assignments and receive past work returned by the teacher can still be utilized. Political changes over time can be studied by viewing pull-down wall maps from the 1930s and '40s. Each morning after the United States Flag had been raised in the appropriate manner, boys and girls would line up in separate lines, leaving their coats and lunches in separate cloak rooms before going to their seats. Then after the Pledge of Allegiance, sometimes the Lord’s Prayer, and the singing of “America the Beautiful” or the “Star Spangled Banner”, lessons would commence until Rapp School closed. The school customarily lasted from September through April of each year. Because many of the young boys and girls had to help on a farm, they would miss school and so would take more than one year to complete grade. At the end of the eighth grade, a country standardized achievement test battery was given to all of the eighth-grade students enrolled in rural one-room schools by the County School Superintendent. Performance on this test would determine who would graduate from the eight grade. The Rapp Community The Rapp business settlement was once a thriving community along the Missouri Pacific Railroad track. It was located 1/4 mile east and 1/4 mile south from the present Rapp School Building. Only a few houses remain for once a lumberyard, general store, cattle pens, train station and other businesses and houses stood. In 1996, the railroad track was removed and the bed became the “Flint Hills Nature Trail”, a walking, horseback riding, biking trail. But the spirit and determination of those early settlers is still alive, as local citizens of the Rapp School District No. 50 have maintained the building, 40 student desks, furnishings, curriculum materials and grounds and playground equipment just as it was in the 1930s and '40s. Rapp school is an excellent example of the “modern” rural school built early in the 1900s. Constructed with at a full basement for school activities in the winter months, a large coal-burning furnace was also located there to use fuel that was mined in eastern part in the township. Water was provided for the pupils and teacher through an inside pump from a cistern located outside the southeast corner of the building. The basement concrete floor and foundation are still in excellent condition with no cracks or shifting. Leighty Brothers were known for quality construction and Rapp School remains as a tribute to them, their workers, and the school board that authorized the construction. Directions Who To Contact Patricia Fredrickson Dorothy Chisholm Rapp School Preservation Association [ top of page ] [ more historical notes ]
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On June 10, 1870, Rapp School District was organized. School Board Members included: John A. Moberg, Director: C.J. Rapp, Treasurer, and James Cain, Clerk. Land was deeded from the patent by Seyfert McManus & Co. to School District No. 50.
