With so much excitement over all the new buildings on campus, it could be easy to overlook the many historical structures still left at the University. One of them is the Educational Memorabilia Center, located between Kohl Hall and the Education Building.

The one-room, brick schoolhouse was built in 1875, making it the oldest building on campus. But the center wasn’t always located in Bowling Green.

The schoolhouse’s first home was in Huron County, just southeast of Norwalk, OH.

“It was kindergarten through eighth grade,” said tour guide Delaney Furlong, a sophomore. “The eighth graders would help tutor the kindergarteners and younger grades.”

In 1975, 100 years after construction, Dr. David G. Elsass, a graduate and former history teacher of the University, worked with family members to dismantle and move the building from Huron County to Bowling Green.

“They actually went to the area of the schoolhouse and they took it down brick by brick…and took all the boards down, took everything out. And they moved it in pick-up trucks to the University,” Furlong said.

Today, the building serves as a museum collection of educational memorabilia. As a former schoolhouse, the building itself is also part of the collection.

The building is set up just like an 1800’s schoolhouse would have been. There are rows of desks, ink wells and feather quills, textbooks, slates and more.

“Everything is original except for the lighting, the heating and the air conditioning and the paint,” Furlong said. “Not everything is from this schoolhouse. We’ve had a lot of donors give us stuff randomly. They were all originally in a little schoolhouse just not necessarily this one.”

There are also display cases full of fragile pieces of the collection.

“It’s all super old in there. So, if you touch it, it’s going to crumble, that kind of old. I just think all that stuff is so cool,” Furlong said.

One piece that visitors may find interesting is the American flag with only 38 stars, representing the 38 states in the country at the time the flag was made, according to the tour.

Not many students visit the museum, but during the warmer months the building gets more traffic, Furlong said.

“I get a lot of older people coming in because they’re like, ‘Oh, my mom taught here,’ or ‘I was a student in one of these schoolhouses,’ and they think it’s interesting,” she said.

According to the University’s website, more than 1,000 people visit the building each year, including students on field trips. Teachers can reserve the center for a day and bring their class in to teach them in the authentic 1800’s schoolhouse environment.

On Saturdays and Sundays the Center is open from 2-5 p.m. During these hours, a University tour guide is available to answer any questions visitors may have.

For more information on the Educational Memorabilia Center, contact the College of Education and Human Development Dean’s office at 419-372-7401.