One-room schoolhouse to hold open house
The interior of the one-room schoolhouse still holds the original desks where students worked before the school closed in 1946. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
This newly renovated one room schoolhouse on Church Road in Kunkletown dates back to the 1850s.
Kunkletown’s historic one-room schoolhouse is celebrating the town’s original founding families as well as newcomers at an open house to be held at the schoolhouse on 485 Church Road from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
“We wanted to do a special twist on Founders Day because, through the years, many people who are not associated with those founding families have moved into the area, and we wanna embrace them also. So we’re actually having a Founders and Stewards day,” said Tony Giordano, who purchased and renovated the Frantz School with his wife, Renee, in 2014.
“And so it’s these people who have come most recently, in the last generation or so, who see themselves as stewards — building upon the foundation of the original families,” Giordano continued.
The event will be a meet and greet. The schoolhouse will be open to the community and to local groups that will have a chance to meet residents and describe their missions.
Besides the permanent exhibits in the schoolhouse, which dates back to the 1850s, there will be a new pledge for residents to sign, Giordano said.
Tony and Renee have collected almost a hundred surnames of the original families in the community and are superimposing them onto a photograph of the town square from around 1906. Alongside will be a pledge for residents to sign, promising to be good neighbors, to greet each other, and to take part in town activities.
Some local nonprofits and groups attending will include the Eldred Township Supervisors, Veterans Commission, and Historical Society, the Phillipsburg Railroad Historians, St. Matthew’s church, a local Groundhog Lodge, and the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.
Giordano is especially appreciative of the Lenape Nation’s support.
“When you deal with founders you have to understand that they didn’t find something, they didn’t really establish something; it was already here — the Native Americans were here,” he said. “So it’s a touchy kind of subject, so to have the Lenape Nation take part in this is fantastic, shows a real sense of people being together.”
Giordano said this event is especially geared toward newcomers to the Kunkletown community.
“To expose newcomers to this is really a big part of the open house,” he said. “We wanna get them to network in and knit in with us so that we’re a whole community.”
No RSVPs are needed and any questions can be directed to churchroad@gmail.com. The event is child and pet-friendly, but no plumbing will be available.
