Maple Grove School

Open Saturday and Sunday

The restoration of this one room school is so authentic that former student Austin Ludwig said: “The only things missing are the broken water cooler and the ink wells we used to dip the girls’ hair in.”
Dutch Hollow families sent their children to this school from 1904 to 1949. John Hahn, a veteran of the Confederate Army, donated the land for the school.

Carpenters used locally grown and milled chestnut lumber to enclose a space roughly 24 by 36 feet. Lighting came from a coal oil lantern hung in the center of the room. Students carried water from a well across the road. A large wood stove provided heat. Jake Hahn split wood and stacked logs under the front porch, charging the Board of Education $5 per year. An outhouse behind the school still stands.

A succession of teachers instructed first through eighth grades. During a typical day the dozen or so students rotated from front to back of the room, with instruction for 15 – 20 minutes per grade in the front and then work time in the back for the rest of the day. Subjects included reading, writing, math, history and penmanship, the latter practiced on small chalk boards.

The school year extended from mid September to mid April. Students enjoyed morning and afternoon fifteen minute recesses and one hour lunch breaks. Upon graduating the eighth grade, students who went on to high school enrolled in Wardensville or Romney.
Except for the winter months, it was not uncommon for students to walk barefoot to school and home again, sometimes miles.

Open courtesy of the Hahn Family

Location: On Sauerkraut Road, near the intersection with Dutch Hollow Road.

Directions: From Corridor H between Baker and Wardensville: exit at Pinnacle Drive (to the right from Baker or to the left from Wardensville); turn right onto Route Old 55; turn right onto Sauerkraut Road; school is about four miles on the left.