Historic schoolhouse moves to new home in Hampshire
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say the truck carried the schoolhouse past the new Hampshire High School and Gary D Wright Elementary School on Big Timber Road. Hampshire Middle School is in downtown Hampshire.
A small crowd gathered Wednesday to send off a more than 150-year-old schoolhouse in Rutland Township on a 13-mile journey to its new home in Hampshire.
The Eakin School House and Rutland Grange Hall - a 666-square-foot Greek revival building - previously stood off Big Timber Road near Route 47 across from Rutland Forest Preserve. Built in 1859, it is considered Kane County's oldest one-room schoolhouse still standing.
Portions of Big Timber Road, Route 47, and other streets along the route were closed during the move.
A truck carried the schoolhouse past the new Hampshire High School and Gary D Wright Elementary School on Big Timber Road. Earlier this week, workers removed the top of the schoolhouse roof, which was moved on a separate truck, to make it easier to transport without getting caught in overhead power lines.
The schoolhouse was unloaded near where DeKalb-based Resource Bank is opening its Hampshire branch in June in the closed Cardinal Bank building near Route 72 and Oak Knoll Drive. It will be lifted and put into place by two cranes at a later date.
Bank officials plan to refurbish the schoolhouse so it can be used for community meetings and gatherings. A breezeway will connect the bank and the schoolhouse, which will be equipped with restrooms and a kitchen.
"We are seeing the culmination of six months worth of work between Resource Bank and the village of Hampshire," Hampshire Trustee George Brust said. "I am looking forward to seeing this open up. I think that it will be a great thing to draw people here from the business community."
The schoolhouse was used by Rutland Township from 1931 to 1980 for its monthly meetings and as a polling place. In 1980, township offices were moved into a larger building, and the schoolhouse was sold to the Kane County Forest Preserve District for $1 in 1994, according to the Rutland Township Historical Society. It was used by the historical society, which restored and preserved it, as a museum and research center from 2004 until the society disbanded in 2013. The building then reverted to the forest preserve district, which closed it.