A School Becomes a Museum for a Day

The Lavesta School's 100th Anniversary

Just this past month the Lavesta school house celebrated its 100th year anniversary. It was a small white building within a clearing, isolated from the road by a line of trees, just outside of Bluffton, Alberta. The school was constructed in 1912 and continued to be the school house to dozens of children until 1959. After 1959 the school continued to be a focal point of the Lavesta area, remaining as the community centre where get-togethers and Christmas parties were held. Grades 1-8 were taught within the one room building with up to two teachers at a time. My grandfather, great aunt and uncles were even taught at that school.  With the 100th year anniversary the school house was transformed into a museum of sorts for the celebration, marking the people that lived in the area and events that occurred in the community and within the school. It was a place where history was taught, but most of those that attended the school surely did not expect it to become part of history. It may not have been a museum in the conventional sense but the Lavesta school acted as one nonetheless for that day.

Image of Lavesta School (magnet)

Tangible History

There were no guides but it seems a little difficult to get lost in a one room building. If you had any questions about a family picture or an article of clothing you could just ask the person standing next to you. Everyone was free to wander around within the school as well as outside. There were no boxes of glass or ropes separating the guest from the pieces of history like most museums have. The history was all that more tangible being able to pick the documents up and holding them. It was an unconventional and unprofessional environment for history to be on display but it seemed to make the connection to the past all that more personal.

Wall of family and house photos

They had tables set up along the middle of the room littered with different documents from the school's past. It was not organized in a certain manner such as by date or type of document. Every so often the community publishes a book collecting information of the area and the families; some of those books were out for guests to see. There were records from the school such as listing the students that attended throughout the years. Report cards were also strewn across the tables, allowing everyone to see just how well the students did in class. At the entrance they had a guest book set out for the attendees to sign. It was creating a new document for the history of the school, marking the event and the people who were present.

There were news paper articles about things that happened in the community and advertisements were scattered across tables at the back of the school. There must have been hundreds of pages of newspaper over four tables put together. The age of the newspapers was apparent from the discolouration and how cheap things were compared to present day. I specifically remember a classified page listing vehicles that were for sale in the 70s. Another page from the newspaper listed the sales that were going on at the grocery store in town. A woman who was a long time resident of the community, had saved up all the clothing and newspapers that were featured in the school.



Attendees modelling outfits

A rack of clothing had been set up  near the back of the building. The clothing ranged from the early 1900s and up to the 1970s. A mannequin was dressed in a black dress with a veil, which I considered an odd combination. As it turns out it was a common style back in the early 1900s for women to get married in black; they just happened to be wearing their best outfit. There was also this particular pair of plaid tweed pants hanging on the wall that I clearly remember; but there is really no forgetting a pair pants like that. The clothing came back to life when some of the women attending the anniversary adorned themselves with the wedding gowns and bridesmaids' dresses and just wondered around the grounds. My great aunt even got involved, wearing a purple bridesmaid dress. Even though it was not worn by anyone there was a baseball uniform for the Lavesta school that really came back to life for me. We were just passing over the things hung on the wall and my grandma mentioned how my grandfather had worn the same uniform when he played baseball for the school's team.

Great aunt wearing bridesmaid dress (documents in background)

Lavesta baseball team uniform

They even had their own 'gift shop'. Anyone could buy a magnet, bag or mug with the image of the Lavesta school house with "Lavesta School 1912-2012" written on them. They had it all set up by the entrance but eventually one of the women who was involved in running the event went around to the little groups that had formed, asking if anyone was interested in buying a magnet or a mug. All the older women were just clamoring to get a piece of memorabilia. My grandma even bought me a magnet to stick on my fridge.

Listening to History

A tent had been set up outside the school within the clearing to allow the attendees to congregate. There they were able to recount the past with others around them. You sat where ever you could find a spot, even sitting along with people that you did not know, which was mostly the case for me. My mother and grandmother knew plenty of people attending the anniversary. A lot of the time I had to say who I was related to. However, I think the most important part of the event happened within that tent. Anyone who had a story could stand up and tell it to everyone.

It seemed that they were all troublemakers back in their childhood. An older woman told the crowd how they had to ride horses to get to school. The boys did not seem pleased to be sharing their horses with the girls so they would continue to scoot backwards until the girls fell off the back of the horse. One man told how when he was a child he had taken at least thirty vitamin C pills at once because the teacher had told them it was important for them to get that vitamin in the winter time. The teacher, in a tizzy, had given him something to help bring the pills back up but he just ended up pouring it down a gopher hole. My late great uncle had to have had the most trouble at school. Him and one of his pals had found a stick of dynamite and were playing with it behind the old shed by the school. Long story short, my great uncle lost four of his fingers.

One could even say that the people attending were a part of the museum effect of the anniversary. Many of the people in attendance had went to the school or lived in the area. They contributed to the telling of history just by being present. They contributed to the oral history of the school by retelling their stories from their childhood.

Grandfather's (far left) family. (great uncle that blew off 4 of his fingers second from the left)

Personal History

My grandfather attended school there, my mother had dances there, even I went to events at the old school house. It holds a very personal history for me. I was a part of the history of the old school house. When I was young my parents would take my brother and I to the Christmas parties held at the Lavesta school. One Christmas party I remember quite clearly. The man who usually dressed as Santa Claus was not able to, so my dad stepped in. Even with my child eyes I was able to tell that that was my dad behind that white beard and red suit. My mother had to shush me to keep up the charade for the other children.

They had pictures of the houses and families that were in the Lavesta area hung along one of the walls. They phoned all the families in the area to get the pictures of the families and houses in the area. The pictures they could not get, they went around and took their own. At the bottom of the images they would provide some information: they listed the family members portrayed in the images, they said when the homes were built, who built them, and whether they were still standing or not. It seemed a little out of place to see the image of my grandfather's family hanging in this museum-like setting when I am so accustomed to seeing it hanging on the wall of my grandmother's home. There was also an image of the home which my great-great-uncles built and where my mother and her siblings grew up.

Grandparents' former home in Lavesta area

A School Becomes a Museum

It is amazing that a building such as a school out in the country could stand for one hundred years; especially when there were kids setting off dynamite nearby. The 100th anniversary of the Lavesta school made it possible for its history to come back to life. For a day, the school became a museum for its own history and the history of the people in the area. The school was part of the history, it was an exhibit in itself. This event did a lot for the community. It brought them back together to bring back the past and recall the history of the school and the area. It was quite an emotional event for some of those in attendance. This just proves that history can be quite personal, even within such an impersonal place like a museum.