06/04/2026
TBT: Akey School
The Akey Schoolhouse Museum is celebrating its 50-year Anniversary, 1976 – 2026!
Opening day for the 2026 season is this Sunday, June 7th. Hours are from 1 pm to 4 pm.
Yours truly will be your humble host and in honor of kicking off our 50th season I will treat the first 24 guests to a free cupcake! Hope to see you there!
Column by Keith Ruetten
Original post 6-1-2023
In 1851, the Richmond School District was established by order of the town board. Originally named the Richmond School District, this name would later be changed to the Joint School District No. 6 for Buena Vista and Orion, around the time of the Civil War when references to the South became unpopular.
Although the district was established, school was held in the Lemuel Akey farmhouse and nearby buildings until 1869, when a log schoolhouse was constructed on land that was a part of the Lemuel Akey farm (Lemuel Akey was a member of the school board for most, if not all the years that he lived near the school.). A total of $183.97 in tax from Orion and Buena Vista was raised to fund the schoolhouse, with Fifty dollars being allotted for shingles and other materials, and $130.00 being approved for teachers wages for a three-month winter and a three-month summer school session.
At this time there was a state law which allowed schools to require students to furnish their own textbooks. In 1889, vote taken by the township to furnish free textbooks to the students was defeated, and the practice of students furnishing their own books continued until the late 1920s.
In 1894 the district voted to build a new schoolhouse, which is the present school building. The F.E. Mainwaring Company supplied the winning bid to construct the school for $305.00. The school was originally built across the road from its present location. In 1916 it was decided to move the school to a more suitable location and put it on a basement. The cost of moving the building was $69.50. A furnace was installed in the basement for a cost of $173.50, and in 1919, the walls of the school were replastered.
In 1930, Akey School was one of 112 rural schools in the Richland County School System. These schools were not subsidized by the state as is the case now. Each school was supported by the district in which it was located.
Akey School operated until about 1960, when like most of the other rural schools it was closed due to small enrollment. There were only three students in the last graduating class.
When the Akey School closed ownership, reverted to the landowner, Mrs. Della Pauls. Della insisted that the school not be moved, changed or torn down as most other schools had been. In the 1970s the Richland County Alumni Teachers Association initiated the idea of finding a one room schoolhouse to renovate and partnered with the Richland County Historical Society to search for a school. In 1975 the group approached Harold Pauls, Della’s son, about the possibility of renovating the Akey School, he agreed to donate the schoolhouse and sell the land of the original school grounds if the school would be dedicated in honor of his mother Mrs. Della M. Pauls. The land was purchased with the deed being turned over to Richland County to be kept up by the county as a park.
Through the efforts of many individuals, the school was restored, and the Akey Schoolhouse Museum was dedicated as a part of the Nations Bicentennial Celebration in the summer of 1976. The Akey Schoolhouse Museum is open on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 p.m., June through September. The Richland County Historical Society maintains the building.
Photos-RC History Room
