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Cedar Community: Life the way it should be. The way you want it.
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"Daniel Wickert" confesses.
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Touring Heritage House
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"Marie Wickert", the teacher's pet, passes out papers.
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Admiring the class pictures.
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Recitation time in front of the class.
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"Howard Mayer" rings the school bell.
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Our borrowed Oak Knoll School students from Holy Trinity.
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Reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance".
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Loading the wood burning stove for winter school days.
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Drinking water must be hauled to school.
Preserving history, one tale at a time:
Years ago, did children really walk to school six miles each day, up hill both ways? Bringing young and old together to sort fact from fiction has been a timeless goal at Cedar Community. Through Ye Olde School and Heritage House Museum, children are able to experience history first-hand and interact with older adults to develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the past.
Ye Olde School
The perfect setting for intergenerational education came to Cedar Community in 1982, when West Bend's former Oak Knoll School was donated. An authentic 1917 schoolhouse, Ye Olde School now hosts youth for a day of dip pens, slates, schoolmarms and connected desks. Enthusiastic adult volunteers lead discussions of their experiences as pupils or teachers, comparing 'old-fashioned' values with today's changing society.
A costumed schoolmarm hosts this step back in time, immersing the children in our nation's history. "Who's the president of the United States?" she asks, and anyone naming a president since Woodrow Wilson is met with a confused, "Who's that?!" Students receive lessons on the 'three R's using authentic 1920s curricula and tools.
Programs are particularly suitable for grade-school children, but all are welcome. Groups up to 34 people are scheduled by appointment, year 'round. For details, contact Barbara Hoel or Barbara Zyvoloski at 262.338.4625 or yos@cedarcommunity.org.
Heritage House Museum
The former homestead of Cedar Community's original benefactor, William Koehl, Heritage House was built in 1865. Today, it preserves both the furnishings of a bygone era and the daily experiences of a turn-of-the-century farm family. Visitors relive history, playing an 1884 pump organ in the parlor, learning about pumping cistern water and using homemade soap to hand-wash and line-dry laundry. They make butter, grind coffee, listen to a crank telephone and work a Victrola. Volunteers enhance learning by sharing an oral history of their experiences fetching water from a spring, working the fields, weaving fabric and sleeping on rope beds.
Heritage House Museum also hosts public events such as ice cream socials, re-enactments, holiday open houses, demonstrations, tastings and speakers.
Visit our Calendar of Events for upcoming dates. For details or tour information, contact yos@cedarcommunity.org.