Bichet One-Room School House, Kansas Poster

A venerable cottonwood tree casts a shadow across the Bichet School in Autumn. How small the tree must have been when students were attending this now abandoned school in eastern Kansas. It still stands because of its sturdy construction. In the back lawn of the school are two stone outhouses. The Bichet School was built in 1896 to educate children from a French-speaking near Florence, Kansas. The school continued to serve the community until 1946 when it closed because of low enrollment. The last class had two students. The Bichet School's architecture is an excellent example of the typical one-room midwestern stone school built during the late 1800s. The builder, Oscar Johnson, who was a well known stonemason and artisan, left examples of his decorative work on the quoins, cornices, lintels, the intricate arch stone where the date and "District 34" appears, the round decorative window and the bell tower. He was foreman for a rock quarry which yielded magnesium limestone. The rock was cream colored, it hardened upon exposure, was extremely durable and could be easily sawed into any shape. The school is on the National Register of Historic Places.