Nemaha County Historical Society

National Registry of Historic Sites

Museum Sketch

Prairie Grove School House Restored

On July 12, 2010, Landowners Deb and Rex Farwell announced the completion of the Prairie Grove School house Restoration. The Farwells have owned the school house since 2006 and started restoration work at that time. In 2010 Eric Schmitz rebuilt the Bell Tower to its original beauty with the help of old pictures.

The school house was constructed in 1886 on an acre of uncultivated farmland, located ten miles north of Seneca.

The one-story, vernacular clapboard building measures 24 feet north to south by 42 feet east to west, has a eastern façade with double entrance, two six-foot entry doors topped with matching horizontal transom windows, which flank a centrally placed double-hung window. Limestone rock from the nearby quarry on Burger Creek serves as the foundation, path, front steps and front porch, which is made of concrete. The short wood-frame bell tower is capped with a mansard-roof belfry that is crowned by an ornate flagpole with weathervane. Diamond shaped shingles cover the belfry, which has pointed-arched louvered vents on four sides and houses the original, functioning bell. Narrow clapboard siding covers the exterior of the building. Three, 4/4 double hung, wooden sash windows (33 ½ inches x 83 inches) are equally spaced along the southern and northern sides of the building.

The interior space of the large central classroom measures 24 feet by 30 feet. The interior walls are wood lath and plaster, tongue and groove wainscoting accents the walls. The wainscoting measures 28 inches high and is capped with a chair rail. The classroom ceiling has been lowered to 8 feet. The two-inch wide oak floors are in good condition. A seven-inch, circular raised stage snuggles between the cloakrooms (vestibules) on the eastern end of the room. The brick chimney rises from the middle of the west wall, where the school was originally heated with a pop-belly coal stove, but was later converted to a fuel oil heater. Six light fixtures hang from the ceiling.

The Prairie Grove School closed at the end of the 1964 school year and the land reverted back to the landowner. The building was sold at auction for $220 to Och Worrick, who donated the building to an alumni association of 13 former students, called Old Settlers. They maintained the building and held yearly reunions until 2001 when only three members of the group remained. The interior and exterior are structurally sound and maintains a high degree of interior and exterior architectural integrity of the period.

Prairie Grove School was accepted to the National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 2006. Interested parties can contact the Nemaha County Historical Society at 785-336-6366 for tours.

Seneca Main Street Historic District (1880’s)

Many businesses in the Main Street district had moved from early wood frame buildings into more substantial brick ones by 1890. One of the brick landmarks was the First National Bank, designed by John G. Haskell, architect of the Kansas capital building, in 1889. Several storefronts on Main Street have cast iron thresholds and fronts that were manufactured by the Butler Foundry in Seneca. Development of the businesses and buildings on Main Street from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century was recorded in the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company's maps for Seneca dating from 1885 through 1924. These show that most of the business buildings were constructed during this period and that more and more of them were constructed of brick. As an observer commented in 1895, "most of the business houses are large, elegant structures of modern design with plate glass fronts, heated by steam and lighted by electricity and are built of pressed brick. Upon the whole, the city presents an attractive appearance, and shows nineteenth century enterprise and genuine American progress."

Clear Creek Camelback Truss Bridge, Baileyville (1861)

Marion Township Hall, Baileyville (1895)

Pony Express Museum, Seneca (Known as A.J. Felt Block) (1880)

Soon after coming to Seneca in January, 1880, Andrew J. Felt built this two-story brick block with a double storefront at a cost of $8,000. Later, Felt served as lieutenant governor of Kansas from 1889 to 1893. The Felt Block is an elaborately detailed and well-preserved example of the Italianate style with a cast iron storefront. In 1885 the building housed a grocery with printing on the second floor to the east and a variety store with offices to the west. In 1896 the store to the east was vacant with printing on the second floor and a clothing store with offices on the second floor to the west. From the 1921 to 1987, G. John and Edward Strathman operated their Department Store in the building. There were dry goods, groceries, a photography studio, electrical repair, a mechanical shop, and printing press in the building. The Felt Block is now occupied by the Pony Express Museum.

Old Albany Schoolhouse, Sabetha (1857)

The Albany Historical Museum was inspired by a retired school teacher in the small incorporated community of Albany, Kansas. The town was just 2 miles north of Sabetha, founded in 1857, and rapidly becoming a ghost town. The Museum began with two buildings that were already on site: the 1867 Albany School and the Waggner house, also from the 1800s. In July 1965, the school and grounds were acquired by the newly formed Albany Historical Society. Members donated most of the labor in restoring the buildings.

Old Universalist Church, Seneca Main Street (1867)

One of the earliest surviving buildings in Seneca and on Main Street is the old Universalist Church, now the Seneca Free Library. The Universalists and other religious congregations intended to establish a landmark for the young community and they accomplished this goal. In effect, this building was the beginning place for organized religious congregations in Seneca. Although religious congregations met in the 1850s, Seneca had no church buildings before construction of the Universalist Church in 1867. On April 30, 1867, residents held a meeting to consider building a church. The Universalists organized, pledged $1,600 and let a contract in May for construction of a building. They purchased a site on the south side of Main Street in an excellent location. Stone masonry was finished October 20, 1867 and the building was occupied for the first time on January 1, 1868, but the church was not fully completed for several more months. The first religious services in the new church building were held July 17, 1869. The building was used by the Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists in common until other churches were built. Catholics organized St. Peter and Paul Church in 1869. The Congregationalists built a church in 1870 and the Methodists in 1877. The Universalist Church was described as thirty-nine by fifty-five feet in size, thirty-two feet from foundation to gable with a belfry thirty feet in height. Costing about $7,500, the church was a "commodious and handsome edifice." The old church has mixed features of both the Gothic Revival and Italianate architectural styles. In the early twentieth century, the Seneca Free Library was organized in May, 1917. After the Universalists disbanded about 1920, the city of Seneca purchased the old church building after approval in the April, 1928 city election. Finally, the library moved from rooms in City Hall to the old church in July, 1931.14 The library building was rehabilitated and a compatible addition constructed about 1998.

St. Mary’s Catholic Church, St. Benedict (1891)

US Post Office, Seneca (1936)

This building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Federal financial aid contributed to the construction of the new Post Office in 1938. According to the building cornerstone, Louis Simon was the supervising architect and Neal Melich was the supervising engineer. This is one of twenty-four post offices listed as part of a Kansas Post Office Art Work Thematic Resources nomination (1936-1942) for its mural "Men and Wheat." The Post Office was selected in a national competition to receive a mural from the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts. The Seneca Post Office is an example of one of many smaller class C or D type post offices that received artwork in Kansas.

US Post Office, Sabetha (1936)

City Water Works (Hand Dug Well), Seneca (1895) was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2006. The Old City Hand Dug Well in the Seneca City Park is the last visible sign of Seneca, Kansas’s original water system, installed in 1895. The 65 foot deep by 34 feet wide, rock/brick-lined well may be the widest and second largest hand-dug well in Kansas. The three foot wide rock walls are laid in four foot high sections, constructed from ground level downward. Water depth is approximately 25 feet and has remained at that level since at least 1979, long after the well stopped being used for human consumption. A domed house with shingled roof covers the well and is open topped by a cupola and encircled by six foot chain link fence. Installation of submersible pumps took place during city restoration work in 1989. A service platform was installed by the golf club and enclosed for visitor safety. The well draws tourists to view the site of interest. The first levels of the wall are constructed of rock set in mortar while the lower portions are of brick and mortar. Heavy planks are still visible beneath each section. (See sketch drawing #1) During construction, these planks were sharpened (tapered) on one end and driven about 3 feet out into undisturbed soil. A ring section of wall was laid upon the exposed inner ends of the plants. After the mortar had set in the first ring, the well was dug another four feet deep. Soil was removed from under the driven planks, to allow the next section of wall to be laid directly under the ring above. The process was repeated several times until the well was approximately 50 feet deep. At that point the diameter was decreased about three feet forming an offset ledge in the rock wall. Digging probably became more difficult once the water table was reached. Water had to be pumped out to allow for continued digging and wall construction. Soil instability, within water bearing strata, may have been the reason well diameter was decreased. If the soil was too unstable, driven planks could not have supported a wall section while the succeeding ring was dug out and laid.

Bridge #3 Stone Pillars, Guard Rail, Lake Nemaha (1936)

Kansas Bridge #33 is located 5.12 miles south of Seneca, Nemaha County, in Northeast Kansas on Kansas Highway 63 over Lake Nemaha on the South Fork of the Nemaha River between 111th and 112th Road in an area known as Kampler. Before Lake Nemaha was built in 1934 as a federal project in flood control in a fertile agricultural district entirely devoid of parks and water areas for outdoor recreation, the Park and Water Resources Committee for the City of Seneca and County of Nemaha, advanced by the semi-weekly newspaper, the Courier-Tribune of Seneca and its publishers, began a campaign to ask people to vote $30,000.00 bonds to buy right-of-way to 640 acres. In a time of dire financial stress and great controversy, the successful election brought fulfillment of a project of 350 acres supported by the Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission, the Kansas State Highway Department, the United Department of Agriculture, including the Forestry service, the United States Army, through the United States Civilian Conservation Corps.

Prairie Grove School House (1886)

Jail and Sheriff’s Residence, Seneca (1879)

Listed on the Kansas Registry of Historic Places.

Conrad Droge Stone House and Barn (1874)

Stein House, Seneca (1913)

Bancroft Depot Museum

Affiliated with the Nemaha County Historical Society.
The Depot Museum is one of the two surviving depots that served the KCWNW Railroad from 1887 through 1919. In 1993 a group of interested present and former Bancroft residents began forming the Bancroft Preservation Association (affiliated with the Nemaha County Historical Society) to develop a plan for saving and exhibiting materials related to the Bancroft community. The donation of the Depot and the land by interested local residents provided the Bancroft Preservation Association (BPA) with the resources needed for the housing of Bancroft's history. In November, 1994, the Depot was moved to its present location from a farm one-half-mile east of the small community and work began on restoration. Funds for the project were obtained through sales of antique bricks from the school, personalized bricks for the "Memory Brick Patio," and donations. At that time the "population" of the town was six people but the members of BPA had faith in the feelings of good will toward the school and community that many former residents harbor. This faith was upheld as individuals responded to the requests promoted in the BPA newsletter-the Bell and Whistle. Over $7,000 was received during the first year.

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