The Salina School District No. 31 was established on October 12, 1875, but classes did not begin until 1876. At first, twenty-eight of the fifty-five children in the district attended a three months school in one of the abandoned Sanders, Penn and Garbutt mill buildings. The second year, school met for seven and a quarter months, with forty-five students meeting in a building that had once been a billiard and liquor saloon.
The local parents wanted a proper schoolhouse, and began raising money as the fall school term began in 1885. On December 31, 1885 a grand New Year’s Eve ball was held at the nearly completed building. When it was finished in early 1886, at a cost of close to fifteen hundred dollars, the Herald proclaimed it “The Pride of Salina.”
There undoubtedly was at least a single outhouse when the building was completed, and there may have always been the two that remain today – one for the boys and one for the girls. Charles F. Cobb, the local freighter, hauled lumber to the schoolhouse in 1888, possibly to build the coal shed on the northwest side, to which he would later make 2,000 pound coal deliveries. In 1897, ten curtain poles, curtains, and ten roller shades were hung – to block the sun, traffic distractions, and trips to the outhouse.
During the 1993-94 restoration, wallboard and three layers of wallpaper underneath were removed. When the plastered wall was revealed, there was an old announcement written in pen: “McCleary’s, Bert & Viola, Musical Comedy Show, June 27th 1907.” An interior photograph, taken in May 19, 1912, documents that the walls were papered by that date. A portrait of Lincoln hung on the wall, and only a very small American flag, part of a class project, was evident. Large flags did not begin appearing in rural schools until after 1900.
In 1945, the Wall Street, Crisman, and Salina schools were combined into a single school (the Salina Consolidated No. 2) and the classes were held in the Salina Schoolhouse. This school was dissolved on July 7, 1952.
The family that owned the mining claim on which the schoolhouse sits, gave the land to the residents of Salina. Ultimately, a non-profit corporation was formed (the Salina Community Association) and the members of this non-profit are the residents of Salina.
The schoolhouse is now used as a community center and concert hall. Locals can rent it for private events, and it is the place where most of the community gatherings are held.
The school is listed in Concetology as a venue: (
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(Text and information provided by M.M Anderson from her book "The Mining Camps: Salina & Summerville") (
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