The owner of the Red Oak II complex near Carthage, Missouri, acquired the historic La Grange School and said plans to preserve the building that dates to the 1860s.
The Joplin Globe reported Red Oak II owner Larry Syrnek bought the school and its one acre of land for $35,000 from a farmer who had it for many years.
The school sits at County Road 130 and Knoll Road (map here) about a half-mile north of Missouri 96 (aka Route 66). It’s about a mile southwest of Red Oak II.
Syrnek said he thought about moving the school to Red Oak II, but he feared its fieldstone structure would disintegrate in the process.
So he decided to have it renovated where it stands.
Sernyk worked with craftsmen and builders to restore the rock walls and the interior to look like a working one-room schoolhouse.
“I got Travis McNeely of McNeely Masonry in Webb City,” Sernyk said. “He started the renovation in March 2020, and he basically started by taking out all the old grout and then putting new grout in it between the stones. He first thought he could take all the grout out all at once, but as he started taking it out, the rock started falling out. So what he had to do was take a little bit out and seal it, a little bit out, seal it. So he had to do that all the way around. When we got the stonework done, Dwight Madsen, a craftsman I work with, came in and reframed the doors and the windows. We put new windows in and we put a new ceiling in, added lights and a stove.”
According to a history of the school from a 1973 Carthage Press article posted by Jasper County Schools, the current La Grange School began classes there in 1868:
That building was made of native “cotton” rock quarried within a mile of the site and it is testimony to the skill of the builders and the quality of the stone that it remains firm and stout to this day. Native wood used for framing, flooring and roof sheeting remains at the heart of the structure, which serves as the classroom for four of the eight grades still served by the school. The builders, in 1868, were Israel Logsdon, Wash Logsdon and a Mr. Campbell.
The last graduation at La Grange School occurred in 1973. Students there were bused to the Carthage school district.
As for Red Oak II, Lowell Davis, who made his fortune in the 1970s creating art about idyllic but whimsical rural life, built it as an homage to his hometown.
The complex consists of a Phillips 66 service station, schoolhouse, feedstore, diner, town hall, jail, blacksmith shop, depot and general store — several of which were hauled from Davis’ hometown — plus a few of his sculptures.
Davis lived at Red Oak II for many years, and he was buried there, too.
Red Oak II sits about a mile north of Route 66, northeast of Carthage. It’s a popular side trip for many Route 66 travelers, mostly because of its nostalgia.
(Excerpted image from Google Street View of La Grange School near Carthage, Missouri)