Dusty BB clubhouse to join fair scene

For years, the Jones Schoolhouse has stood just east of Dusty as a remnant of the days when students walked to matriculate in one room.

At this year’s Palouse Empire Fair, the former Jones School will likely stand as a tribute to the one-room schoolhouses that once dotted Whitman County.

“It’s amazing how many there were just around Dusty back in the old days,” said Eric Appel, Palouse Empire Fair Foundation member who is heading up the project.

The building, which has stood for the past half-century with a Dusty BB Club sign adorning its front will likely be moved to the fairgrounds this summer.

Palouse Empire Fair Foundation has applied through the county to move the schoolhouse, named after pioneer settler Edward Jones, to the fairgrounds.

The county’s Board of Adjustment will decide whether it will allow the move at a hearing, probably next month, said County Planner Alan Thomson.

The building is currently owned by the Repp family of Dusty. The Repps this year decided to donate the building to the foundation.

Eric Appel has contacted a house mover about transporting the schoolhouse the roughly 12 miles from Dusty to Mockonema. He said the tentative plan is to move the building in June.

Right now, the plan is to put the schoolhouse in between the fair’s community building and the poultry barns near the entrance to the carnival grounds.

“But we’re still kind of kicking ideas around at this point,” he said.

For now, the plan is to set up the building as a schoolhouse museum.

Whitman County Historical Society plans to add to the building’s old-time chalkboard a number of classic school furniture.

Dave Appel of Mockonema, vice president of the historical society, said that group has a collection of vintage desks, maps, pictures and other school paraphernalia it plans to display during the fair.

“It just seemed like a natural connection to set it up as a tribute to all the old schoolhouses that used to be around the county,” Dave Appel said.

Between fairs, the building will be used as a smaller meeting room for the fair board and other groups.

Built in 1895, the Jones Schoolhouse was where the children living in the east-Dusty area went to school until 1942. When it closed, children had the option of going to school at Colfax or LaCrosse.

In 1945, the Colfax School District asked the Dusty BB Club to keep up the building. Later the school district sold the building to the Dusty rural fire district for $1.

The fire district let the BB’ers use the building as their clubhouse until deciding to sell it about 15 years ago. Cost of insuring the building became a problem.

The Repps, who owned the land next to the schoolhouse, then purchased the land parcel and the building and have kept it up since.