Pool Fundraiser Prompts Look Back at Ballwin Schoolhouse

With Parkway students starting classes Tuesday and Rockwood schools on Wednesday, back-to-school mode is officially on. But a recent fundraiser hosted by the city may remind residents of just how much our schools have changed since Ballwin .

Ballwin's first schoolhouse was built around 1855 under German settlers who were part of a Methodist Episcopal church, historian David Fiedler said in the book, "Images of America: Ballwin."

However, it wasn't until 1869, when settlers in Ballwin assembled a school board and bought the property, that the first public school space was established. Roughly 30 years later, the congregation decided to replace a one-room schoolhouse with a two-room schoolhouse (with the steeple of the original still in existence atop on Manchester Road).

The , which was located on Elm Street, now sits just east of . At the time, the divided space allowed the children to be split into upper-level and lower-level grade classrooms.

The city paid $15,000 in 2007 to help pay for earlier renovations, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, but additional funds have been sought since. City Administrator Bob Kuntz said at that time that those funds were earmarked from the city's parks sales tax, and therefore had to be spent on projects under that department.

On Saturday, the Ballwin parks department hosted for completing the schoolhouse's restoration at the North Pointe Aquatic Center.