This was Edmond's first school house constructed in 1889 shortly after the Land Rush. It is also believed to be the oldest standing building in Oklahoma County. Historically, it seems the building became a private residence around 1900 and then a camera shop in the 1950s. Restored by the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust in recent decades, what you see today is a nicely restored single room school house with period desks and decor. Opening hours are Saturday 1-4pm if you want to visit the inside of the old territorial school. Otherwise, a quick stop to view from the outside along with a couple of bronze sculptures of school children will do. You can walk around the sides and peek through the windows if you want to see what it looks like inside.

We love to visit historical buildings, and had read that in Edmond, one can visit the earliest one-room schoolhouse in the entire Oklahoma Territory, the “1889 Territorial School”. I mentioned this to our daughter, and she said, “Oh, that’s only 2 blocks from our school.” So, after we picked up the kids from school, we all drove over to look at this building. As it is only open on Saturday afternoons, we could not enter the schoolhouse, however, there are no curtains on one side of the building, and one can clearly see the one room through one of the three windows. This Territorial Schoolhouse is possibly the last remaining original 1889 structure in Edmond. It was restored as an Oklahoma Centennial Project by the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust, and re-opened to the public in 2007. Well known American sculptor Gary Lee Price is the artist of the two statues (girl on books, boy on books) in front of the school. As it fronts a busy street, parking is on the narrow street behind it. There is a nicely shaded picnic area, should one wish to bring a bag lunch.