CHANA SCHOOL MUSEUM OREGON, IL

Built in 1883, the Chana School was typical of education in the late 1800s, but it was not a typical rural school. The Village of Chana took such pride in its construction that the building is much larger and more ornate than most contemporary Midwestern schools.

It started as a one-room building. In 1893 a bell-tower entry and second room (at a right angle to the first) was added, presumably making this school unique in nineteenth century Illinois school construction.

It continued as a school until 1953, when the large room became a bus garage while the other remained a classroom. In the early 1960s it was closed altogether.

In 1998 the school property was sold and the schoolhouse was scheduled for demolition. The Chana School Foundation was formed and a large grassroots effort of vounteers and donors, saved the school, moved it to Oregon Park East, and restored it by 2003.

The school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as the only two-room wooden school in Illinois.

Chana school has been restored to the mid-1890s appearance. The building features three front doors ( one for girls and two for boys), a bell-tower room with the original school bell, and cloakrooms for boys and girls. Thee are curved walls; fourteen foot ceilings, and painted pressed tin walls and celiings.