Spring Valley School and outbuildings from Lorraine Road. Courtesy of the Cherry Valley/Spring Valley Historical Society.

Students at the Spring Valley School. 1915.
Douglas County History Research Center #94033

Spring Valley School. Photo courtesy the Spring Valley/Cherry Valley Historical Society.

.....One of the oldest school districts in Douglas County, Spring Valley served generations of students from 1865 to 1945. The last school house, built sometime before 1885, at Spring Valley and Lorraine Roads, west of Highway 83, north of Palmer Divide Road, is now a private home.

.....Spring Valley started as a tiny settlement of German, English, Welsh and Irish settlers. The schoolhouse was the center of social life, serving as everything from a Sunday School to a court house. The school served as the meeting place for the Grand Army of the Republic and the Good Templars, as well as literary societies.. The school had an organ, donated by members of the community, who used it for sunday school, wedding receptions, funerals and other community gatherings.

.....The land for the building was obtained in 1873 or 1874 from David Holden with a 100 year lease. Most sources say the school was built in 1885 by Henry Gandy and Harrison Bucks and their families, but that date has been brought into question, as it is known that students began attending school there by the fall of 1874. In 1890, there were twenty students at the school, and the school board voted to keep it open three months in the summer and four in the winter (if funds were available.)

.....In the early 1900's, the average enrollment at the school was between fifteen and twenty students, occasionally, enrollment reached thirty, but by 1945, only three students remained. The school was closed, and the students were sent to school in nearby Monument, Colorado.

.....Athough school no longer met there, the school building was still in use for community activities, and the community of Spring Valley took over the responsibilities of keeping the building functioning. The school was eventually sold to Mr. and Mrs. Emil Anderson, who gave it to the Douglas County Historical Society. For a while there were discussions about moving the building to Castle Rock to make it a museum, but those plans fell through. The current owners have restored the schoolhouse and maintained the historic character of the surrounding buildings, and the school is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although children and other community members no longer gather there, the school has remained a vital link to Spring Valley's heritage and remains one of the major landmarks in rural Douglas County.