The bright-red Mesa Schoolhouse, located off US 40 about two miles south of Steamboat Springs, is among the oldest examples of a one-story wood-frame school building still standing in Colorado. Built in 1916 by Arthur Gumprecht, the schoolhouse served Routt County School District #13 until 1959, when the county consolidated its school districts. The schoolhouse also served as an important community center in rural Routt County, hosting picnics, dances, social activities, and even card games. In 2007 the schoolhouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today the schoolhouse is a museum of the community’s pioneer heritage.
Schooling and Socializing
The first school in Routt County’s Mesa School District was not actually a school at all. Instead, as in many other rural communities in Colorado in 1890, children gathered in a private house to learn. Recognizing the need for a dedicated school building, the community built a log schoolhouse in 1891. This rudimentary building served the children of Mesa School District until carpenter and landowner Arthur Gumprecht completed construction of the current schoolhouse along what is now US Highway 40, about two miles south of Steamboat Springs. Gumprecht’s design included a peaked roof and a small shingled bell tower on the building’s east side. Today the wood building is painted a brilliant shade of red, and the original wood-shingled roof has been replaced by a more durable and protective metal covering.
Children of all ages gathered in the one-room Mesa Schoolhouse from 1916 to 1959 to learn from the same teacher. Similar one-room, one-teacher schools made up a sizable portion of the state’s education system throughout the early part of the twentieth century, especially in rural counties. Most teachers were women, and in addition to instructing students in reading, writing, and arithmetic, educators were expected to fill the roles of moral role model, disciplinarian, janitor, and community organizer.
In much the same way that teachers were expected to fill multiple roles, schoolhouses did not serve a single purpose. For much of Colorado’s history, schools were some of the only community-owned, indoor public spaces in rural areas and therefore hosted important community events. Rural schools like the Mesa Schoolhouse often hosted dances, card games, temperance meetings, picnics, and a variety of other community activities.
As recently as 1956, 22 percent of Colorado’s schools were like the Mesa Schoolhouse, with only one room and one teacher serving multiple grades. This number has declined dramatically in the last half-century as improved road systems and the availability of public school buses have made larger schools much more accessible to students living in rural counties.
The consolidation of schools has mirrored, and in some ways propelled, the consolidation and standardization of the state’s school systems. In rural counties, single-school districts such as Mesa School District #13 were folded into larger entities, and single-room schools such as the Mesa Schoolhouse were made obsolete by newer schools serving more students.
School consolidation came to Routt County in 1959, when the Mesa Schoolhouse’s students were sent to new elementary, middle, and high schools in the Steamboat Springs School District. As a result of this consolidation, Mesa Schoolhouse was no longer necessary, and the building was sold to a private owner in 1959. Francis and Thomas Adams then purchased the schoolhouse in 1965 and converted the building into a private residence and hunting lodge. The Adams family added a porch to the building’s exterior before selling the property in 1975.
In 1998 a group of local organizations including Historic Routt County, the city of Steamboat Springs, and the Yampa Valley Land Trust used a grant from the State Historical Fund to help purchase the Mesa Schoolhouse for use as a museum and community space. Additional State Historical Fund Grants in the early 2000s allowed the building’s interior and exterior to be restored. Today the century-old schoolhouse opens its doors each summer for community events for children and adults. Museum staff dress in historically accurate outfits and demonstrate skills such as candle dipping and wool spinning. But even when the building is empty, the Mesa Schoolhouse, with its eye-catching red paint and prominent location along US 40, remains an enduring reminder of Routt County’s pioneer roots.