Cherokee Strip Museum & Rose Hill School

Where the Past Meets the Present

On the museum grounds stands Rose Hill School, a one-room country school built northeast of Perry in 1895. In schools like this one, students received their education from the first through the eighth grade.

Rose Hill was moved to the grounds of the Cherokee Strip Museum in 1971. The school contains most of its original furnishings, including a cast-iron stove and wooden two-seater desks.

In 1988 the school building took on a new role. It became the site of a living history program entitled, A Day at Rose Hill School. Every day of the school year a different third or fourth grade class travels to Perry to attend school. The program has been attended by over 81,000 Oklahoma scholars, who were accompanied by over 10,000 teachers and parents.

The “scholars” spend about two weeks in preparation for their trip back in time. Food, games, songs, personal hygiene, and punishments are among things discussed. As they leave the museum to walk to school, the scholars are alerted to the time bridge. As they cross the time bridge over the creek, they travel back in time to 1910. History is fun at Rose Hill School.

The Rose Hill School program is operated jointly by the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Cherokee Strip Historical Society.

Timeless Education

Rose Hill School is not only an exhibit of a traditional one-room schoolhouse from Oklahoma’s early days, but also a place where children can learn what education was like when their great-grandparents went to school. Now, third and fourth grade students from all over the state come to Rose Hill School for an enlightening and educational experience of what life was like for young people who lived in 1910.

Dressed in period clothing and carrying makeshift syrup buckets containing their lunch, students participate in the living history program, “A Day at Rose Hill School.” They pretend to travel back in time to become scholars attending one of Oklahoma’s early one-room schools. Greeted at the door by a stern-looking school Marm, the students file into the classroom and take their seats. During the day, the scholars have exercises in cursive writing, cyphering (arithmetic) with slate boards and chalk, and reading from McGuffey’s readers. Scholars also study history, geography, do chores, and play games.