OBSERVER Photos by Andrew David Kuczkowski Allene Smith gestures toward a historic map inside the one-room schoolhouse in North Collins.

NORTH COLLINS — Eight grades of students with one teacher all packed into one room.

Schooling from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s were much different than what today’s education system entails.

North Collins’ one-room Schoolhouse No. 8, at 2101 School St., North Collins, still stands as a replica to how classes were before smartphones and central air conditioning. The schoolhouse history center and museum is open this summer every Sunday from now until Oct. 13 from 1-4 p.m. or by appointment by calling (716) 337-3341.

“Young kids have a hard time believing that are the grades are in this room,” Vice President of Schoolhouse No. 8 Allene Smith said. All “one through eight (grades). The teacher has to be the teacher, the nurse, the library, the gym teacher and the principal.”

The room hosts rows of desk with holes for ink wells and a larger desk in the front of the class for recitation.

Each grade would come up individually to the recitation desk to learn their lesson, while the rest continue with homework. The students were also teachers as older classmates helped the younger.

Schoolhouse No. 8 today has the historic desks with artifacts, photos and original schoolhouse items.

Smith, who knows the history of the flooring to the wall clock in the one-room schoolhouse, believes it is especially vital for children to learn from their ancestors and experience it firsthand.

“They need to see this to learn something different,” she said. “You can read it, but to see it and feel it, it’s different; that’s the plus. You can put all you want on the TV or the phone, but here, you can touch it, you can feel it.”

The schoolhouse was open from 1857 to 1950 and became dilapidated over the years at its original location about 6 miles away on Ketchum Road in Lawtons. The roof had damage as gapping holes and the flooring was mostly done for.

In the early 2000s, the state gave a grant to North Collins to begin resurrecting the building. It actually opened in 2005. Dave Willett, who graduated from the school and then lived in Canandaigua, led the charge. Smith said Willett came down as often as five days a week. Willett was assisted by his brother William, who passed away before the project was finished.

Smith came aboard when her husband Richard noticed the Willetts fixing what seemed to be an impossible project and now Allene Smith is giving tours.

The one-room schoolhouse has had visitors from Germany, Poland, Costa Rica and other parts of the world, Smith said.

The history center and museum includes photos of attendees in some of the 13 area schoolhouses, as there were one every 5 miles. The replica building matched much of the time-era necessities.

“We have an outhouse out here,” Smith added. “It is a three-holer. I tell the kids (it’s for) momma bear, papa bear and baby bear all at one time. And it just about makes them want to throw up.”

The schoolhouse will also host a yard sale on June 14 and a field day tour on June 23, which the latter will have hot dogs available.

“(Kids) can step back in time and see (how) parents and kids went to school every day,” she said. “… If you have friends from out of town, or family from out of town, bring them down on a Sunday. I have my number out there, call me I will come down and give you a tour or just let you look. This stuff is all from the 1900s.”