....The Rossie Community Center & former Rapids school House....

by Sandra Parker Wyman , Rossie Historian.

Known for a century as the Rapids School , The Community Center of today is a far cry from the one room schoolhouse which eduated generations of the neighborhood Childern.

Surveyed from land donated by Alanson Baker; by G. W. Baldwin, the fifteen hundredths of an acre was deeded off on November 28, 1856.

The familiar phrase of "I went to a country school" became a reality.

In 1945, consolidation became a new word for education & the Central School District No. 1 was organized consisting of the Towns of Hammond, Rossie, Macomb & Morristown. The new disrict meant that small indivdual schools could legally dispose of their property .

In the late 1940's the residents of Drstrict No. 10; as the school had become known, voted to send their childern to the Rossie School in the village.

For the dispositon of the property , the residents of the Rapids School district voted to give the land & the buildings for use as a Rossie Community Center. Used primarily through the years for a church doings, the 4-H Club ,& for recretional use by many persons & organizations , the center became the only place of public assembly.

Condemned in 1990, the little white schoolhouse seemed destined to fade into memory. But history was about to have a new face.

Enter in a small group of citizens who where determined to save the site & provide a place where many public functions could take place in a hometown atmosphere & the "new" Rossie Community Center Inc. was formed.

Today, the results of the past decade of dedication can plainly be seen & the one room schoolhouse of old will keep its new lease on life.



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