The Day the Schoolhouse Rolled

Text A: An Interview with Mr. Delgado

1Amara Lee, a fourth grader, interviewed her neighbor, Mr. Tomás Delgado. When Mr. Delgado was nine years old, he watched the old Willow Creek schoolhouse move across town.

2Amara: What do you remember about moving day?
Mr. Delgado: My family stood on Main Street before the sun was up. The schoolhouse was sitting up high on long steel beams, with rows of big tires underneath. When the truck started to pull, the whole crowd went quiet.

3Amara: What was it like to watch?
Mr. Delgado: It moved so slowly that my friends and I walked right beside it. I could hear the old boards creak and groan. Once, a tire hit a bump, and the bell in the little tower rang all by itself. At one corner, workers in a bucket truck lifted the wires with long poles, and the bell tower slid right under them. Everyone cheered.

4Amara: Did you know why the town was moving it?
Mr. Delgado: Not at all! I was just a kid, so nobody explained it to me. I thought it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened in our town.

5Amara: How did the day end?
Mr. Delgado: When the schoolhouse finally stopped beside the park, my grandmother cried a little. She had gone to school there when she was a girl. She hugged me and said she was glad the old school would get to stay in Willow Creek.

Text B: Saving the Willow Creek Schoolhouse (from the Willow Creek History Club newsletter)

1The Willow Creek schoolhouse is one of the oldest buildings in town. For many years, children learned in its one classroom.

2Years later, the town planned a new road right where the schoolhouse stood. Some people wanted to tear the old building down. Instead, the history club raised money to move it to a new spot beside Linden Park, about one mile away.

3Before moving day, workers dug under the schoolhouse and slid long steel beams beneath it. Then they used jacks to raise the building slowly and set the beams on rows of wheels.

4Early on moving day, a large truck began to pull the schoolhouse down Main Street. The truck moved at about the speed of a slow walk so the old building would not shake apart. Workers from the power company lifted the electric wires at street corners so the bell tower could pass under them. The trip took almost ten hours.

5Late that afternoon, the schoolhouse arrived at its new home beside the park. Today the town uses it as a meeting room for clubs and classes.

6This article was written by a history club member. The facts come from old newspaper stories, photographs and the moving company's notes.