Long School ----- No Longer Standing

The Long School was on the corner of Neowash at Heller Road. Local one room schools were about 2 miles apart so no student had to walk much more than a mile to school. This one took care of the students in the area of the Neowash, Schadel and Heller Roads, etc. In 1918 the school joined the Whitehouse Centralized School system.

In 1995 the Anthony Wayne Music director received a music composition that was written by Scott Sorenson from a visual inspiration by a watercolor of this old school painted by his friend and colleague Russell Danburg. Russell was the husband of Grace Boyer and a former local area resident. Mrs. Danburg was a former 2nd grade teacher in Whitehouse. Mr. Danburg had painted the watercolor in 1949. These friends both served as music professors at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. It was the composers wish that the composition would first be played locally, where the school which inspired his work and his friends’ painting was located. Both were titled “The Old Knowledge Box”

The Anthony Wayne Band was able to meet and work with the man that composed the music. They played their concert at the Zion Lutheran Church in 1995. The Waterville Historical Society was pleased to have received the piece and per Dr. Sorenson request was played for the local audience. Maybe some of our readers remember being in the band, meeting the composer and playing in the band at the concert. A tape recording of this music resides in the Wakeman Archives.